LEADER 04131oam 22005534a 450 001 9910159015103321 005 20240505183958.0 010 $a0-8229-8194-7 035 $a(CKB)3710000000939559 035 $a(OCoLC)962781613 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse54083 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC4786330 035 $a(EXLCZ)993710000000939559 100 $a20161104e20162016 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|||||||nn|n 181 $ctxt$2rdacontent 182 $cc$2rdamedia 183 $acr$2rdacarrier 200 10$aCleansing the Czechoslovak Borderlands $eMigration, Environment, and Health in the Former Sudetenland /$fEagle Glassheim 205 $a1st ed. 210 $aPittsburgh, Pa. $cUniversity of Pittsburgh Press$d[2016] 215 $a1 online resource (1 PDF (275 pages) :)$cillustrations, map 225 1 $aPitt series in Russian and East European studies 311 $a0-8229-6426-0 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 253-270) and index. 327 $aIntroduction -- 1. Czechs, Germans, and the borderlands before 1945 -- 2. Cleansing the borderlands -- 3. Expellees and health in postwar Germany -- 4. The new frontier : resettlement in Czechoslovakia -- 5. Most, the town that moved -- 6. Unsettled landscapes -- Afterword. "A shared longing." 330 $aIn this innovative study of the aftermath of ethnic cleansing, Eagle Glassheim examines the transformation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland from the end of the Second World War, through the Cold War, and into the twenty-first century. Prior to their expulsion in 1945, ethnic Germans had inhabited the Sudeten borderlands for hundreds of years, with deeply rooted local cultures and close, if sometimes tense, ties with Bohemia's Czech majority. Cynically, if largely willingly, harnessed by Hitler in 1938 to his pursuit of a Greater Germany, the Sudetenland's three million Germans became the focus of Czech authorities in their retributive efforts to remove an alien ethnic element from the body politic--and claim the spoils of this coal-rich, industrialized area. Yet, as Glassheim reveals, socialist efforts to create a modern utopia in the newly resettled "frontier" territories proved exceedingly difficult. Many borderland regions remained sparsely populated, peppered with dilapidated and abandoned houses, and hobbled by decaying infrastructure. In the more densely populated northern districts, coalmines, chemical works, and power plants scarred the land and spewed toxic gases into the air. What once was a diverse religious, cultural, economic, and linguistic "contact zone," became, according to many observers, a scarred wasteland, both physically and psychologically. Glassheim offers new perspectives on the struggles of reclaiming ethnically cleansed lands in light of utopian dreams and dystopian realities--brought on by the uprooting of cultures, the loss of communities, and the industrial degradation of a once-thriving region. To Glassheim, the lessons drawn from the Sudetenland speak to the deep social traumas and environmental pathologies wrought by both ethnic cleansing and state-sponsored modernization processes that accelerated across Europe as a result of the great wars of the twentieth century. 410 0$aSeries in Russian and East European studies. 606 $aGermans$xRelocation$zCzech Republic$zSudetenland 606 $aEcology$2fast$3(OCoLC)fst00901476 606 $aEconomic history$2fast$3(OCoLC)fst00901974 606 $aGermans$xRelocation$2fast$3(OCoLC)fst00942144 607 $aSudetenland (Czech Republic)$xEnvironmental conditions 607 $aSudetenland (Czech Republic)$xEconomic conditions 607 $aSudetenland (Czech Republic)$xHistory 615 0$aGermans$xRelocation 615 7$aEcology. 615 7$aEconomic history. 615 7$aGermans$xRelocation. 676 $a943.71 676 $a943.71 700 $aGlassheim$b Eagle$01248560 801 0$bMdBmJHUP 801 1$bMdBmJHUP 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910159015103321 996 $aCleansing the Czechoslovak Borderlands$92893755 997 $aUNINA