Abandoned settlements as site of memory of the Czech borderland

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7160/KS.2019.120103
Author: David Kovařík
Address: Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, v. v. i., Čechyňská 19, 602 00 Brno
E-mail: kovarik@usd.cas.cz
Language: Czech
Issue: 1/2019
Page Range: 43-65
No. of Pages: 23
Keywords: Abandoned settlements, migration, the Czech borderland, collective memory, 20th century.
Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with the issue of post-war abandoned communities and settlements in the Czech borderland and the current form and function of these places in society and in the countryside. The paper will first describe the development of abandonment and demolition of the border
settlements in its historical and social context. Most of the extinct settlements in the Czech
borderland described were levelled in the first years after World War II or during the reign of
the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. Most of these settlements were destroyed because of
the displacement of Germans from the Czech lands, as they remained permanently abandoned.
Other settlements disappeared due to the establishment of a border zone or military training
areas. The study will go on to discuss in more detail the theme of the collective recollection of
the extinct border settlements from their former inhabitants, in this case mainly among the
displaced Germans from the Czech lands. In the next part of the study, some specific activities
to popularize and revive the abandoned settlements that occurred mainly after 1989 and are
ongoing to the present day will be documented and critically evaluated directly in specific
border regions.

Celý příspěvek / Full Text Paper: Zaniklá sídla jako místo paměti českého pohraničí