Nové Hrady -The Czech Home

Trail "People and their Landscape"

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During the founding of the independent Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, several of the count’s clerks resisted the integration of the town into the new state. Their efforts to integrate the town instead into the newly formed Austria were suppressed with military force. 
After that, the Czech minority in Nove Hrady began a lively development. In 1919, the Czechs established several bohemian fraternity organizations, most notably in 1920 the athletic association “Sokol”.    

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Czech Home
In 1923, the Building Association  „Svornost“ (Unity) established the “Czech Home”. The Czech Home developed into a regional centre for Czech cultural activities. The ground floor had a room, which was used alternately as gymnastics room, theatre hall, and ballroom. The ground floor also housed a bohemian restaurant, which was also used by Sokol as their meeting place.  The upper floor with 11 rooms was used as small hotel.

By the mid-1920s, the differences between Czech and German inhabitants had been largely buried. Life in this border town had become quiet and harmonic. This harmony was short-lived; at the end of the 1930s, the rise of the fascists once more raised tensions between both groups. During his visit in 1938, the infamous fascist leader Henlein incited the German population against the Czech minority.

Today, the Czech Home is used as a local cinema and library.

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