Extracts from the official village chronicles

        

The official village chronicle 1922

The official area of Trinksaifen municipality is located in a valley, which opens towards the South-East and its boundaries are made up by forest hills and mountains.

In the middle of the valley runs Rudne Brook – Trinksaifner Bachl.

Four brick and transom bridges with iron railings span the stream.

The stream has a positive impact on the fertility of the soil, as thousands of springs from waterlogged grounds in the village run into it and the stream brings silt and peat.

1922

The village of Trinksaifen comprises several scattered homesteads, similar to many other villages in Krušné hory.

Smallholders clearly are in the majority here, with such small pieces of land that one can barely feed just one cow off them. That is why goat farming has found its home here. Haymaking and harvests have to be wrested out of the soil and nature, and it takes a lot of effort, diligence, labour and sweat.

Vast areas of rocky wasteland are still vacant and desolate. There is a lot of work waiting here for our children.

Only a few farmers own more than 10 hectares of land: Josef Götz, house number 40, Wenzel Götz, h.n. 18, Anton Hochmuth, i.n. 197, Anton Tutz, h.n.196,  Josef Götz, h.n. 192, Leo Rölz, h.n. 12, Justin Wohner, h.n. 73, Siegfried Herold, h.n. 111, Ernst Herold, h.n. 188,  Franz Herold, h.n. 159, Berta Herold, h.n. 155, Johann Bittner, h.n. 106..

1937

There was not much construction in the village in 1937 due to a long-lasting crisis. Only one new house was built.

On September 14, in the early morning, the long-serving first president of the Czechoslovak Republic, T.G.Masaryk, passed away in the 88th year of his eventful life. The flight and power of his spirit, the pureness of his morals, the boldness of his actions – who in this world would not feel captivated by admiration and respect!

1945

In 1945, there were 708 German residents and 29 Czech residents in the village. The following moved in this year: Simon, Kotrnoch, Svatoň, Kladívko, Lenk, Krafta, Kroupar, Vavřina, Hrozný, Dvorský, Mašín, Krasmuk, Krýsman, Šerý, Devera.

Problems arose with the cattle. The expulsion of the Germans started slowly and nobody took care of the cattle. The cattle were sent in droves to the Nejdek slaughterhouse. As late as winter 1946, I saw something that I have never seen before – a field of unharvested grain covered by snow.

1946

In February, the state confiscated the private forests.

The number of eggs that were supposed to be produced was 9695, the actual number of items delivered was 2071.

The expulsion of Germans took place on January 2nd, February 1st and 5th, and April 7th. The Germans wore white armbands on the sleeves of their right arms, their ability to move around was restricted. Only on June 24th the citizens of German origin received some concessions. Eleven Germans were summoned to the People’s Court.

 Between July 25th and the end of 1946, 9660 Germans were expelled from the Nejdek District, 3622 Germans stayed.

1948

Since there are only working class people in our village, the people’s victory was accepted with joyous feelings. [“the people’s victory” was a term used by the official regime for the communist putsch in 1948]

There were already 190 Czech residents in the village this year. A permit to open a kindergarten was issued.

The district officials recommend that the citizens raise brown, hornless goats of the roe type so typical of the border area, since they are more resilient. For their uniform we called them Hitler’s goats.

P.S. Unfortunately, we had to leave out my favorite page from the year 1968, another important time in Czechoslovak history.
It reads like this:

On May 14th, 1968, Závod míru [note: Peace Race - an important cycling race in the former communist bloc] was passing from Aue through Jelení and through our village, in a 195 km long stage towards Karlovy Vary and to Prague.  (...) Hrazdira was 4th and Konečný was 7th. 

On exactly the same road, the Russian and East German army tanks were passing during the night of August 20-21st, when they were invading our country. Other armies were occupying our country in other places. 

The municipal committee in Nejdek has increased the funding for our library from 300 crowns to 1300 crowns.