by
Robert J. Paulson

Chronicle of Schwarzach

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Schwarzach has a section that is Bohemian and another section that is Bavarian. Bavarian Schwarzach is already found on a map of the Oberpfalz made in the year 1410 but the Bohemian section of the place is mentioned for the first time in 1626 in records found at the archives of Munich. At that time it was little more than a Bohemian border and customs house. The land on which the community of Schwarzach lay belonged to the Royal Forests of the borderland and was assigned to the Choden border guards of Taus. After the battle of White Mountain [1622] Taus was removed from among the followers [properties] of the Winterkönig [Winter King] and during 1623 it was sold to the Baron von Lamingen. At that time it was little more than a road from Muttersdorf to Bavaria by way of Schwarzach. The Baron immediately increased the toll for the road. At the end of the Thirty Years War the toll was 10 Schock which is one indication of the amount of traffic. There was then only one little house in which the customs officer probably resided. That may have been the first house in Schwarzach. The inn was built between 1644 and 1652 and at that time it also served as the customs house. About 100 years later there were four houses in Schwarzach and by 1788 there were thirteen home-owners. In 1800 the border was occupied by the military and ten men were quartered and on duty in Schwarzach. Ever since 1825 Schwarzach has held the central offices of border customs service. From 1839 to 1938 Schwazach has been both customs station and Finanzwachstation [money exchange].

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On August 16, 1899, a fire began around 3:00 o'clock in the morning which burned the entire wood-structured village all the way to as house number 17. There has been a post office in Schwarzach since 1904 which serves its own community as well as Neid, Rindl and Waier. The postal wagon went daily through Muttersdorf and to Hostau and the railroad station. In 1939 a Post-autobus took over this route with two trips daily. In 1904 Bohemian Schwarzach belonged to the Postal district of Ronsperg but the postal telegraph services were located in Bavarian Schwarzach.

When it was first established, Schwarzach was a member of the parish of Waier. In 1786 it was attached to Muttersdorf but most of the people preferred to go to church in Stadlern. The children went to school in Dianahof between 1802 and 1898 and after that in Unterhütte. The community belonged to the Bischofteinitz administrative district and to the court district of Ronsperg. Until 1938 the entire district of Bischofteinitz was responsible to the Diocese of Budweis. After that it belonged to the adjacent Bavarian Diocese at Regensburg.

Bavarian Schwarzach also had a customs and border security station in 192Œ8. In 1938 a new border and customs station was built there but it was abandonned after the Anschluss. In 1948 it was reopened and since 1968 its operations were given up to the central authorities.

The school for Bavarian Schwarzach and for Charlottenthal was in Stadlern. A schoolhouse was built in Schwarzach in 1929. Between 1945 and 1946 there was a short period during which classes held in Charlottenthal in the abandonned manor of the Landgraf were interrupted. After the school was liberated by the American troops classes were again resumed until the school was dissolved in 1968.

In 1945 Schwarzach came under fire from advancing American troops and their artillery. In Bavarian Schwarzach house number 5 burned and in Bohemian Schwarzach houses numbers 6,9,11,17,18 and 19 went up in flames. Most of the barns burned to the ground. All the remaining houses in Bohemian Schwarzach and isolated buildings in Bavarian Schwarzach were damaged in some way. Fifteen people died during the attack. After all the houses and almost all the barns were rebuilt the worst time of all began for the residents of Bohemian Schwarzach -- the expulsion. During the summer of 1946 all but two of the resident families were evacuated in three separate transports. Those who stayed behind fled to Bavaria in 1948. During the years leading up to 1956 Bohemian Schwarzach was systematically razed to the ground. The landscape held only remains of foundations, barbed wire abatises, watchtowers and wild-growing shrubs. Eventually the whole area was covered with woodlands.