Hartmanice
Hartmanice is probably the oldest village of the border forest, which was called Gabreta by the Celts. The village is situated on a steep slope of the rugged mountain plain of the Šumava Plains below the slope of the Hamižná mountain at an altitude of 712 m.
The original settlement was established on the country road leading from Bavaria to Bohemia in the places where customs were collected. The first written mention of Hartmanice comes from 1315, it states that the king was paid from the forests for Prácheň. From this year, Hartmanice grew rapidly and became more important. This was contributed to by the mining of gold in the gold-bearing veins of quartz in the wider area. Hartmanice, a toll point on the "Bohemian road", also called the Vintíř route, belonged to the mining rights of the Kašperské Hory. In 1331, they were registered as a customs post on the "Gunther" (Vintíř) trail. In the years 1603-1848, Hartmanice belonged to the town of Sušice. On 15 June 1607, Rudolf II grants at the request of the municipality of Sušické town Hartmanicím, the right of a weekly market, two annual markets, a coat of arms and the right to seal with green wax.
It is worth noting that a market book was established in Hartmanice on April 26, 1608, which was kept in Czech until 1641, which is proof of the Czech settlement at that time. The prosperity of the town was stopped by the Thirty Years' War, the gold mines were abandoned and the town burned down. For several years, Hartmanice remained completely deserted. Only in the second half of the 17th century were they gradually occupied by Swabian Germans, and until 1918 they remained almost entirely German.
From the middle of the 19th century, we can talk about gradual modernization. In 1869, a post office was established, a year later the first police station was established, and in 1875 a fire department was established. In 1875, a district court was established in Hartmanice, and thus a separate judicial district was created in the political district of Sušice in order to separate Hartmanice from the Czech influence of Sušice as much as possible.
With the creation of independent Czechoslovakia in 1918, the revival of the Czech element in Hartmanice also occurred. The Czech general school also contributed to this, at which classes began on February 1, 1920. After the declaration of occupation in the fall of 1938, the occupied territory of Hartmanick was legally and administratively attached to the county of Bavaria. In April 1945, the death march of women from the Helmbrechts concentration camp, which was heading to Volar, passed through Hartmanice. His victims are buried in the former Jewish cemetery. In June 1945, new Czech settlers took over the most important shops, businesses and farms. Citizens of German nationality are being deported. At that time, Slovak families living in Kundratice and Štěpanice returned to Slovakia, and their places were taken by Volyn Czechs and Slovak Romanians. Since 1952, Hartmanice was the last inhabited place before the entrance to Dobrá Voda Military District, which had a negative impact on their development. In 1991, the military district was abolished, a year later the village received the status of a city.
The fate of a number of important personalities is linked to the city
Saint Vintír
* Around 955 in Thuringia
† 9/10/1045 Březník (Dobrá Voda near Hartmanice)
A hermit and Benedictine monk, he undertook missionary journeys and participated actively in political life. He was a relative of Prince Břetislav I, founded a monastery in the valley of the Rinchnach stream in Bavaria, proved himself as a mediator in diplomatic negotiations between the Czech and German monarchs.
Karel Maria Drahotín Villani
* 23/1/1818 Sušice
† 24 March 1883 Střížkov near Benešov
Baron, poet, owner of Kundratic since 1855. He was Sušick's second representative at the Slavonic Congress in Prague in 1848 and the commander of "Svornost", the national defense association. He wrote several poetry collections in the revivalist spirit, his song "Vyszágilec" was nationalized as "Shine me the golden sun".
JUDr. Josef Ambrož Gabriel
* 4/12/1820 Loučová near Hartmanice
† 6/9/1916 Bechyně
Writer, longtime mayor of Sušice. In 1848, he was elected to the St. Wenceslas Committee and a committee member and secretary of the Slovanská Lípa political association. He was a friend of K. Havlíček Borovský, a publisher of the writings of V. K. Klicpera and an admirer of Božena Němcová. In the years 1856-1874, he lived in the castle in Loučová near Hartmanice, which thus became a revival center welcoming J.K. Tyl, J. Kaška, J.V. Frič, the Náprstka brothers and a number of other personalities of our culture. Karel Strakatý, the first singer of Tyla and Škroup's song Kde domov můj, lived in Loučová.
PhDr. Emanuel Simek
* 3/4/1883 Vatětice near Hartmanice
† 16/06/1963
Prominent researcher of prehistory, professor at the University of Brno. He returned to the prehistory of his native region through a series of field surveys and professional studies.
Dr. Simon Adler
* 15 March 1884 Dobrá Voda near Hartmanice
† 11/07/1944 Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp
Jewish scholar and rabbi, studied theology, rabbinical seminary, history and philosophy, received his doctorate from the University of Basel. He worked as a rabbi, registrar and archivist. In 1928, he was appointed to the commission of preservationists, later he wrote several studies on the rights of Jews in Czech history.
JUDr. Václav Hrabánek
* 1915 Trieste
† Kašperské Hory
A non-professional painter who restored the Šumava tradition of holy images painted on glass. From traditional depictions of saints, he worked his way up to extensive compositions with a number of figures drawn using traditional folk techniques. Today, his pictures not only decorate local chapels and churches, but also appear in museum collections, at exhibitions and in private collections.
Eliška Coolidge-Hašková
* 1941 Prague
She is one of ten Czech women who, since 2003, can boast the title of Prominent Czech Woman in the World. Eliška Hašková left Czechoslovakia after the communists came to power. She studied diplomacy in the USA and worked alongside five American presidents (Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter) for eighteen years, first as an assistant and later as director of the Office of Presidential Communications. She then worked for nine years at the US State Department. After returning to her homeland, the castle in Kundratice and other properties were returned to her in restitution. He currently lives alternately in Kundratice and in Prague, among other activities, he teaches at the Diplomatic Academy.
Vladimíra Tesařová
* 1958
Glass artist, author of the glass altar and Stations of the Cross, which she created for the church of St. Vintíře, comes from Zbraslav, now lives alternately in Dobrá Voda. She has experience with glass sculptures of larger dimensions, she has already made several such reliefs for the most prestigious banking houses in Prague. She graduated from the Art and Industrial Glass School in Železné Brod. Already during her studies, her works were presented at exhibitions in Japan, the USA, Canada and Europe, and she achieved success at EXPO Sevilla ’92. He exhibits mainly in Prague galleries.
Source: website of the city of Hartmanice
