1953: Egerländer Gmoi z'Offenbach founded
They did not come of their own accord, and they were not welcome in the years of famine after the war. But when the Egerlanders expelled from their Bohemian homeland organized themselves in Offenbach in 1953, they were already one of the driving forces behind the so-called economic miracle. The "Egerländer Gmoi z'Offenbach" celebrated the anniversary with the opening of an exhibition in the Haus der Stadtgeschichte. It leads from the past to the present and will be on display until June 30.
Folk melodies from the West Bohemian Egerland filled the hall. A head-turning ensemble from Hirschhorn played music in traditional folk costumes. Many visitors had also dressed in the colorful traditional costumes. For men, it was once uniform throughout the entire region, while for women it could vary from one community to the next. The Offenbach chairwoman Gertraud Hirsch, who of course also appeared in colorful costume, was able to find out more about this.
Fifty years after its foundation, the chairwoman is of course no longer part of the founding generation. She was born in Offenbach. She speaks the northern Bavarian dialect of the Egerländer, which she learned from her parents, but only with an Offenbach tinge. Gertraud Hirsch has, as she says, two homes. The real one, where she grew up, and then a "home in my head and in my heart".
"Oh no," she says when asked whether she would like to swap her Offenbach home for the home of her fathers. And her husband Erich, who also wears traditional costume and has roots in the Egerland region, says: "I don't know anyone here who would want to live there." But they want to preserve the knowledge of a lost culture, the 170 Offenbachers who are organized in the "Gmoi". They love without the tears that their mothers shed.
This is probably what the keynote speaker Dr. Wolf-Dieter Hampel meant when he said that the generation of displaced persons was followed by the generation of preservers. Hamperl is the cultural director of the Egerland federal organization. He reported on how centuries ago an unfortunate political deal led to the Egerlanders being expelled after 1945. In 1322, Eger, which belonged to the Bavarian diocese of Regensburg, was pledged to the Bohemian king along with its Hohenstaufen imperial palace. It was only because this pledge was never redeemed that Eger became part of Czechoslovakia in 1918 along with the former Kingdom of Bohemia. Hamperl illustrated his lecture with pictures from this lost culture.
The fact that the expulsion "repaid injustice with injustice" was mentioned in a greeting from the city council by Marianne Herrmann. However, she also drew attention to the initially slow integration of the expellees in 1946: "Under the conditions of the time, this was an unimaginably large task". The fact that it was solved relatively quickly required enormous energy on both sides. The exhibition in the Haus der Stadtgeschichte on Herrnstraße also documents this post-war history. A wealth of newspaper clippings illustrate the long road to the present day. In addition, everyday objects, textiles, musical instruments from Egerland production, photos and explanatory text panels combine to provide a broad insight into a lost culture that at least wants to be remembered.
Lothar R. Brown