From the landscape of nature and castles to the edge of Dante's Hell
The enormous Western capital of the Anglo-Austrian Bank and the Rothschild Creditanstalt very quickly breathed a completely different context into the region known for its wild nature, picturesque castles and peaceful spas. The network of sidings, new locomotives, new mining mechanization and the giant dock in Aussig on the Elbe River (Ústí nad Labem) directly encouraged investments in the construction of industrial plants, the production of glass, ceramics, textiles, and chemical industries of all types. Northern Bohemia offered unique business conditions, i.e. almost free energy. Every energy-intensive company simply opened its own coal mine.
There were widespread frictions between the original purpose of the cities and the pollution and devastation of the landscape by mining. For example, the landscape near Dux Castle turned into “Dante’s Hell” according to tourist guides. The bridge was no longer recommended for tourist visits due to “general coal fumes”. Teplice struggled in the guise of the mining industry, squeezed by three railways. ATE transported a larger volume of transport on its short line than all the rest of the railways in the Monarchy. The figures in the accounting tables jumped to unprecedented heights and the region began to realize its strength.
The crumbling structures de facto unleashed the Great War (World War I) as an attempt to maintain power over the population. In the initial enthusiasm, it worked as usual, people enthusiastically declared their empires. But industry and railways gave this war a different, industrial dimension. The terrible involvement of technology in the war frightened everyone. The end of this war was celebrated by ordinary people regardless of who actually “won”. But the old power structures lost.
1918: End of the Land Peace and Thwarted Autonomy
Northern Bohemia was systematically attacked from Prague through a simple but effective language key. Although the Kingdom of Bohemia had used a Germanic language as its main language for many centuries and the population's affiliation to the kingdom was understood as a territorial affiliation, a new format was looming on the horizon – modern nation-states, abolished on the basis of self-determination. It was clear that the old monarchies and kingdoms would disintegrate and new nation-states would emerge. In the case of Bohemia, the key from Prague's perspective was very simple: Whoever speaks Germanic must leave Bohemia.
Prague's desire to control wealth and the idea of Deutschböhmen
Prague propaganda won over many artists to its side, and began an uncompromising moral attack on the Germanic-speaking population and began to pile up arguments about the necessity of expelling all Germanic-speaking people and occupying the region with Czech people. Intellectuals from North Bohemia were shocked by the sudden increase in hatred from Prague and countered these efforts by presenting the facts that the largest continuous Germanic-speaking bloc, i.e. Deutschböhmen, is a de facto industrial power that feeds everyone around it with its output and must be taken seriously.
With the idea of the future format of the nation-state, the idea of establishing German Bohemia not only as a province of the Monarchy, but in the future as an independent state with its own constitution and capital Reichenberg (Liberec) was emerging. Interestingly, Teplice was also considered as the capital, due to its general fame around the world.
The collapse of the Habsburg monarchy after the Great War brought a fundamental turning point. The generally promoted right to self-determination was incompatible with the political, military and, above all, economic interests of the victors. Even though the population decided to divide into two states based on Slavic and Germanic languages, France, in its fear of the reunification of Germany, needed to create a security corridor, new states loyal to Paris. The intention was that these new states would deter any possible aggression by Germany and would rather be defended by France. This French pressure on Wilson's ideals of the right to self-determination
How did these events unfold?
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While Czechoslovakia was proclaimed in Prague on October 28, 1918 , the next day, on October 29, 1918 , deputies in Liberec proclaimed the province of Deutschböhmen.
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For about six weeks, two parallel states existed in the territory of one Bohemia , competing for power, officials, the post office, and the railway.
This state of affairs was only ended by a military intervention in December 1918, when the new Czechoslovak army (mainly with the help of returning legionnaires) occupied northern Bohemia. In Most, Ústí nad Labem, and Liberec, the authorities were taken over practically without a fight, as Deutschböhmen did not have its own regular army, only a makeshift militia ( Volkswehr ).
The developed, multilingual and economically self-sufficient Bohemia was shattered. The local population, which had built the local infrastructure and industry for centuries, found itself overnight in the position of a non-autonomous minority, overlooked by the state. The administration of the region and control over its wealth were definitively transferred to Prague. The initial unrest after the abolition of the idea of Deutschböhmen was hard
1938: Political shield of foreign aggression
Frustration with the post-war arrangement and the economic crisis of the 30s paved the way for the darkest chapter. The Deutschböhmen region was cynically exploited by Nazi propaganda. The local people became a political shield and a pretext for Hitler's aggression. Under the slogan of liberation, the border region was torn away and drawn into the machinery of World War II. The wealth of the region no longer served development and culture, but the war industry, which ultimately brought the whole of Europe to ruin.
1945: The Disaster of Deportation and Broken Memory
The end of the war marked a definitive turning point in civilization for North Bohemia. During both wild and organized deportations, the original German-speaking population was driven en masse from their homes. Within a few months, people whose ancestors had been burning coal here for generations, building Art Nouveau spas and founding world-class bottling plants disappeared. Along with them, centuries-old know-how, local patriotism and respect for the landscape also disappeared.
Present: A land without memory
The new settlement of the borderlands with people from the interior, Slovakia or the Repatriation Waves filled the empty houses, but it could not replace the lost soul. There was absolute cultural and social uprooting. Today's inhabitants of North Bohemia have mostly no idea what a unique and rich region they actually live in. They walk past magnificent architecture, historical springs and old shafts without knowing names like Löschner, Reuss or Griffith. The region has lost its memory and is still paying the price for the fact that its wealth was always more attractive than the people who created it.