Vyškov
Vyškov (IPA: [ˈvɪʃkof]) (German: Wischau, until 1918) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 22,300 inhabitants.
The Language Island of Wischau
This little German language island was located about 30 km to the East of Brün / Brno, the capital of Moravia, at the edge of the very fertile Hanna plain. The biggest town was Wischau.
History
By the middle of the 14th century, pest epidemics and starvation had virtually depopulated the entire area. The Catholic Church, the owners of the lands, administrated their properties via its cloisters in Bamberg, Augsburg and Brixen. These cloisters called upon German farmers to resettle the place. In those days the German language area comprised about 60 villages. But only 8 of these, with a total of about 3500 inhabitants, still existed before the eviction of the Germans after the WW II.
The inhabitants were mostly farmers. Their lives consisted mainly of hard work. The population was Roman Catholic. Therefore, the rythm of life was mainly governed by the church and its festivities. An education in a German school was considered to be of great importance. Six villages had their own German elementary school and the town of Lissowitz even had a grammar school.
Peculiarities
The geographic separation from other German settlements was the reason why that their language could, to a great extent, retain its original form. It is a variety of a Southern German dialect. One peculiarity is that a "w" was pronounced very much like a "b." The farmhouses were built on both sides of a common green area. ( The Commons ). They consisted of one story structures with thatched roofs. A salient part of its architecture was the two story entrance. Stables and other dependances were built in a rectangle around a court yard on the back of the farmhouse. The womens' dresses were very colorful and they displayed a great many hand made embroideries. A striking feature was the stiffly starched, frilled collar called "Tatzl."
The Wischauer people today
After their eviction following the end of the Second World War, in 1945-1946, the former inhabitants of the language island found new homes in Germany, Austria and in other countries. In the year 1949 an association, "Language Island of Wischau," was formed in the German town of Aalen in order to help the scattered families move together again.
External link
- Municipal website (cz)
- Photo by Milan Kusala (cz)
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