Jeseník

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
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.

Contents

Districts

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

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Jeseník is twinned with:

References

External links