Modrava – History
Modrava was originally a fishing village. The first written record of Modrava dates back to 1614 when it is mentioned in relation to the lease of the well-stocked Modrava stream. Another record comes from 1617 when the decree issued by His Majesty the King authorised free pasture on Modrava plains to beasts of burden that were unable to reach Kašperské Hory on the same day. Since 1757, Modrava had been developing as a fishing and hunting settlement.
The year 1799 nevertheless brought a significant change to the location, when the Prince of Schwarzenberg bought a vast territory in the Prášily Estates, which included Modrava, from Count Filip Kinský. Prince Schwarzenberg wanted to capitalise on the abundance of wood in the local forests and immediately after the purchase declared Modrava to be an independent forestry ground. This lasted until 31.12.2017, when it was undone by the National Park Administration.
The 13,6 kilometres long Vchinicko-tetovský Floating Canal was built according to the design of the engineer Josef Rosenauer in 1799-1801 as a fairway for floating logs from the Šumava forests. These new developments were connected to the building of the Březník (Pürstling) settlement, which is the main setting of the best-known novel written by the Šumava author Karel Klostermann - "From the World of Forest Seclusions".
In 1827, the businessman František Bienert founded a Modrava factory that processed resonant wood to make sound boards for string instruments and pianos which were exported around Europe and America. The building with a star and the timbered building on the left bank of the Roklanský stream were both part of this factory and are declared an immovable cultural heritage site and serve for recreational purposes.
The development of woodworking went hand in hand with the founding of woodworkers’ settlements, the so called Hütte. In order to not have to walk to the deep forests from their home villages every day, the woodworkers built log cabins directly in the woods. If they were close together, a small primitive village was formed and named. The largest and best known woodworkers’ colony was the village of Josefstadt, which lied by Trampus’ cross.
One of the dominants of the village, the cottage of the Club of Czechoslovak Tourists called Klostermann Chalet, was built in 1924 and cost 1 041 500 Czech crowns. It was designed by the significant architect Bohuslav Fuchs. Every visitor of Modrava will also remember the the famous Bienert Sawmill which manufactured sound boards and the timbered building that served as the Prince of Schwarzenberg’s hunting lodge.
Construction of the Czech elementary and nursery school was completed in 1934 (the building was rebuilt in 1999 into a hotel and has been serving to the new purpose ever since as Hotel Modrava).
HISTORY OF GLASSMAKING
It was the medieval trade routes that made the impenetrable border forests accessible and thus created the conditions for glassmakers’ colonisation of Šumava. The glassmakers were able to make use of the rich gifts of Šumavian nature and to change the quiet, hallowed and truly virgin nature into a significant industrial area, known both around Europe and overseas.
In 1785, timber rafters from Schlössenwald (Hrádky u Srní) Franz Denk and Franz Weber founded a single-forge glassworks for hollow glass in today’s Filipova Huť (formerly Hënifberg and Modlwald). The building of the glassworks was financed by the owner of the Estate, Filip Kinský, who leased it out to the two entrepreneurs on 31.8.1785 with a guarantee that construction costs up to 800 golden pieces would be taken off rent. The beginnings of the glassworks were not happy. The original couple of entrepreneurs had split up and not even their successors Kaspar Breit and Jakub Wintr were any assets to the business, mainly because of the lack of capital they needed to employ real experts. In 1790, this led Count Kinský to lease the glassworks out for 15 years to brothers Ignác and Josef Eisner, who were real glassmaking professionals and soon managed to elevate the glassworks’ status. But this did not last long.
The French wars caused a drop in demand and the Eisner brothers could not even get their receivables which were over 2 732 golden pieces in Florence and over 2 524 golden pieces in Napoli. These circumstances led the brothers to accepting the offer of the new owner of the Estate, Prince Schwarzenberg and sell him the glassworks for 3 600 golden pieces. But the Prince did not care for glassmaking and gave the glassmakers’ houses to woodworkers. Filipova Huť thus became a woodworkers’ village and in remained as such until 1991, when the Šumava National Park was declared.
HISTORY OF POACHING
Local deep woods with lots of animals have always been inviting to poachers. Poaching was so widespread here, that none of local forest ranger felt safe from Bavarian poachers. The bloody encounters between forest rangers and poachers are described in Karel Klostermann’s novel "From the World of Forest Seclusions", but there are many examples in historical records as well. The best-known encounter dates back to 30.9.1933, when gamekeeper Waltr Paleček, head of the Modrava – Březník forest region Jan Špatný, gamekeepers František Hall and Kainz, forest adjunct Alfréd Paleček, and a forest worker Josef Tůma encountered around six Bavarian poachers. Gamekeeper Paleček and one of the poachers were wounded during the shootout. Špatný and Paleček had to be moved to the interior out of fear of the poachers’ retaliation, but Paleček returned to the Modrava region in 1935 and on November 24th began to work in Březník. The very next day he was shot by Bavarian poachers on Plattenhausen and transported to the Sušice hospital with 25 pellets in his body. After this incident, sixteen poachers were arrested and imprisoned in Bavaria.
HISTORY OF SMUGGLING
The history of the Šumava villages is also tightly connected to smuggling. Various foodstuffs such as sugar, Bavarian salt, coffee, flour, or young cattle were transported through the Šumavian forests until 1918, later also gunpowder and blasting powder. After 1784, when a state monopole prohibiting the import of Brazilian tobacco was declared, it was mainly Bavarian snuff tobacco called "brizil" or "prizil". The smugglers were highly esteemed amongst their neighbours as their activities were not regarded as improper but as a highly beneficial work. When a farmer needed goods or commodities available at lower prices at the Bavarian side of the border, he usually addressed the closest smuggler with the request to bring them and - at the same time - gave him the goods he was supposed to take with him and transport abroad.
Post-war circumstances, in particular the new organization of Europe and building of the so-called "Iron Curtain", resulted in the extinction of the village's famous history. For instance the pub U Tetřeva in Javoří Pila, the pubs U Tří sluk and U Pstruha in Modrava and the pub Na Zlaté stezce in Filipova Huť were closed as well as the roads to Roklan and Luzný mountains. Only the memories of the old days as described by Karel Klostermann remained. Certain revival of the village became after the establishment of a forestry vocational school at the premises U Pstruha between 1961 and 1982.
Establishment of the Šumava National Park in 1991 represented another important historical milestone for the village.
HISTORY OF THE IRON CURTAIN
After World War II, Europe was divided into East and West and the era of the Cold War began. The Iron Curtain was put up along the Šumava border and the role of our border guards began to change. Following the members of the National Security Corps, who waged wars against Šumavian people-smugglers, the military border guards took over. Guarding the border was to be done as conscription by soldiers in the military service. This was modelled after the Soviet military border guards. A military consulting session, which included Soviet advisors took place on October 6, 1950, in Bystřice u Domažlic in order to determine the new organisation, including placements of battalions and troops, areas to guard and give out orders for realisation surveys. Ten days later, a completed survey was evaluated in the same place and orders were given out to start forming units. The 1950s and 60s are called the first line of the Iron Curtain. The border troops stood nearby the border by the mountains and the actual border was guarded by wires under high voltage.
The first line of the Iron Curtain was followed by the second line of the 1970s and 80s. It was a time when the concept of guarding and protecting the border became more advanced in all aspects. Deathly wires under high voltage were turned off and the troop stations near the borders were demolished. A new Iron Curtain, the so-called signal wall, was built further towards the interior, and border troops were replaced by large premises in border villages.
The history of the Iron Curtain ends with the year 1990. The Iron Curtain was torn down and border guards were transferred to the forces of the Czech Republic Police, Border and Alien Police.