Aš (; ) is a town in Cheb District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 13,000 inhabitants. The town is located in the Fichtel Mountains, in the westernmost part of the country, on the border with Germany.

The town grew rapidly due to industrialisation in the second half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, but after World War II and the expulsion of German-speaking inhabitants, the town's population and importance decreased significantly.

Administrative division

thumb|Aš Panhandle

Aš consists of nine municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census):

  • Aš (11,181)
  • Dolní Paseky (58)
  • Doubrava (83)
  • Horní Paseky (71)
  • Kopaniny (123)
  • Mokřiny (527)
  • Nebesa (27)
  • Nový Žďár (32)
  • Vernéřov (155)

Etymology

The initial name of the settlement was probably Ascha. The name was derived from the High German words ask (i.e. 'ash') and aha ('water', 'stream'), referring to a stream flowing between ash trees. The Czech name was created by transcription of the German name. Alongside with the municipality of Eš, Aš has the shortest place name in the Czech Republic.

Geography

Aš is located about northwest of Cheb, on the border with Germany. With the neighbouring municipalities Hranice, Krásná, Podhradí and Hazlov, it lies in the westernmost area of the Czech Republic known as the Aš Panhandle. This area is a salient surrounded by German territory in the east, north and west. It lies in the historical Egerland region.

Aš is situated in the Fichtel Mountains. The highest point of Aš and the whole Czech part of the Fichtel Mountains is Háj, at . The upper course of the White Elster River shortly after its source flows across the central part of the municipal territory, outside the town proper. The upper course of the Plesná River partly forms the Czech-German border east of the town proper.

Climate

Aš has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb; Trewartha: Dclo).

History

11th–18th centuries

Previously uninhabited hills and swamps, the town of Aš was founded in the early 11th century by German colonists descending from the Bavarian march of the Nordgau in the course of the Ostsiedlung. So far, previous Slavic settlements in the area are not known.

The first recorded rulers were the Vogt ministeriales from Weida, Thuringia, who gave the entire Vogtland region its name. In 1281, they officially received the estates as an immediate fief at the hands of King Rudolph I of Germany. Emperor Louis IV elevated them to Princes of the Holy Roman Empire in 1329. Nevertheless, two years later, they sold Aš land to King John of Bohemia, who since 1322 also held the adjacent Egerland in the south. Together with neighbouring Selb and Elster, Aš was enfeoffed to the Freiherren of Neuberg (Podhradí). When in 1394 Konrad von Neuburg died without a male heir, by virtue of Hedwig von Neuburg's marriage to Konrad von Zedtwitz, Aš passed into the control of the noble House of Zedtwitz.

thumb|160px|Church attendance in Aš, 19th century

In 1557, the Aš region was incorporated into the Lands of the Bohemian Crown by the Habsburg king Ferdinand I. Like the neighbouring Egerland, it remained Protestant until the Thirty Years' War, as the Counter-Reformation did not stretch to the West Bohemian borderlands. In the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, the Protestant confession of the citizens was confirmed. In 1774, Empress Maria Theresa officially mediatised Aš as part of the Bohemian crown land within the Habsburg monarchy, against the delaying resistance by the Zedtwitz noble family. Nevertheless, she granted its Protestant citizens freedom of religion, confirmed in the 1781 Patent of Toleration, issued by her son Emperor Joseph II.

19th–20th centuries

From 1804, Aš with Bohemia belonged to the Austrian Empire, and after the Compromise of 1867 to Austria-Hungary. From 1868 until 1918, the town was head of the , one of the 94 in Bohemia. Aš was linked to the Eger (Cheb)–Hof railway line in 1864, with a branch-off to Saxon Adorf opened in 1885. It obtained the status of a town in 1872, as the population grew due to a flourishing textile industry. By 1910 the population had risen to 21,880, from 9,405 in 1869. On 18 November 1920, Czech militia toppled the monument of Emperor Joseph II against local protest, whereby three citizens were shot. A 1921 Czechoslovak census counted 183 ethnic Czechs in a population of 40,000 in the district, a 1930 census 520 Czechs in a population of 45,000 in the district. Due to the Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia in 1946 by the Beneš decrees, the town's population was reduced to "half of the pre-war number of inhabitants". A German expellee website states that 30,327 Germans have been expelled from March to November in 27 trains. In 1949, 3,000 expellees met in far away Rüdesheim am Rhein, to protest, stating that their area never was inhabited by Slavs other than as a tiny minority.

Demographics

The present-day population in the town is roughly half of the pre-war population.

Transport

thumb|Main station

There are three road border crossings and one railway border crossing. Road border crossings lead to Bad Elster and Bad Brambach in Saxony in the east, as well as to Selb in Bavaria in the west. The railway border crossing leads to Selb.

Aš is located on the railway lines Hof–Marktredwitz via Cheb and Aš–Hranice. There are three train stations and stops: Aš (the main train station), Aš-město and Aš-předměstí. The railway and the first station were built in 1865. In 1968, the old Royal Bavarian State Railways station building was demolished, and the current one was built in 1969.

Education

There are five kindergartens, four primary schools, a gymnasium, a special school and a school of art located in Aš. A high school of textile also existed here.

Sights

thumb|Goetheho náměstí with the town hall

thumb|Aš Museum

thumb|140px|Luther monument

The main square of the town is Goethovo náměstí named after J. W. Goethe, who often visited the town. In the middle of the square is the Memorial of J. W. Goethe from 1932, designed by Johannes Watzal. The main landmark of the square is the town hall. It was built in 1733 in the Baroque style, but in 1814 it was burned down. It was built again in 1816, according to the original plans.

The Aš Museum was founded in 1892 and is subtitled "Ethnography and Textile Museum of Aš". It is housed in a building on the site of a former manor house, today called Zámeček ('little castle'). The most important textile collection is the collection of 22,000 pairs of gloves. Under the administration of the museum also operates "The stone crosses research society" which maintaints the central register of these monuments. The museum also includes gardens open to the public. Into the corner pillar of the garden is built the Salva Guardia stone relief with imperial symbols.

The town firehouse is a significant building from 1930 designed by Emil Rösler. In 2014, it was reconstructed. Today it houses part of the town museum.

On Háj, there is an eponymous observation tower. It was designed by Wilhelm Kreis and built in 1902–1903. The tower is high.

  • Fiumefreddo di Sicilia, Italy
  • Marktbreit, Germany
  • Oelsnitz, Germany
  • Plauen, Germany
  • Rehau, Germany

See also

  • NSTG Asch

References