by
Robert J. Paulson

Schilligkau

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The village of  Schilligkau is located 6 km west-northwest of Ronsperg and 2,5 km northwestl of Berg.  It a first mentioned in documents in 1379.  In 1789 Schilligkau (or Schillikau) had 24 house numbers and was part of the Herrschaft(1) Trauttmannsdorff in Bischofteinitz to which the community forester’s house Weißmühle was already attached since 1678.  In the vicinity of the Weißmühle trout breeding was done.

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In 1839 the village increased to 31 houses with 266 residents.  In 1913 it had 38 houses with 234 residents, and in 1945 there were 46 houses with 310 residents.

 

In 1937 the surface measurement of the community as a whole was 377,80 ha(2), which could be divided in 133,34 ha fields; 40,89 ha meadows; 14,19 ha pastureland; 177,31 ha woods.

Until 1900 Schilligkau was attached to the community Berg and then became an independent community. It had an elementary school which had been built in 1908. The school had one class.  Until 1680 Schilligkau was attached to the parish of Schüttwa, then it was attached to the parish of Berg.

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In the village there were two inns, a shop, a leased village forge, a miller, and a bee-keeper.  For societies there were a local chapter of the “Deutscher Schulverein”;; a local chapter of the “Böhmerwaldverein”(3); the voluntary fire brigade which was founded in 1912 with a tool house; ,and  a local chapter of the “Deutsche Landjugend”(4).  There was also a seeds cleaning plant.

In Schilligkau there were seven or eight foresters (lumberjacks) who worked in the woods of the dominion nearly the whole year and had small farms besides.

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In 1940 the Deutsche Wehrmacht installed an air traffic control unit southeast of Schilligkau.   In connection with this the community was electrified.  On 30th April 1945 a house and three barns burned down as a result of enemy action.

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In World War I Schilligkau supplied 44 soldiers.  Four of them didn’t return home. In World War II 23 soldiers fell of 72 drafted sons of the village and 3 were missing.

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(1) Herrschaft = dominion

(2) 1 ha (Hektar) = 100 a (Ar); 1 a (Ar) = 100 m²

(3) The „Böhmerwaldbund“ was founded in Budweis by issuing of 20th March 1884 on the occasion of the celebration of the uncovering of the monument of the emperor Josef II. In 1866 there were already local chapters in Ronsperg and Vollmau and was afterwards most spread in the districts of Hostau and Ronsperg. The members got support in agriculture by special performances. It was bought farming equipment which was left to the members.

(4) The „Deutsche Landjugend“ was founded in different villages in the thirties and was a union of the country-bred’ youth.

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