Vyškov
| Vyškov | |||
| Town | |||
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| Country | Czech Republic | ||
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| Region | South Moravian | ||
| District | Vyškov | ||
| Commune | Vyškov | ||
| Elevation | 254 m (833 ft) | ||
| Coordinates | 49°16′N 16°59′E / 49.267°N 16.983°ECoordinates: 49°16′N 16°59′E / 49.267°N 16.983°E | ||
| Area | 50.40 km2 (19.46 sq mi) | ||
| Population | 21,312 (1.1.2015) | ||
| Density | 423/km2 (1,096/sq mi) | ||
| First mentioned | 1141 | ||
| Mayor | Petr Hájek | ||
| Timezone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| - summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| Postal code | 682 01 | ||
   Location in the Czech Republic
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| Statistics: statnisprava.cz | |||
| Website: www.vyskov-mesto.cz | |||
Vyškov (Czech pronunciation: [ˈvɪʃkof]; German: Wischau) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 22,300 inhabitants.
By the middle of the 14th century, pest epidemics and starvation had virtually depopulated the entire area. The Catholic Church, the owners of the lands, administrated their properties via its cloisters in Bamberg, Augsburg and Brixen. These cloisters called upon German farmers to resettle the place. In those days the German language area comprised about 60 villages. But only 8 of these, with a total of about 3500 inhabitants, still existed before the eviction of the Germans after the World War II.
The inhabitants were mostly farmers. Their lives consisted mainly of hard work. The population was Roman Catholic. Therefore, the rhythm of life was mainly governed by the church and its festivities. An education in a German school was considered to be of great importance. Six villages had their own German elementary school and the town of Lissowitz even had a grammar school.
The geographic separation from other German settlements was the reason why that their language could, to a great extent, retain its original form. It is a variety of a Southern German dialect. One peculiarity is that a "w" was pronounced very much like a "b." The farmhouses were built on both sides of a common green area. They consisted of one storey structures with thatched roofs. A salient part of its architecture was the two storey entrance. Stables and other dependences were built in a rectangle around a courtyard on the back of the farmhouse. The women's dresses were very colorful and they displayed a great many handmade embroideries. A striking feature was the stiffly starched, frilled collar called "Tatzl."
After their eviction following the end of the Second World War, in 1945–1946, the former inhabitants of the language island found new homes in Germany, Austria and in other countries. In 1949 an association, "Language Island of Wischau," was formed in the German town of Aalen in order to help the scattered families move together again.
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Wikipedia