Stonařov

In the past, the small town of Stonařov (Stannern) formed the southern tip of the “Jihlava German-speaking island,” with its natural centre in the town of Jihlava. Stonařov is situated in the Brtnice Highlands (Brtnická vrchovina), part of the Křižanovice Highlands (Křižanovická vrchovina), which belongs to the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands (Českomoravská vrchovina). The Jihlávka River flows through the town. The Haberská trade route passed near Stonařov. According to Stanislav Vohryzek, Stonařov is one of the oldest settlements in the Jihlava region, founded in the first half of the 13th century. It was probably established by the Znojmo chamberlain Stonař, perhaps from the Ranožír family. However, this hypothesis is only supported by indirect sources.

The origin and development of the German village of Stonařov was closely connected with the discovery of silver ore in the middle of the 13th century in the vicinity of what is now Jihlava and with the influx of miners from German lands, especially from the area of present-day Lower Austria. The Church of St. Wenceslas (Kostel sv. Václava) was built of quarry stone in the centre of Stonařov. The oldest part of the chancel dates back to the second half of the 13th century. At the beginning of the 16th century, a tower was added to the church. There is a small Romanesque rotunda – a charnel house – near the church, dedicated to St. Trinity from the 17th century.

As early as 1365, Stonařov is mentioned as a small town, which was associated with a number of privileges. For example, a fair was held there every year. Medieval Stonařov can be characterised as an agricultural and craftsman’s town, where fish farming played a relatively important role for its economy, given the many documented ponds in the town and its environs. A document from 1534 provides proof that there were two manor houses in Stonařov. The Hirschbügel Fort stood on a central hillock surrounded by a moat, a form of fortification, on the site of the garden of house no. 52. However, it was already listed as deserted in 1480 and no longer exists today. According to Ladislav Vilímek, the newer fortress, also mentioned in 1531, stood on the site behind the church of St. Wenceslas (Kostel sv. Václava), on an elongated hillock surrounded on three sides by the Jihlávka River. This theory is supported by Krzaupal's cadastral map of Stonařov from 1778, which shows the fort as a complex of buildings with a central house marked with the number 29 and protected by a wall.

The significant predominance of the German population, which had accompanied Stonařov since the town’s foundation, was still evident at the beginning of the 20th century. Following the establishment of the independent Czechoslovak state in 1918, 90 per cent of the population in Stonařov claimed German nationality in 1921, and only 65 percent in 1940. However, there had always been a Czech minority present. The coexistence of the Czech and German populations not only in Stonařov, but also within the whole Jihlava language island, was not accompanied by any national conflicts until the middle of the 19th century. After 1848, however, nationalism, based on a common language, territory, and traditions, grew throughout Europe as a result of the Industrial Revolution, rising living standards, and political emancipation.

In contrast to Jihlava, the initial waves of nationalism did not affect Stonařov to a great extent. However, the atmosphere in the village was fundamentally changed by Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1930s. After the establishment of the “Second Republic” in the autumn of 1938, the German part of the population of Stonařov gradually became radicalised. On 13 March 1939, local Germans attacked the Czech police station in the village and the police shot dead the innkeeper Hans Matejka during the skirmish. His funeral held on 17 March 1939 was attended by prominent Nazi officials, including Emanuel Sladek, commander of the Jihlava Allgemeine-SS units and initiator of the burning of the Jihlava synagogue, and Arthur Seyss-Inquart, who was a native of Stonařov, an ardent supporter of the Anschluss of Austria, briefly Austrian Chancellor and, most importantly, Nazi Commissar for the occupied Netherlands, where he became infamous for unleashing terror against the local population and supporting the plundering of the country. After the war, both found themselves on trial – Seyss-Inquart before the Nuremberg Tribunal – and both of them were executed. As recalled by Miloslav Steiner, Seyss-Inquart was originally called Arthur Zajtich, but he later embellished his name because of his career in the Third Reich.

The Beneš decrees led to the deportation of the German population from the territory of Czechoslovakia after the end of World War II, including the German citizens of Stonařov. Hundreds of Germans died during their temporary internment in the Stonařov assembly camp and were buried in a mass grave near the wall of the Stonařov cemetery. In the years that followed, these painful events became taboo. It was only after 1989 that attempts at mutual reconciliation, understanding, and respect emerged in Czech-German relations, which is also true of Stonařov. In June 2016, a memorial plaque commemorating those who had died in the local assembly camp was unveiled near the mass grave at the wall of the Stonařov cemetery. For the first time in more than seventy years, a joint Czech-German mass was held in the Church of St. Wenceslas (Kostel sv. Václava). It brought hope for future friendship among the descendants of both nations, whose roots are intertwined with Stonařov.

MS