Červená Voda (Ústí nad Orlicí District)

Geography

Červená Voda is a long village, stretching along the banks of a contributing stream into River Březná. Its name derives from the iron ore bearing soil, which betimes coloured the stream red. Situated in the Králická brázda (English: Králíky Depression, between the mountain ranges of the Orlické hory (English: Eagle Mountains) and the Hanušovická vrchovina (English: Hanušovice Highlands), the community is located on the European water divide between three seas: the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Black Sea. Červená Voda is close to the historic border between Moravia and Bohemia. The municipality's hamlets of Dolní and Horní Orlice once belonged to Bohemia.

Through the village passes state road 11, which has a junction with state road 43 leading to Králíky inside the village.

History

Settlement of the Králíky area started after king Václav I. called German settlers for land reclamation. Červená Voda than was founded in 1397 and mentioned documentarily for the first time under the name Malé Heroltice in 1481, in the course of the sale of the lordship of Štíty (German: Schildberg). Throughout the Hussite War cultivation and foundations came to a halt. In 1562 the gaffer Georg Schürer erected a glass kiln. 1596 the new lord of Štíty and Northern Zábřeh (German: Hohenstadt), Ladislav Velen of Žerotína, granted to Dominik Schürer von Waldheim, son of Georg Schürer, the privilege to incorporate a glass factory in nearby Bílá Voda (German: Weißwasser). In progression he built an estate, joined by a brewery and farmyard in Mlýnice (German: Lenzdorf), which eventually became the climax point of the second wave of populating. The Thirty Years' War saw another period of devastation (1630, 1639).

After the Battle of White Mountain Ladislav Velen of Žerotína lost all his manors. Consequently, one of the emperor's favourites Karl Eusebius of Liechtenstein, second prince of Liechtenstein and founder of today's renowned Liechtenstein art collection, gained power over the lordship in 1624 and united it with his lordship of Ruda nad Moravou (German: Eisenberg an der March). The 18th century saw the greatest incidences of Black Death (1700, 1705) and twice the march-through of looting Prussian troops, burning down many villages in both Silesian Wars. The area reobtained stability. 1833 a wooden pilgrimage church was erected on Křížová hora (English: Mount Cross) right above Červená Voda and the village's elementary school got a second class. In 1846 the village gained the right to hold markets.

In implication of the Revolution of 1848 came the fall of the patrimonial regime (German: Patrimonialherrschaft). The land reform of 1850 made Červená Voda part of the political district of Hohenstadt (Czech: Zábřeh). Did most of the villagers made a living from agriculture till than, the second part of the 19th century was molded by the commencing industrialization, foremost by textile fabrication in 1850. In 1865 Červená Voda was connected to the state's primary road network with the inauguration of the Kaiserstraße (today's state road 11). By 1866 Prussian troops once more passed through the village without causing greater damages. After the Reichsvolksschulgesetz (English: Imperial Law of Elementary School) was passed in 1869, Červená Voda saw the foundation of the first Bürgerschule (English: Citizen or Secondary School) in all of Moravia in 1875.

With the opening of a branch line from Králíky to Štíty, Červená Voda was connected to the railway network in 1899 and concurrently experienced its economical and social heyday. 1910 existed several cotton spinneries (and a total of 44 textile productions). After the First World War Moravia and thus Rothwasser/Červená Voda became part of the newly formed First Republic of Czechoslovakia History_of_the_CSR_-_The_First_Republic. While, due to cut historical trade-ties commercial development halted, mild tensions aroused among the majoritarian German speaking population towards the newly Czech-dominated administration. A Czech-Minority School was formed 1919 and an Old Catholic Church was erected in 1929. In 1930 the market town had a population of 2526.

After the shameful Munich Agreement, part of the Appeasement Policy against Nazi Germany, in 1938, Červená Voda was occupied by the Nazi's Wehrmacht arriving from Mittelwalde (today Międzylesie/Silesia) between 1 and 10 October 1938. Červená Voda was incorporated into the newly formed province of Sudetenland, as part of the Landkreis (English: rural district) Hohenstadt (which was congruent with the Czechoslovakian district of Zábřeh). Thus Czechoslovakia had lost all her heavily fortified borderlands, leaving her indefensible.

During the Second World War the Czech minority was subject of heavy discrimination through the Nazi authorities. The German company Telefunken Gesellschaft für drahtlose Telegraphie in Berlin had a factory in Bílá Voda/Weißwasser under the camouflage name Friesewerk, producing radio measuring devices and steering gear for the German Luftwaffe. In 1944 they opened a sub camp of the concentration camp Groß-Rosen. Several hundred mainly Hungarian Jewish women, sent from Auschwitz concentration camp were let to vegetate in dehumanized conditions, forced to work in the Friesewerk. Early 1945 their number increased to 650.

After the Russian Red Army had freed the valley, having advanced from the south, the German-speaking population was expulsed as per the Beneš decrees of 5 March 1946. Yet even before first unlawful expulsions and cruelties occurred against the German-Moravians, irrespective from their political attitude during the war. Between 23 April and 25 October 1946 2156 people were deported in seven transports, leaving only 37 German-Moravians in Červená Voda. The village was resettled by Czech-Moravians from Tišňov. On (Mount) Křížová hora arouse a military training ground, (1960 demolition of the devastated small wooden pilgrimage church was carried out), used by the Red Army 1969-1990, which maintained a military foothold in all of the Warsaw Pact states, such as the ČSSR. By the administrative reform of 1960 Červená Voda was greatly enlarged by affiliating its surrounding villages. Since 2003 the town is part of the newly formed Králíky (third-level-)municipality. In 2006 a lookout tower was inaugurated on (Mount) Křížová hora. Today Červená Voda is a popular tourist destination, mainly for national visitors and tourists from Germany and nearby Poland. There is a neat ski resort [1] and a developing hiking path network in the Orlické hory/Eagle Mountains.

Administration

Červená Voda is divided into 8 cadastral communes which are administrative part of it, in Moravia:

further located in Bohemia:

Formerly still being a municipality inside Ústí nad Orlicí District, Červená Voda yet is mainly governed from the nearby town of Králíky. A reform in effect since January 2003 legally amended the districts with 204 Municipalities with Extended Competence (obce s rozšířenou působností; third-level municipalities, which took over most of the administrative powers of the district authorities.