Objekt des Monats
Jedes Objekt in der Sammlung des Deutschen Auswandererhauses erzählt eine ganz persönliche Auswanderungs- oder Einwanderungsgeschichte. In dieser Rubrik stellen wir Ihnen jeden Monat ein anderes Objekt vor – eine Fotografie, ein Dokument oder ein persönliches Erinnerungsstück.
March 2017
Deer antlers from 1933
MaterialBone, wood, paintDimensionsPlate: 32 cm x 21 cm
Antlers: 68 cm x 62 cm x 46 cmDonationFamily Japp
Historical Context
Sněžník has a complex history. It was founded as a German settlement in the Kingdom of Bohemia, whose rulers brought German craftsmen and farmers to the region in the late Middle Ages. The Czech population called the village “Sněžník”; German speakers called it “Schneeberg”. The two names remained in use for centuries – under Habsburg rule from 1526, and after the collapse of the Habsburg Empire and the founding of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918.
Even after Nazi Germany occupied parts of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and later extended its control over the country, the population and the village remained bilingual. After the Second World War, however, the German-speaking population of Sněžník and of Czechoslovakia as a whole was expelled, amid threats and acts of violence. The name “Schneeberg” disappeared from the map, but not from memory.
The conflict between Czech- and German-speaking communities in Bohemia has a long history, reaching back into the 19th century. German nationalists sought to incorporate all of Bohemia into the German Reich, despite the region’s predominantly Czech population.
After 1945, many Czechs feared that the presence of a German-speaking population could pave the way for another occupation like that of 1938. The atrocities committed by Nazi Germany during seven years of occupation also made many see peaceful coexistence as impossible.
Around three million people were ultimately forced to leave their homes and resettle in Germany.
Short Biography
In 1946, Adele Tischer and her daughters were forcibly relocated from Sněžník to Mecklenburg. The Tischer family had moved to Schneeberg from a neighboring village in 1929. In the summer of 1946, the women were transported in a freight wagon to Mecklenburg, where they were initially housed with other families in a former camp for Soviet soldiers. For reasons unknown, Karl Tischer joined them only later.
The sisters found work in agriculture. From 1947, Paula Tischer worked as a primary school teacher. After his wife’s death in 1949, Karl Tischer moved to North Rhine-Westphalia in 1950 with his daughter Franziska, where he took up a position as a senior forester. Paula remained in Mecklenburg. In 1955, however, she could no longer bear the separation from her father and sister and also moved west.
In 1972, Paula and Franziska returned to their childhood home for the first time. Further reunions with former residents of Schneeberg and the surrounding area followed. Paula continued to work as a teacher at various primary schools until her retirement in 1986. She died in the Sauerland region in 2018.
Significance of the Object
Karl Tischer began to imagine creating a kind of private hunting museum. He collected anything connected to the former Schneeberg game enclosure. In the 1950s, he contacted the widow of wildlife researcher Franz Vogt in Vienna.
Together with his daughter Franziska, he drove a Fiat Topolino across the Alps to collect these and other antlers. He displayed the memorabilia throughout the family home.
Through his collecting, Tischer brought a piece of Schneeberg back with him to the Sauerland. But he also built a network that crossed national borders. After Karl Tischer’s death, his daughter Paula kept the antlers as a reminder of her father.
Do You Also Have …
… a story of emigration or immigration in your family that you would like to share with the German Emigration Center together with the related objects and documents for its collection? Then please contact Dr. Tanja Fittkau by phone at +49 471 / 90 22 0 – 0
or by e-mail at: t.fittkau@dah-bremerhaven.de