The Language Island of "Wischau"

Its Geography
This little German Language Island was located in the Czech Republic, about 30 km to the East of Brno, the capital of Moravia, at the edge of the very fertile Hanna plain. The biggest town was Wischau.

Its 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 (Bavaria) and Bressanone (Northern Italy). 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 Second World War.

Life in the "Language Island"
The inhabitants were mostly farmers. Their lives consisted mainly of hard work. The fertile soil produced good harvests, so that the families could live off the land. Commercial crops were grains and sugar beets.
The population was Roman Catholic. Therefore, the rythm of life was mainly governed by the Church and its festivities. This meant, of course, that the people in this "Language Island" were a closely knit society, where old customs were kept alive and unaltered. Four villages together had a priest, a church and a rectory.
An education in a German school was considered to be of great importance. Six villages had their own German elementary school and the small town of Lissowitz even had the equivalent of a high 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 most extraordinary feature in this "Language Island", however, was the traditional apparel worn by everybody and at all times. This was the reason why the Language Island got the name: "a Living Museum." 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 both in Germany 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.

It also provided the members with a helping hand in the difficult legal process of compensation and integration into the new West German society. Furthermore, this association took it upon itself to safeguard and keep alive the old traditions.
Its dance groups participate in various events both in Germany and abroad displaying their traditional apparel and folkloric dances.

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Gisela Reinhold, Santa Rosa, USA, is wirting about our "Wischauer Sprachinsel"

I invite you to go back with me sixty years. It was the year 1942. I completed just had six months of
internship work for a family with three children on a farm in East Germany. The house we lived in was almost one thousand years old. It had walls that were six feet thick. One could easily sleep on the window sills. The family was the twenty-third generation living in that house. These circumstances opened my eyes to history, and that was good.

Now I was on my way by train to Moravia, in the southern part of Czechoslovakia. It was a long journey because I came from the city of Essen, the heart of the industrial center of North West Germany, where I had visited my parents. My destination was a girls camp in Rosternitz near the City of Bruenn, the capital city of Moravia. Rosternitz belonged to the Language Island of Wischau, settled by Germans in the twelfth century. We were called by the German government to help out on the farms, to try to replace the farmers who were fighting in the war.

After I left the train, I had to walk for one hour. Coming from the country, my eyes were open to all
changes in my surroundings. With interest, I observed the Czech villages, listens to the sounds of the farm animals, saw the people working on the fields, and the children playing in the street, looking at me with big, questioning eyes. Everything was new to me. Then, when I came on the top of a hill, I saw a picture like a dream. In a green valley lay several villages, the houses sparkling white, gleaming in the midday sun, embraced by well kept fields. Women in colorful costumes tilled the land to get it ready for the seed. The street through the village ran along a brook. An old Linden tree gave shade to a small church. On a hill, a little away from the other houses, were the neatly kept barracks of the camp, surrounded by green lawns and flowerbeds, the camp I was looking for. "Fraeulein Krause," the camp leader, "Fraeulein Sonntag," the head of the house, and "Fraeulein Braun," the secretary, greeted me and made me feel at home. During the afternoon and the next day, more girls arrived. In the end, we were forty-eight "Maidens" and three leaders. "Maidens" was the job title given to us. The first three weeks, we stayed in the camp, to learn to know each other and get familiar with the place. The camp consisted of four barracks. One of the barracks was the home of the "maiden". There were two bedrooms, right and left of the living room, each with six bunk beds and twelve lockers. The living room had a big pot belly stove in the middle. Round tables with chairs invited you to sit down. The windows had nice curtains
and the shutters were painted with hearts and flowers. The second barracks contained a large dining room with colorful painted beams, the artwork of former "maidens". The other rooms were the kitchen, the pantry, the laundry, the showers and the bathtubs. The third barracks housed the office and the living quarters of the leaders. The fourth and last barracks lay a little ways away and had the toilets.
After we toured the camp, we got our new clothes: royal blue cotton dresses, heavy cloth white aprons, red head scarves, wool stockings, heavy ankle high boots, and a jacket for rainy days. For casual outings, hikes, dances etc., we received an additional white half-apron for our blue dresses. For festivities and going out to the city, we were provided with an olive green suit, white blouses, cotton stockings, brown sport shoes, a brown hat and gloves. The three weeks were fast over and the work started. After getting up at 6 AM, jogging 10 minutes, getting a shower, having breakfast and having an hour of singing
and story telling, we left at 8:30 AM for work. Some of us went to assigned farmers, others stayed in the camp. Every four weeks we were rotated. It was a wonderful time. We met the people of the village, learned to work on the fields, in the stables and in the houses. Many things were different from what we were used to. The language was German, but an old German. We had to get used to it. The people were friendly and open to the world. We learned from them, they learned from us. The main meal was given to us when we came back to the camp. There we could see, what our other girls in the camp had done, while we were out in the field. They cleaned the rooms, did the laundry, ironed the dresses and aprons,
prepared the evening meal and made everything homely and the work on the field, the learning of the culture of this part of the country. I even learned to milk a cow, something I had to use after the war was over. It was one of the happiest times of my life. On Saturday afternoons and Sundays, "Frl.Krause" had always some surprises for us. Either we went to the city to see a opera, or we went to a swimming hole to swim, or explore with her the caves in the mountains nearby, where we could go by boa t and see all the beauty of nature. Sometimes, the surprise was a big tub of spinach to be cleaned by all of us, so that we could have fresh spinach for dinner. At the end of our six months, the German government decided that we had to do six more months of service. This time, we could choose what we wanted to do: working
in a hospital, working as secretary, working in a factory, working in a trade, or working in a school, which is what I chose. My request was granted. I was lucky; the school I was supposed work for, was in the
next village. I could stay in the camp. The living room was furnished for me and three other girls, who also
were assigned to that school. The new "Maiden" had to use the nice dining room for their living room.
Now, new work started. The principal of the school was glad to see us. I was sent to the teacher who had the first, second, third and fourth grade students all in one class. I stayed with her, received my ssignment, and started, with her supervision, to teach an hour a day. Soon the principal tested me and found that he could give me the children from the third and forth grade. I was provided with my own class room, received my full class program, and started to teach. I think I have a natural gift to teach, because everything went well. The principal, as well as the school education authority from Bruenn, who had sent a delegation, were satisfied with my work. I was young, loved teaching, and shared my enthusiasm with the children in my care. When I found a child who had a hard time to follow the class work, I spent extra time with that child until he or she understood the problem. With reading, I did the same. After a while, the children were very proud that they were not behind the other children. I rewarded them by telling them fairy tales at the end of the school day. That way I had always an attentive class all day. We worked as a team. The children had as much fun as I did. Often, the principal came in, especially when I was telling the fairy tales. With a gesture of his hand, he asked the children to stay put, and sat down in the last
bench to listen to my stories. I also studied each of the children and their individual ability to learn, so
that I could find the best way to teach. Often, I took the children for a hike after school into the nice
nature outside the village. I could tell them the names of flowers and trees and they told me names of the
plants I did not know. When the winter came with snow and ice, I went with them after school up the hill to
use the sleds and skis. After it got too cold, the mothers offered that we come into the houses, each time
to an other one. Then we were sitting around the tile oven, working on Christmas presents and telling stories. That way I learned about the various family situations and understood why one or the other child had difficulties in school. Some of the children had responsibilities like an adult. The boys had to help in
the field to replace their father, who was soldier in the war. The girls often had to take care of the house
and the smaller children, while the mother was in the fields. All of us, the children, the mothers and I,
bonded during this six months. When I had to leave, to go back to the civilian world, it was like every child
was pulled away from my heart. They must have felt the same way. Two years, until the end of the war, they were writing to me and I wrote back. Then we lost each other. They were all kicked out of their homes, their communities, where they and their families had lived for many hundred years. My family and I were bombed out and had no address they could write to. But, as we found out, they did not forget me, not I did forget them Years went by. I now lived in the United States of America. One day, I was reading in an American magazine for German women a poem from a lady who had brought a chest over from her old home site and, the home site was the "Wischauer Sprach and Trachten Island" where I was
once working as a substitute teacher. I contacted the writer of the poem. We wrote each other for several
years. Last year I visited Germany with my grandchildren. While they were with family, I had time to visit friends. So I took the train to Bretten, where my corresponding friend and some other people of the Wischauer Language Island lived. I brought my writing about their homeland with me. Since I had studied the history and had a lot of help from the school authorities in Bruenn, everyone was surprised, how much I knew. While I was in Bretten, my friend arranged a meeting with people from their hometowns. Three former students of mine were there too. And other students, who could not come, because of illness or the long distance, contacted me by phone. It was very exciting for all of us, to see each other after
such a long time. I learned about their life and their families. I can say, I am very proud, how they managed their lives, and that they did not forget their old homes. Yes, as soon as the borders to Czechoslovakia fell, they traveled there. When they saw that their old church was falling apart, they arranged with the mayor of the town for its repair. They delivered material and even gave a hand in the work. Their work and assistance was in honor to the mayor. There is no questions that we have stayed in contact ever since.

My writing would not be complete if I did not mention my return to the family where I had originally done my internship on the farm in East Germany. After I did my duty for the country, in the girls camp, I went back to college, and completed my degree in home economics. The war was still going strong. I lived in
the western part of Germany and had to cope with daily bombardments. My parents were very concerned and sent me back to the family in East Germany, where it was much quieter at that time. I helped in house, garden, and in the fields. When the war came closer, we were advised to leave the farm as well. It was a very difficult decision. The Russian Front came closer and closer. When we realized that we had to go, we packed a covered wagon, put two horses in front and left. It was heart breaking. No one of us will ever forget that day. Since the Russians did not arrive right away, we could get some of our cows over to another relative’s farm in Bavaria. The manager of that farm could give us only the stables for the cows, but no one to take care of them. So I was asked if I could milk cows. I could, so I was assigned that task in the cow stable and for four months, took care of twelve cows. I liked the work very much, but in the Fall, it was time to go home to my family. Since there was no postal service, they did not know where I was and I did not know if they were still alive.

When I was in Germany last year, I also visited "the children" I had left behind on the farm. They too were
not children anymore and had done well with their lives. The oldest one took me back to his old home and land. I know that it was not the same anymore. But we both had our memories. The house had burned and the walls, as thick as they were built, were falling apart. He had always dreamed of repairing and restoring the building. Because of the huge expense of restoring a historic building, he had to give up his dream. But we visited the forest, the pastures and the beautiful lake nearby and found our peace.