Siegfried Hösch

* 1942

  • "I remember when a customs officer came to us once. We knew him well, he used to come for milk to us in Rehau. And one day he came to our house and said, ' Your house has been blown up today.' It could have been sometime in 1951. "

  • "I was there when the first contacts with Aš were being established after 1989. We negotiated in the catacombs at the time, in the cellars of a chateau. It was difficult for the Czech side when the Germans appeared. Residents, ordinary people, were not so well informed about what was happening. So they thought that the Germans were coming and wanted their property back. However, our visits then meant that we wanted to build neighbourly relations, in the existing conditions. And eventually, we managed to move forward.“

  • "I'm happy to be able to go there [to my former homeland]. I can't imagine being a farmer because of my body, I would definitely have a problem with that. But if one knows he was born there, he somehow knows the history and, moreover, there is a beautiful landscape. And because I'm a nature lover, I like listening to birds, looking around for animal footprints, if deer have passed through here or what plants grow there. So when I go there, it's not a sad thing for me, but a pleasant one. I'm glad I can go there."

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    Rehau, Německo, 13.07.2018

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The past should not dominate our future

Siegfried Hösch, 2018
Siegfried Hösch, 2018
photo: Post Bellum

Siegfried Hösch was born on April 14, 1942 in the settlement of Štítary (Schildern) near Aš. His family farmed there at a farm, and his grandfather also sold cattle. In 1946, shortly before the family was to be displaced, his mother picked him up on a bicycle and they went together to Germany. Rehau became new home, where other relatives gradually moved. Here, too, family members earned their living mainly by working in agriculture. For many years they maintained a very intense relationship with their homeland, although it was not easy. Rehau became the patron town of the displaced inhabitants of Aš, and their meetings were held here regularly. The house in Štítary, where the witness spent part of his childhood, was blown up in 1951. As a great nature lover, he often went for walks in the area and also enthusiastically welcomed the opening of the border after 1989. This also affected him professionally, being a head of the culture, education and sports department in Rehau, he was involved in establishing cross-border contacts with Aš. Siegfried Hösch was married, soon widowed, and raised two children on his own: a daughter and a son.