Jablonec nad Nisou

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Jablonec nad Nisou

Seal

Coordinates: 50°43′N 15°10′E

Country

Czech Republic

Region

Liberec

First documented

1356

Area

- Town

31.4 km² (12.1 sq mi)

Elevation

495 m (1,624 ft)

Population (2003)

- Town

44,829

Website: www.mestojablonec.cz

Jablonec nad Nisou (IPA: [ˈjablonɛts ˈnadɲɪsoʊ̯]; German: Gablonz an der Neiße) is a town in northern Bohemia, the second largest town of the Liberec Region. It is known as a mountain resort in the Jizera Mountains, an education centre, and a centre of world-production of glass and jewellery.

1 History
2 Present-day
3 Famous people
4 External links

[edit] History

The village of Jablonec was founded in the 14th century; the first written document dates back to 1356. The town's name means "place with apple trees". In August 1496, the village was burnt to the ground by troops of the rebelling Lusatian Towns Group in the war between them and King George of Podebrady of Bohemia. In the 18th century, the first artificial jewellery was produced and the first exporter, J. F. Schwan, spread its name throughout Europe. The village of Gablonz was promoted to a township by Emperor Francis II on April 21, 1808 and to a town by Emperor Francis Joseph on March 28, 1866.

Old Catholic Parish Church in Gablonz an der Neiße, Austria-Hungary (now Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic). A considerable number of ethnic German Catholics supported the theologian Döllinger in his rejection of the dogma of papal infallibility.

In the 19th century the town became prosperous and wealthy. Between 1870-1871 the Franco-Prussian War pushed the most dangerous competition in glass and artificial jewellery manufacturing out of business, as Gablonz traders seized the foreign markets. A steady flow of glass and artificial jewellery products of an incredibly wide range flowed out of the town for the next 60 years. Prosperity and wealth walked hand in hand with demographic advances; Jablonec's appearance was changing dramatically. A deep decline of the glass and jewellery industry followed Black Friday in 1929 and the crisis of the 1930s. In October 1938, Gablonz, located in the so-called Sudetenland, was taken by Hitler's German Reich after the Munich Agreement, as it had an absolute majority of German inhabitants. After 1945 the Germans were expelled or murdered and Czechs were resettled in the city, which was henceforth known as Jablonec. Expelled Germans from Gablonz founded the township of Neugablonz near Kaufbeuren in Bavaria and Enns in Upper Austria after 1945.

[edit] Present-day

Jablonec is a centre of active holiday tourism and sport, with a swimming pool, three football and athletic stadiums, an ice hockey arena, 13 gyms, and 16 playgrounds. It is also well-known for its modern architecture from the 1900s, 1920s, and 1930s. The Jablonec valley dam is the northest intra-urban valley dam in Europe.

Jablonec shares the tramway line which connects it to its neighboring city, Liberec.

[edit] Famous people

Peter Herman Adler (1899-1990), conductor, lived in Prague, Brno, Bremen, Ki'iv and from 1939 in the United States
Adolf Benda (1845-1878), historian, author of the Geschichte der Stadt Gablonz (History of the Town Jablonec nad Nisou)
Walter Dolch (1883-1914), literary historian and librarian, lived in Prague and Broumov in Bohemia
Fidelio Finke (1860-1940), local historian, composer and teacher
Karl Richard Fischer (1871-1934), mayor and historian specialising in local history
Richard Fleissner (1903-1989), artist and professor of the School of Applied Arts in Jablonec and Munich
Rudolf Hásek (1890-1993), commander of the Czech Legions in the fight against the Bolsheviks, export merchant in Jablonec, WWII resistance fighter, after 1949 exiled in Canada.
Robert Hemmrich (1871-1946), architect
Konrad Henlein (1898-1945), WWII war criminal; Nationalist and later Nazi politician, head of the Sudetenland district (Gau) under Hitler; studiend and lived in Jablonec few years
Heinrich Joseph (1875-1941), professor of zoology and anatomy, lived in Vienna
Gustav Leutelt (1860-1947), writer and poet
Vladimir Mikolasek (1918-1997), writer
Karel Mrazek (1910-1998), commander of the Bohemian Units of Royal Airforce in the Second World War
Jost Pietsch, sculptor
Rudolf Prade (1888-1944), artists and professor at the School of Applied Arts
Anton Randa (1864-1918), doctor, patron and founder of the town library
Marcel Safir (1912-1978), natural scientist and author of children's books
Josef Vaclav Scheybal (1928-2001), ethnographer and anthropologist
Josef Schindler (1814-1890), doctor, successor to Vincenz Priessnitzs at the Bad Gräfenberg sanitarium
Ladislav Stoll (1902-1981), ideologist of stalinism and pioneer of "Socialist literature", born in Jablonec
Johann Franz Schwann (1740-1812), founder of the Jablonec export industry
Karel Simon (1887-1960), French legionnaire, leader of the WWII resistance movement; mayor in May 1945
Josef Zasche (1871-1957), architect born in Jablonec, lived in Prague