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54-577: The north-western panhandle around the town of Aš (Asch) was historically part of Vogtland before being incorporated into the Lands of the Bohemian Crown in the 16th century; it is thus known as Bohemian Vogtland (German: Böhmisches Vogtland ; Czech: Fojtsko ). The rest of historic Vogtland is divided between the German states of Saxony , Thuringia and Bavaria . The Egerland forms

108-594: A Reichsgut territory under immediate rule of the Holy Roman Emperor . Along this development Cheb became the site of a Kaiserpfalz residence (Cheb Castle), the only one in the present-day Czech Republic. Cheb, a free imperial city since 1277, and the Imperially immediate Egerland were given as a lien to King John of Bohemia in 1322 by Emperor Louis IV of Wittelsbach . In return for John's support against Louis' rival Frederick of Habsburg at

162-512: A relatively long and narrow salient, such as the westernmost extensions of Florida and Oklahoma , or the northernmost portion of Idaho . Another term is bootheel , used for the Missouri Bootheel and New Mexico Bootheel areas. The term salient is derived from military salients . The term "panhandle" derives from the analogous part of a cooking pan , and its use is generally confined to North America. The salient shape can be

216-625: A retrograde amnesty for all such crimes committed until October 1945. All possessions of expelled Germans, without compensation, fell to the Czech government. In total, nearly 90,000 were displaced from Egerland proper, almost 800,000 from the short-lived Regierungsbezirk Eger and close to 3 million from the Sudetenland. 47°54′05″N 20°22′23″E  /  47.901466°N 20.373108°E  / 47.901466; 20.373108 Salient (geography) A salient , panhandle , or bootheel

270-610: A wide area by drilling beneath the platform southwest of the Franconian Line . Late Variscan volcanic rocks occur in the Fichtel Mountains as layers of rhyolite . In the neogene ( Upper Tertiary beginning 26 million years ago) period, tectonic activity increased again – just as the Alpine orogeny ( Alps , Carpathians etc.) slowly came to an end. In that time, parts of this and other older massifs (such as

324-1140: Is a mountain range in Germany and the Czech Republic . They extend from the valley of the Red Main River in northeastern Bavaria to the Karlovy Vary Region in western Czech Republic. The Fichtel Mountains contain an important nature park, the Fichtel Mountain Nature Park . The Elster Mountains are a part of the Fichtel Mountains. The first person to write about the Fichtel Mountains, Matthias of Kemnath (actually Matthias Widmann, born 23 February 1429 in Kemnath ) reported in 1476: Ein bergk, hoch, weitt, wolbekant ligt in Beiern, gnant der Fichtelberg ("A mountain, high, wide and well-known, lies in Bavaria, known as

378-603: Is also spoken in the Upper Franconian district of Wunsiedel. Moreover, there are descendants of those who, after World War II came from Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and East Prussia into the Fichtel Mountains, and who make up a significant percentage of the population. In terms of geomorphological division of Germany, the Fichtel Mountains forms a major natural region called the Thuringian-Franconian Highlands (no. D48 and 39) together with

432-414: Is an elongated protrusion of a geopolitical entity, such as a subnational entity or a sovereign state . While similar to a peninsula in shape, a salient is most often not surrounded by water on three sides. Instead, it has a land border on at least two sides and extends from the larger geographical body of the administrative unit. In American English , the term panhandle is often used to describe

486-795: Is the Schneeberg at 1,051 metres (3,448 ft). Rivers rising from the Fichtel Mountains are the White Main , the Saxon Saale , the Ohře and the Fichtelnaab which later joins the Waldnaab . Major towns on the edge of the mountain region are Bayreuth and Hof . While the mountains dip gradually away to the north and the south, they form a steep slope in the west where the Red Main forms

540-588: The Battle of Mühldorf , he received Eger as a Reichspfandschaft (Imperial lien) with the "guarantee of complete independence from the Kingdom of Bohemia ". This reservation, however, became meaningless as Louis never redeemed the pawn, and with the accession of Emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg in 1346, the crowns of the Holy Roman Empire and Bohemia were united in one hand. Charles' successors from

594-774: The Bohemian-Moravian Highlands or Bohemian Massif in the Alpine foothills ) sometimes ended up underneath younger rock. In the Upper Miocene (10 million years ago), molten basalt broke through in northern Upper Palatinate as the Eger Graben was being formed. Through erosion, the remains of former diatremes have been uncovered and may be seen e.g. on the Rauher Kulm or at Parkstein near Weiden . Basaltic surface layers, i.e. extensive flows of low-viscosity lava , are visible e. g. on

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648-574: The German Worker's Party based in Cheb. The rise of ethnic nationalism turned out to be fatal, as, while some central parts of Bohemia were only inhabited by a smaller German-speaking elite, in border regions like the Egerland people who identified as German were in the majority, like in the town of Eger/Cheb, where the Czech population was only 7% per the 1930 census. At the end of World War I,

702-666: The House of Luxembourg and (from 1526) Habsburg continuously eliminated the autonomy of the Egerland against the resistance of the Cheb citizens and the local nobility. While the present-day Franconian parts up to the Fichtel Mountains were acquired by the Principality of Bayreuth under Hohenzollern rule, the remaining territory was administered within the Bohemian kraj of Loket from 1751. The incorporation of

756-523: The Röslau rivers). The largest settlement in the Czech part of the Fichtel Mountains is Aš . Further to the southeast and south are Bischofsgrün , Fichtelberg , Mehlmeisel , Nagel , Neusorg , Speichersdorf , Kemnath , Erbendorf , Wiesau and Fuchsmühl , in the west are Weidenberg , Creußen , Bayreuth , Goldkronach , Bindlach and Bad Berneck , in the northwest are Gefrees , Zell im Fichtelgebirge , Weißdorf , Münchberg (Obere Saale), and in

810-674: The Thuringian Forest , Thuringian Highland and Franconian Forest . In terms of geomorphological division of the Czech Republic , the Fichtel Mountains is a mesoregion within the Ore Mountains Highlands together with Ore Mountains and Elbe Sandstone Mountains . The Elster Mountains are the northwestern part of the Fichtel Mountains. Geomorphologically the Fichtel Mountains are a horseshoe-shaped massif consisting of several linked ridges, hence

864-529: The Upper Carboniferous and Lower Permian ( Rotliegendes ) large quantities of rock debris were deposited in intramontane basins and onto the foreland of the mountain range. These basins were formed by extensional tectonics which were accompanied by an intermediate to acidic volcanism . The sediments of the Rotliegendes are only exposed in a few places, but have been confirmed across

918-595: The Upper Carboniferous period 285 million years ago, the Hercynian mountain building phase began and raised the Fichtel Mountains, Franconian Forest and Münchberg gneiss plateau into high mountains – like almost all the fold mountains formed during the Hercynian period. This mountain building episode was the Variscan orogeny , named after Hof's Latin name (and the tribe of Varisci ) of Curia variscorum . At

972-616: The Austro-Hungarian Empire. Nevertheless, the Czech majority in the total of Bohemia insisted to "restore their countries in their historical borders", as a revision of alleged Germanization . Both parties acted unilaterally, the Czechs, supported by France and Britain, prevailed establishing the Czechoslovakian Republic comprising all parts of historic Bohemia as it existed under Austrian rule, including

1026-657: The Bohemian kingdom into the Habsburg monarchy had created ongoing conflicts at first along the fault-lines between the Catholic dynasty and the Protestant nobility culminating in the Thirty Years' War . Cheb and the Egerland insisting on their independence tried to maintain a neutral position, they nevertheless were seized as a stronghold by Albrecht von Wallenstein , who was murdered at Cheb on 25 February 1634. In

1080-527: The Czech parliament, a law granting full equality and proportional representation in all aspects of civil life was finally implemented in 1937. With the 1933 Nazi seizure of power in Germany, the separatists of the Sudeten German Party under Konrad Henlein became more and more dominant, calling themselves Sudeten Germans . After Hitler had pushed the situation towards an armed conflict,

1134-406: The Egerland. The German population, a minority in all of Bohemia, but ethnically dominant in the northwestern part of the region, failed in their request for a new border, based upon ethnicity, between predominantly Czech- and predominantly German-speaking parts of the country. The Czech Republic had committed to protecting the equality of all ethnicities incorporated into the new State; however, there

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1188-536: The Fichtel Mountains (listed with heights in metres (m) above sea level (NN): Geologically the Fichtel massif consists mainly of granite . The history of its orogeny begins in the Precambrian Eon about 750–800 million years ago. From that time only the truncated uplands of the once-towering mountain chain are left. Subsequently, the area was covered by sea, and rivers transported sediments from

1242-531: The Fichtel was known as the 'navel of Germany' ( Nabel Deutschlands ) or the 'wellspring of Europe' ( Herzbrunnen Europas ) because four important rivers rise here and flow in four different directions of the compass: Numerous moors and marshes, which are now protected, are valuable water collectors. The European watershed from the North Sea to the Black Sea runs over these mountains. The highest mountain

1296-583: The Fichtelberg"). In descriptions of the border in 1499 and 1536, the mountain that is now called the Ochsenkopf was called Vichtelberg ; thereafter the name was extended to the whole mountain region. It is also mentioned in old documents: around 1317 the lords of Hirschberg were enfeoffed inter alia with the walt zu dem Vythenberge . By the 14th century iron ore was being extracted in the St. Veith Pit on

1350-708: The German Ostsiedlung migration. In 1135 the regio Egere is recorded as a part of the Bavarian March of the Nordgau under the rule of Count Diepold III of Vohburg . After his death in 1146, the Egerland was inherited by the later German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa of Hohenstaufen by marriage with Diepold's daughter Adelheid . The Staufer finally severed the Provincia Egrensis from Bavaria and built it up as an exemplary model of

1404-530: The German-speaking population of former Austria-Hungary proclaimed the Republic of German Austria including the Egerland and further peripheral regions of German Bohemia , that were to become part of Czechoslovakia . They demanded the unification with Germany , referring to the self-determination doctrine proclaimed by U.S. president Woodrow Wilson that had been the basis for the dissolution of

1458-544: The German-speaking population. From about 1830 on Czech scholars like František Palacký encouraged the Austroslavism movement demanding autonomy for the Bohemian crown lands and admission of the Czech language . In the aftermath of the 1848 Spring of Nations , the Czechs, as well as some other Slavic nations, began Pan-Slavic movements aiming at complete independence, fiercely opposed by Pan-German organisations like

1512-479: The Ochsenkopf, but also a plethora of cut cross-country trails are the mainstay of this industry. The Fichtel Mountains attract many tourists throughout the year. In the winter the mountains are a common destination for people seeking outdoor recreational sports like alpine skiing , cross country skiing , and sledding . The warmer summer months find people mountain biking , hiking , and sight seeing amongst

1566-538: The Sudetenland, itself a Reichsgau from 1939 on. Even in 1942, Edvard Beneš considered 3,25 million Sudeten Germans to be a minority too large for successful absorption into a Czechoslovak state of around 15 million inhabitants. He therefore proposed that Germany should be allowed to keep the Eger triangle and two other districts of little strategic importance. However, following the German defeat in World War II,

1620-614: The Teichelberg near Pechbrunn . These basaltic nappes should not however be confused with the formation of tectonic layers. The formation of the present landscape finally took place in the younger Pliocene about 5 million years ago: an earlier-formed Franconian fault line came under pressure again and the Fichtel Mountains, Franconian Forest , the Münchberg Gneiss Massif and the northern Upper Palatine Forest were uplifted along it. This last uplift gave

1674-681: The area – its impact being all the more striking because this very hard, yet hydrous, rock forms the highest peaks in the area. Its stark appearance and the early emergency of industry here have made their mark on landscape and people. In detail there is: By the Early Middle Ages man had begun to mine in the Fichtel Mountains. The most important products were gold , tin , iron , minerals, earths and rock ( basalt , brown coal , diabase , granite, silt, marble , soapstone , clay and peat). In earlier times uranium ore deposits were discovered. The metals were worked in hammer mills (hence

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1728-491: The beginning of the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938, Cheb and the historic Egerland were incorporated as part of the " Sudetenland " into an extended area of 7,466 km (2,883 sq mi). Though the seat of the administration was established at Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad), the entity was officially named Regierungsbezirk Eger in order to reduce territorial claims. It included large Bohemian territories up to

1782-421: The boundary of the mountains. The Ochsenkopf ("Ox Head") is the second highest mountain of the Fichtel Mountains, at 1,024 metres (3,360 ft). There are two chair-lifts to the summit, one from Bischofsgrün in the north and one from Fleckl in the south. The "Asenturm" ( Æsir Tower) is an observation tower on the summit with a restaurant attached. The following are the highest and best-known mountains in

1836-640: The course of the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in 1806 and the onset of the Austrian Empire , the eastern part of Egerland finally became an ordinary district of the Austrian province of Bohemia. The suppression during the Age of Metternich led to a second-class status of the Czech people in the Austrian crown land of Bohemia, despite them being much more numerous than

1890-446: The following decades the absolute Habsburg rulers aimed at a centralized government . Emperor Joseph II of Habsburg on the one hand issued an Edict of Religious Tolerance in 1781, but also denied the Bohemian autonomy by renouncing the ceremony of the coronation as Bohemian king. With the determination of German as official language in all Habsburg lands (instead of Latin ), he laid the foundations for future ethnic conflicts . In

1944-468: The forces of erosion more to do again and the rivers cut deeply into the already, almost levelled, mountain range. So the present day structure was created from a plateau : a low mountain range which is being gnawed away at on all sides, with a long and varied history. Although often difficult to interpret, it is an 'Eldorado' for geologists from a wide range of specialisms. Granite ( Latin : granum for grain ) and its derivatives make up about 40% of

1998-521: The local mountain range ( Hausgebirge ) for (West-)Berliners who, unable to holiday in East Germany, were able to get there on the transit route of the A ;9 motorway. This has changed since German reunification and the opening up of other mountainous holiday areas. The Fichtel Mountains are a nationally important holiday destination in winter. Several lifts, the longest being two chair lifts on

2052-530: The many place names ending with -hammer) on the Fichtel's rivers, in furnaces and at metalsmiths. The forests of the Fichtel Mountains supplied the wood necessary for the manufacture of charcoal. During the Thirty Years' War the mining industry became depressed and the ore deposits were largely exhausted. In the 18th century Alexander von Humboldt tried to revive the mining industry again. Many towns and villages (e. g. Wunsiedel , Weißenstadt , Arzberg , Fichtelberg-Neubau, Goldkronach ) owe their emergence to

2106-671: The mining industry. An insight into the history of mining in the Fichtel Mountains may be gained from: The Huguenots introduced the Easter decorations on wells, so-called Osterbrunnen , in the shape of a lily (emblem of the Bourbon kings) (as described e.g. in the April 2007 of the Fränkische Post ). There are many places in the Fichtel Mountains that still produce glassware at competitive prices. The porcelain industry, centred on

2160-607: The next phase, great, deep-sea sediments were laid down under the present-day Fichtel Mountains and the Franconian Forest from the Silurian , Devonian and Lower Carboniferous periods; these are especially well recorded in the Franconian Forest, whose rocks were only subject to very low-grade metamorphism (associated with volcanism and ore formation) and which contain easily dated fossils . Finally, in

2214-469: The north Selb , Rehau and Hof . The boundary between the (East) Franconian dialect in the north and west and the (North) Bavarian and Upper Palatine dialects in the east and south runs diagonally through the Fichtel from northeast to southwest. This language border does not coincide with the administrative boundary of Upper Franconia and the Upper Palatinate , but, for example, Bavarian

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2268-479: The northwestern edge of the Czech Republic. Originally, it was a small region of less than 1,000 km (390 sq mi) around the historic town of Eger, now named Cheb, roughly corresponding with the present-day Cheb District of the Karlovy Vary Region , originally with the exception of Aš, but including the headwaters of the Ohře river and the area of Marktredwitz in today's Upper Franconia . In contrast, after

2322-806: The old eroding mountains on the coast. These sediments were deposited as layers of clay , sand and limestone . At the beginning of the Cambrian Period, about 570 million years ago, these beds were folded and raised up to form new mountains. High temperatures and pressure during this mountain folding process, which lasted into the Upper Carboniferous Period, created metamorphic rock . The shale layers were transformed into phyllites and schists , sandstones metamorphosed into quartzite and limestone produced Wunsiedel marble . These mountains, which may have been several kilometres high, were also eroded to sea level again. In

2376-531: The outskirts of Plzeň , comprising cities like Falknov (today Sokolov ), Kraslice , Chodov , Mariánské Lázně (Marienbad) and Tachov , which never belonged to the historical region. All of Egerland and Vogtland lies within the Egrensis  [ de ] Euroregion . The settlement of Eger in the Bavaria Slavica was first mentioned in 1061 records of trade routes laid out in the course of

2430-551: The political process, rather than pursue the quest for political self-determination. However, under a legal framework perceived as "czechification", there was growing unease about laws and policies which were felt to be discriminatory, especially in areas identifying as culturally German or Austrian. Perceived inequalities included the reduction of German-speaking schools and teachers, disadvantageous allocation of public spending and exclusion from public service positions. After years of lobbying by German-speaking minority representatives in

2484-419: The prime ministers of Britain and France in the 1938 Munich Agreement backed the annexation of regions with greater than 50% German-speaking population, including the Sudetenland with the Egerland, by Nazi Germany . While a number of Czechs fled from obvious oppression under Nazi rule, there was no systematic expulsion of Czech people. At that time, the term "Egerland" came in use for the western district of

2538-453: The region was rejoined to Czechoslovakia in 1945 and even before further decisions were made at the Potsdam Conference, about 800,000 ethnic Germans were expelled from their ancestral lands to Germany on the basis of the Beneš decrees . In the course of these events, multiple massacres and crimes against humanity are documented, committed on German civilians by ethnic Czechs in 'revenge' for the Nazi occupation. The Czech government later passed

2592-414: The result of arbitrarily drawn international or subnational boundaries, though the location of administrative borders can also take into account other considerations such as economic ties or topography . The following locations are salients in First-level administrative subdivisions of nations. Fichtel Mountains The Fichtel Mountains ( German : Fichtelgebirge , Czech : Smrčiny )

2646-451: The same time, magma intruded in several phases into the folds , where it solidified under the Earth's surface into the present-day granites. As granite formed, secondary rocks were only affected by slight contact metamorphism . The rest of the molten rock with its ore -containing fluids formed pegmatite , as well as veins of ore and minerals – the basis of the medieval mining industry and early industrialisation of this region. During

2700-713: The southern foot of the mountain. Vyth → Veit → Fichtel . High-profile local-history and name researchers have still not had the last word. A folk etymology connecting the name Fichtelgebirge with the German word Fichte (meaning "spruce tree" or "pine tree") fails to account for the typically non-spruce forests which predominated in the area at the time when the name Fichtelgebirge became established. The Fichtel Mountains have an area of about 1,600 square kilometres (620 sq mi). The Czech part has an area of 289 km (112 sq mi). The Fichtel Mountain Nature Park in Germany has an area of 1,020 km (390 sq mi). The Fichtel Mountains lie between

2754-481: The term Fichtel Mountain Horseshoe ( Fichtelgebirgs-Hufeisen ). The most important are the: To the northeast the Fichtel Mountains transitions into the Ore Mountains , to the southeast is the Upper Palatine Forest , the Bohemian Forest and the Bavarian Forest . To the northwest is a clear geological divide with the Franconian and Thuringian forests. To the southwest it descends to the morphologically very different Franconian fault-block landscape. In early times

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2808-504: The town of Selb , is internationally renowned and the foremost in Germany. Local firms such as Rosenthal and Hutschenreuther are of international standing. Tourism is the main source of income for many places in the Fichtel Mountains today. In some towns such as Bischofsgrün tourism has a long tradition going back to the 1920s. After the Second World War the stream of holidaymakers increased sharply, both in summer for walking and in winter for winter sports. The Fichtel Mountains became

2862-401: The towns of Hof and Weiden . In the west there is a good transport link to the nearby city of Bayreuth . The county town in the heart of the Fichtel Mountains is Wunsiedel with its Luisenburg Rock Labyrinth . Other main settlements are Marktredwitz , Marktleuthen , Arzberg , Röslau , Weißenstadt , Waldershof , Kirchenlamitz and Tröstau (all on the upper reaches of the Ohře and

2916-420: Was not a legal commitment made until 1937. Also, a request by the German-speaking minority to allow them double citizenship (Austrian/Czech or German/Czech) was declined. During the years after World War I, with the Versailles Treaty explicitly banning these regions from rejoining Austria or Germany, there was a tendency among the German-speaking minority to adjust to the new political realities and participate in

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