Erwin Kreuzwieser

* 1948

  • "Of course there were also problems regarding [different] mentality. Many were conceited. There were people who thought that at the first opportunity they had to explain to the Czechs how the world works. This was something that was completely unproductive for mutual cooperation. When somebody thinks they're smarter and the other person is stupid. Although in terms of education, the Czech partners were more educated than the Austrian ones."

  • "Until I was sixteen, we lived in Galgenberg near Slavonice. Before 1945, Slavonice was the centre of the region, where people went shopping. My parents remember it. My maternal grandparents came from the village of Mutná near Slavonice. Before 1945 we were one country. Then suddenly there was a fence. Everything what was behind the fence was bad. When we went mushroom picking, we had to be careful not to get close to the border. If someone went too close, he was taken to České Budějovice and had to pay a fine. Then they let him go. We were at the end of the world."

  • "Nationalism plays a role. In the northern region of the Waldviertel, in 1921 there a border was made there and fourteen villages that had previously been Austrian were suddenly part of Czechoslovakia. It was strange for everyone. Then, when the Czechs were not well off, the German Reich made the same mistake as the Czechs. This tension, which is perhaps being processed a little bit now, it was absolutely present here. There is still the generation that experienced 1945, or their parents told them about it, that they lost something in Czechoslovakia, e.g. their relatives. You can't just erase that."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Reitzenschlag, 27.04.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 01:56:15
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Příběhy regionu - JMK REG ED
  • 2

    Reitzenschlag , 27.04.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 01:56:15
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Příběhy regionu - JMK REG ED
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

When a problem arose, they put the blame on open borders

Erwin Kreuzwieser, 2022
Erwin Kreuzwieser, 2022
zdroj: Post Bellum

Erwin Kreuzwieser was born on 26 July 1948 in the Lower Austrian village of Waldkirchen an der Thaya, about six kilometres from the then state border with Czechoslovakia. His parents Josef and Matylda had a farm. He inherited the farming profession from his parents, graduated from an agricultural school and worked in agriculture and fish farming. It was not until after the fall of the Iron Curtain that he first could come to nearby Czechoslovakia. At that time he started working for the Czech-Austrian association Arge Grenznutzen, which mediated contacts between businessmen on the Czechoslovak and Austrian sides of the border. It was there that he met Vladimír Špidla, who served as the first chairman. Erwin Kreuzwieser thus brought together dozens of businessmen and witnessed many more or less successful Czech-Austrian business ventures. Today (in 2022) he lives in the Lower Austrian village of Reitzenschlag near the border with the Czech Republic.