Accidents of geography have determined as much of world history and culture as anything else. Rivers and mountains became natural, then political, borders. The Czech town of Hranice has been affected by its location as a meeting point between 3 countries, then 3 regions.

Hranice before the 20th century

Someone founded the town in the 12th or 13th century, but there’s no way of telling who this was. The old German name for this place is Rossbach, meaning ‘Horse brook'¹. The common sense name explains why this was a place to stop. Water, as ever, places a major part in geography.

It also explains why the town’s flag and coat of arms has a horse on it.

The first mention of the town dates back to the 14th century when it the noble House of Zedwitz bought it¹. It’s not clear who he bought it from. It’s likely this was part of a larger feudal purchase.

In the Kingdom of East Francia, the Germanic states often redrew their own borders. They would quarrel with, or help, each other based on nothing more than religion. As a result, people were ‘German’ or ‘Bohemian’ at a time when these words meant nothing. They lived side by side, under one ruler or another.

The religious affiliation led to the Thirty Years’ War, and the foundation of the modern world order.

The Bohemian/German identity was later abused by the Nazi party when they wanted to annex the Sudetenland.

Hranice is a Czech word meaning ‘border’, which is appropriate for this town, but that only makes sense later.

Twentieth century cartography

Hranice was part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire. At the end of World War I, independence led to Czechoslovakia becoming a new country. The provinces that identified as Czech or Slovak came together for this. These provinces were evolutions of the old Germanic states, and Hranice’s unique location, wedged between two German regions, became part of a separate country.

At the end of World War II, this Bohemian town found itself as a tri-point between three countries:

• West Germany, with Bavaria on its western flank.
• East Germany, with Saxony on its eastern flank.
• Czechoslovakia, and the historical region of Bohemia which it formed part of.

I find these curiosities to be amusing – Hranice could have been nothing more than a stop on a highway if the borders were any different.

And the borders would have been different if not for the wars and feudal history on the continent.

1. History of the City of Hranice (Link in Czech); hranicemesto.cz; (Retrieved 2022-02-26[↩][↩]