Erzgebirge area

Landscape transformations in the CzechGerman borderlands and its (re)interpretations: the case of Jáchymovsko in the Krušné hory / Erzgebirge area Zdeněk Kučera, Jakub Jelen, Magdalena Kašková Charles University, Faculty of Science, Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, The Research Centre for Cultural and Historical Geography, Prague, Czechia

Silvie R. Kučerová, Petr Meyer, Martin Dolejš Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Faculty of Science, Department of Geography Ústí nad Labem, Czechia

Přemysl Štych, Pavlo Kryshenyk, Josef Laštovička Charles University, Faculty of Science, Department of Applied Geoinformatics and Cartography, Prague, Czechia

supported by GAČR project No. P410/12/G113

Landscape and the sense of landscape • Relationship between physical environment and immaterial features (customs, norms, traditions) • Landscape as a part of European culture , identity and heritage (European Landscape Convention) Landscape includes (Selman, 2006: Planning at the Landscape Scale) • nature and people • past and presence • physical environment and attributed values Landscape is … … a face of home … in certain contexts perceived and interpreted environment, with which certain meanings and values are related … believed to mirror other characteristics of the area

Jáchymov ve 20. století – místo paměti evropských dějin, 12–14 October 2016, Jáchymov

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Identity, home and landscape Identity • a way individuals or certain groups distinguish themselves against others • may develop or diminish, strengthen or weaken FAMILIARITY • is related to environment  significance of symbolic places

Home

high

• places on various scales • natural part of human life • evokes feelings of security, stability, legibility, uniqueness, importance and familiarity • symbol of ideal state of things

low

That‘s old stuff

There‘s no place like home!

That‘s very strange

That‘s wonderful!

PREFERENCE low

high

Kaplan, Kaplan (1982) cit. in Porteous (1996)

Identity and home are … … popular concepts … sometimes taken for granted … exclusive concepts (Piechocki 2013, Wylie 2016)

What is the role of mining heritage in areas where regional identities and landscapes were severely transformed?


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Borderland – what does it mean? • interesting, problematic • multicultural, changing • issues of lost identity • Sudeten vs. non-Sudeten

Prevailing nationalities, 1930 Czechoslovak German Polish

• borderland landscape = Sudeten landscape?

independent Czechoslovakia 1918

World War II

Communist Regime

Velvet revolution

access to the EU

1989 2016, Innsbruck – Seefeld 2004 27th Session of 1938 the Permanent1945 European1948 Conference for the Study of the Rural Landscape, 5-9 September

2007 4

 transfer of Czech Germans

 transformation of settlement

structure  pseudo-urbanization

of landscape

 landscape militarization  existence of the „Iron curtain“  „return“ to Europe

 landscape industrialization  close down of private enterprises  land abandonment  collectivization  renaming of the landscape

 suburbanization

 nationalization of land

POLICY

ECONOMY

 depopulation of rural areas

 reusing of historical buildings

CULTURE

SOCIETY & SETTLEMENTS

Landscape transformation processes

 protection of landscape values  secularization of landscape  changes of relationship to the

landscape  boom of second

housing and tourism


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Transformations of the borderland • loss of 3 millions of inhabitants • discontinuity of the settlement

 radical transformations of landscapes  radical transformations of the relationship to place

area of prevailing German nationality in 1930 deserted settlements

Population development in relation to altitude (Czechia) Jáchymov ve 20. století – místo paměti evropských dějin, 12–14 October 2016, Jáchymov

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Meanings of the borderland as a home The borderland … … as a lost land (for those who left or were forced to leave) • disruption of the relationship to home, unavoidable creation of home in a new environment • sustaining identity through: remembrance, meetings, customs and traditions, literature, places • immediate experience of home replaced by the idea of home

… as a gained land (for those who came or were forced to come) • •

coping with the new environment formation of multicultural communities  new collective identities, relationships to places

… as a continuity (for those who stayed or were forced to stay) • familiar environment in radically new conditions • significant German minority (until the 1960s); new discussion and reinterpretation after 1989


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Meanings of the Krušnohoří/Erzgebirge area TOURISM / HERITAGE AREAS

multiple regions within Central Europe ADMINISTRATIVE REGIONS NATURAL AREAS


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Identity of the Krušnohoří / Erzgebirge area „(…) how they dug through the whole mountain range here, they simply mined a huge amount of mineral resources, from which somebody else became rich, not they themselves; here in the Ore mountains it was not much visible, there are no monuments, yes, simply everything went away, because these are like robbed mountains (…) it is mysterious here, here the vanished civilisation, simply it is still enough to explore here, all over the forests are spread remains of houses (…)“ „[…] Already because it is quite problematic here. What were the characteristic things here – when the heavy industry came here, people were moved out after the war, you know, new people came – so what would be a really characteristic [product] here? This remained somewhere in the mountains there, where some braids were produced, some things that today would not be marketable in fact. Thus something little maybe, but this disappeared completely, yes, thus what else would be here then. It would not be much, something maybe, but not much.“ „I wanted to adopt some name, but all were so German and impersonal (...) all the time some Königsberg or I don’t know (…) really strange names, nor nice (...) I wanted certainly a Czech [name for the beer].“ (interviews conducted with various local representatives during 2015 and 2016) Jáchymov ve 20. století – místo paměti evropských dějin, 12–14 October 2016, Jáchymov

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Material and immaterial culture


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Dissonant past and memories


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(Re)invented traditions „We really strive for being local, it can’t be completely original, because we miss it and many of these things vanished with the former owners [...] two certain opinions exist [...] let’s enliven it [...] and do we have a right to do it at all? – let’s develop further.“ „[...] that’s a tradition that came from the Saxon side, because, you know, the Montanregion they invented at the university in Freiberg and actually subsequently they spread it to Bohemia, so it arrived from there [...]“ „[...] you know, they are learning here, they compose their own mining songs and sing them already, the guys actually, they look in the papers actually, they try hard, yes, so it’s really funny to perceive this, how subsequently the guys are learning.“ (interviews conducted with various local representatives during 2015 and 2016)


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Shaping the image of the region „[...] the people according to me nowadays are being strongly interconnected, because the Ore mountains aim at being inscribed to the UNESCO list, which fascinates me, I did not expect this, but, it interconnects the people amazingly, it’s really a great, it’s the best thing that has happened here so long, because with this some respect for the landscape penetrated the people, actually they suddenly acknowledged the value.“ „So, like accepted it is, but it is such a dark site, so that how to be proud of it, like, what to find nice in it? There is no, there wasn’t created any monument as such [...] Thus, the people are interested in [the uranium mining], but it cannot be constitutive [...] it cannot be, it is not bearing.“ (interviews conducted with various local representatives during 2015 and 2016)


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Jáchymov as the symbol • Towns with common mining history and nature • Location in the Krušnohoří area determines its development • Centre of the region is Jáchymov Characteristics of the Jáchymovsko heritage:

Silver heritage

Uranium heritage

Dissonant heritage

Heritage as a tourist attraction


Other uses of mines remains

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Models of the Svornost and Rovnost labour camps Cooperation of various institutions • Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Faculty of Science, Department of Geography • Charles University, Prague, Faculty of Science, Department of Applied Geoinformatics and Cartography, Department of Social Geography and Regional Development • and others


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Principles of realization • recognition of studied area, delimitation of the territory which will be modelled • retrieval of input materials for the construction of 3D model

• construction of 3D model by means of 3D editor (GIS) • creation of:

a) terrain model in GIS b) ground plan

c) structure of model d) more detailed model

e) texturing of model f) rendering


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Its only a model... • its not a reality, it is an interpretation / representation of the local past • human factor is still important • its interpretations depend on the principles of creation as well as on forms of future usage • rather a tool that should provoke discussion and imagination than a definite presentation Jáchymov ve 20. století – místo paměti evropských dějin, 12–14 October 2016, Jáchymov

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Presentation and usage of the models


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Concluding remarks What is the role of the continuity of living in the area, relationship to the area (place) Jáchymov heritage in type and character of activities age, education, etc. the wider regional context? Common landscape features and similar character of the area do not necessary

Different perceptions of the local landscape, past, heritage… •

• •

•

implicate a unity of the region • Significance of landscape inertia – it may … … sustain regional identities and contribute to continuity even after significant social and cultural transformations … be a barrier to the formation of regional identities • Relationships between particular landscapes, regions and cultures are (re)invented (through heritage) Jáchymov ve 20. století – místo paměti evropských dějin, 12–14 October 2016, Jáchymov

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Thank you for your attention! [email protected] [email protected]

Erzgebirge area

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