Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2007, 15(7):383-394 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.222

Czech Borderland Series (Re-colonization in the 1950s)

Lubomír Slezák

Doc. PhDr. Lubomír Slezák, DrSc. - vědecký pracovník; Historický ústav AV ČR v. v. i. (pobočka Brno) (zimova@brno.avcr.cz).

In 1945-1949, the Czech borderland witnessed the migration of approximately 5 million people - the German minority was displaced outside Czechoslovakia and the borderland was subsequently colonized by Czechs and Slovaks. The result was a completely new national, economic, political and cultural structure of the borderland, marking the end of the first stage of the post-war development of the territory. The submitted work analyses the development of the borderland in the subsequent, second stage in the 1950s. The aim was to "complete" certain measures taken in the previous period, especially to implement the "re-colonization" scheme (i.e. to attract new inhabitants to the borderland through organized recruitment and keep them in the districts and regions that needed them most).
The re-colonization scheme responded to the alarming situation when the majority of settlers who had come to the borderland in the first three post-war years returned inland. Although the state allocated substantial financial resources for re-colonization, the original plans have never been fully achieved. Many of the newly arrived settlers left after a short time. The reasons for this fluctuation with negative figures for the borderland were, among other things, the socialization of the society and the resulting elimination of private property rights to the property acquired in the borderland and the settlers' fear of a new war and the return of the Germans displaced from Czechoslovakia. It took many years before the borderland became a more or less equal part of other regions in the Czech lands.

Keywords: Czech borderland, displacement of Germans, re-colonization, migration of population

Published: December 1, 2007  Show citation