Post-war changes of the land-use structure in Bohemia and Moravia: Case study Sudetenland

Land Cover Changes along the Iron Curtain 1990–2006

“…Quite frequent are also analyses showing that changes in the borderland differ from the changes in the interior of Czechia, mostly as a result of the Germans exodus after 1945. These studies deal with the socio-geographical aspect (Chromý 2000, Kuldová 2005 as well as with the space function and land use (Štěpánek 1992, 2002Bičík, Štěpánek 1994;Bičík, Kabrda 2007;Rašín, Chromý 2010). Bičík, Kabrda (2007) and Breuer et al (2010) analysed the land use changes in the Czech borderland and the driving forces that led to these changes.…”

“…Concerning the analyses of the function of space and land use, statistical data from the cadastral registers was primarily used for the analyses of the borderland in the above-mentioned studies. Some authors also utilized the Land Use / Land Cover Change Database (LUCC Czechia) based on statistical data: Štěpánek (1992) for the first time used this data for evaluation of the borderland; Bičík, Štěpánek (1994) examined land use changes in the Sudetenland in the post-war period, and Bičík, Kabrda (2007) analysed in detail the Czech borderland in the period 1845-2000.…”

The Iron Curtain Trail's Landscapes of Memory, Meaning, and Recovery

“…Prior to 1945, the western reaches of today's Czech Republic were predominantly settled by Moravian Germans. Following World War II, the German population was expelled from Czechoslovakia en masse, reducing what had been a 90% majority of German speakers region‐wide to less than 5% (Bičík and Štěpánek ; Bičík et al. ).…”

“…In order to enhance border security, the so‐called Zone A of the Czech side between the actual border and the border fence was completely depopulated with virtually no human activity permitted for a width ranging from 200 meters to five kilometers (Bičík and Štěpánek ). In the slightly less‐restrictive Zone B, extending inward from the border fence for up to an additional five kilometers, local settlements were cleared but select activities such as timber or mushroom harvesting were allowed only with a special permit (Bičík and Štěpánek ). As of the 1991 census, population numbers in these Czech border zones had only rebounded to 61% of the 1930 census levels (the last census conducted prior to World War II).…”

Inner divisions of the Czech Republic

“…People from the interior as well as from Slovakia replaced them. In some of the German borderland areas the population never reached the numbers of pre-war times, and the land use there was radically changed (Bičík & Štěpánek 1994). The number of people who were born in these regions is still lower than in the Czech interior (Heřmanová et al 2009).…”