Jeseník

Coordinates: 50°13′47″N 17°12′17″E / 50.22972°N 17.20472°E / 50.22972; 17.20472

Jeseník
Frývaldov (until 1948)
Town
Flag Coat of arms
Country	Czech Republic
Region	Olomouc
District	Jeseník
Commune	Jeseník
Elevation	432 m (1,417 ft)
Coordinates	50°13′47″N 17°12′17″E / 50.22972°N 17.20472°E / 50.22972; 17.20472
Area	38.22 km2 (14.76 sq mi)
Population	12,510 (2006-10-02)
Density	327 / km2 (847 / sq mi)
First mentioned	1267
Mayor	Marie Fomiczewová
Timezone	CET (UTC+1)
- summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	790 01
Location in the Czech Republic
Wikimedia Commons: Jeseník
Statistics: statnisprava.cz
Website: www.jesenik.org

Jeseník (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjɛsɛɲiːk]), Frývaldov until 1948 (Czech pronunciation: [ˈfriːvaldof]; German: Freiwaldau) is a city and a district in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic.

Districts

• Bukovice (Buchelsdorf)
• Dětřichov (Dittershof)
• Jeseník (Freiwaldau)
• Lázně Jeseník (Bad Gräfenberg)

History

According to the Austrian census of 1910 the town had 6,859 inhabitants, 6,619 of whom had permanent residence there. Census asked people for their native language, 6,588 (99.5%) were German-speaking, 16 (0.2%) were Czech-speaking and 13 (0.2%) were Polish-speaking. Jews were not allowed to declare Yiddish, most of them thus declared the German language as their native. Most populous religious groups were Roman Catholics with 6,552 (95.5%), followed by Protestants with 208 (3%) and the Jews with 83 (1.2%).^[1]

The Freiwaldau massacre

On November 25, 1931, the local Communist party organised a hunger march of around 1,000 unemployed stoneworkers ('Steinklopfer') to Freiwaldau. The police chief at Setzdorf instructed his men to prevent the demonstration from reaching the town. The police forced the marchers to take an alternative route through the forest. The police soon caught up with them at Nieder-Lindewiese, and a clash ensued during which the marchers threw sticks, stones and other objects at the gendarmes. After two stones hit the commander of the unit, First Lieutenant Oldřich Jirkovský, on the forehead, gave his men the order to fire on the crowd. As a result, ten people, including six women - among them a 60-year-old woman and a 14-year-old girl - were killed and fifteen men and women seriously injured and taken to the hospital in Freiwaldau. The Vienna Neue Zeitung attributed the march to the growing indebtedness of local stone- and chalkworkers, who could no longer earn enough for subsistence.^[2][3]

Famous personalities

See also Category: People from Jeseník District.

plate of C.Ditters von Dittersdorf

Chapel on the Vincenz Priessnitz vault, Gräfenberg Hill, Jeseník

• Martin Johann Weidlich (1600–1678), scribe, chronist of Mährisch Trübau
• (August) Carl Ditters (von Dittersdorf) (1739, Laimgrube, Vienna - 1799, Červená Lhota château, Nový Dvůr, Deštná u Jindřichova Hradce), composer and violinist; In 1773, the prince-bishop made him the Amtshauptmann of nearby this town. He sent to Vienna and received a noble title "von Dittersdorf", his surname became "Ditters von Dittersdorf". One of this city's distinct Dětřichov was named after him; See also Javorník, Jánský vrch.
• Johann Nepomuk Raimann (1780–1847), doctor
• Vincenz Priessnitz (1799), founder of Hydropathy
• Oskar Paul (1836–1898), music historian (de)
• Adolph (Adolf Gustav) Weiß (1837–1894, Prague), botanist
• Edmund Weiss (Weiß) (1837–1917), astronomer
• Adolf Kettner (1849, Schwarzwasser bei Freiwaldau - 1932), local historian
• Oskar Hein (1863–1940), politician, writer
• Emi Hauck (1866–1936), physician, mayor
• Si(e)gmund Hein (1868–1945, Vienna), scientist
• Richard (Victor) Werner (1875–1943, Theresienstadt), physician
• Franz Wittelsbach, Prinz von Bayern (1919–1999), a son of Prince Georg of Bavaria, died in Jeseník^[4]
• Franz Karl Mohr (1887, Sandhübel bei Freiwaldau - 1965), Sudeten and American Germanist and poet
• Engelbert Kaps (1888–1975, Regensburg), sculptor^[5]
• Adalbert Willmann (1889–1928), painter
• Josef Werdecker (1907, Sandhübel - 1979), geographer
• Walter Reder (born 1915), Waffen-SS officer and a convicted war criminal
• Rudolf Hanke (born 1931, Gross-Krosse bei Freiwaldau)
• Radko Tichavsky (born 1959), compossitor, Honorary Consul for Coahuila, Monterrey and Tamaulipas, Mexico.

International relations

Main article: List of twin towns and sister cities in the Czech Republic

Twin towns — Sister cities

Jeseník is twinned with:

• Neuburg an der Donau, Germany
• Nysa, Poland

References

1. ^ Ludwig Patryn (ed): Die Ergebnisse der Volkszählung vom 31. Dezember 1910 in Schlesien, Troppau 1912.
2. ^ ÖNB/ANNO AustriaN Newspaper Online
3. ^ ÖNB/ANNO AustriaN Newspaper Online
4. ^ http://prinzvonbayern.weebly.com/index.html
5. ^ [1]

External links

• (Czech) Official website