New funds to help preserve German heritage of Czech borderlands
The expulsion of more than three million Sudeten Germans from post-war Czechoslovakia in 1945 not only changed the face of the region but left many German graves abandoned. Some municipalities repair and maintain the graves on regional budgets or cross-border grant programs. Now regular subsidies from the Ministry for Regional Development will help boost this effort.
In 1918, the town of Svitavy was known as Zwittau and was almost entirely German, with only a tiny Czech minority. The expulsion of the vast majority of German inhabitants after the war changed the face of the municipality. However, in chronicles and human memory much of the cultural legacy of the region remains and its present-day inhabitants are looking to preserve it – among others by caring for the graves of former citizens whose descendants now live abroad.
In the town of Svitavy, the town hall works together with the local museum to restore neglected graves of important Svitavy personalities as well as those less prominent, whose graves no one takes care of. Local historian Monika Němcová says the work is progressing well, but depends on the funds available.
“Every year, we select graves that deserve special care, especially the graves of notable figures. This year we restored two tombs, belonging to former mayors of Svitavy Johann Budig and Carl Lick. Budig was a businessman and politician of German nationality, once a member of the Imperial Council, and a patron of the town of Svitavy. Carl Lick was not only the town’s mayor but also a prominent historian and the head of the savings bank. Last year we repaired the Langer family tomb— the most beautiful in the entire cemetery — which was both time-consuming and expensive, so that year only one tomb was repaired,” says Monika Němcová.
Care for the simple graves and tombstones of people who weren’t notable figures, is easier to arrange thanks to volunteers - for instance, the museum’s history club Záviš regularly cleans the graves and occasionally brings flowers. Even so money is always in short supply since there are hundreds of thousands of old German graves in the borderlands. In the Ústí Region alone, according to rough estimates by the Omnium association, which maps them, there are around 50,000.
The municipality of Lipová maintains all its German graves thanks to local volunteers. Its mayor Pavel Svoboda says it would like to use the subsidy for something else –to place wrought-iron fencing around the original graves.
“We discussed it with an artistic blacksmith, and we know that restoring one meter of fencing costs between 15,000 and 25,000 CZK,” he explains.
In Tisá in the Ústí region, they also plan to apply for a subsidy. According to Mayor Jiří Turek roughly half of the graves in the local cemetery are German. In the past, grants from the Ústí Region were used to repair several German graves and parts of a damaged cemetery wall. Now they want to seek funding for further improvements. Other applicants include Jetřichovice and several other municipalities in the Děčín area.
According to the Ministry for Regional Development applications can be submitted from January 5 to April 30, 2026. Eligible applicants will include regions, municipalities and their voluntary associations, contributory organizations, educational legal entities, institutes, public research institutions, or joint-stock companies in which municipalities hold more than a 50% share. The overall sum this year is 10 million. In the following years, the ministry expects to release up to twenty million crowns annually.
