november 2004

I am going to order this book if anyone wants to get a copy for themselves let me know and I will order them all at the same time to save on shipping. Send me an email by November 15th. The book is about $25 plus shipping.

I have mentioned some months ago the work on my second book about the timber canal from the Bohemian Woods, the famous "Schwarzenbergische Schwemmkanal". I think Fred Schröder has translated the press-note for you and as he is more experienced in english I think I don't need to translate it again. Please feel free to use some text from it. Now that the book will be available from next week on I will give you and your readers some additional information and also some historic pictures:

The story of the Schwemmkanal fascinates me more and more, the longer I worked on it. It was clear for me, that the target "a historic picture album" would be very difficult, because the few people living on the Czech side of the border do not know much about the canal and of course they do not have old pictures! The former German speaking people, who have lost nearly everything in 1945/46 are spread all over Europe - and also USA! But I was very successful!

Above all I want to mention the people, who once lived and worked along the canal and gave me the most important informations:

Joseph Rosenauer was initiator, planner, builder and "floating-director" (Schwemmdirektor) of the timber floating canal, crossing the big European watershed. He was a contemporary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was born in 1735 in Kalsching near Krumau and died 1804 in Krumau.
	The canal starts in Bohemia, 925 Meters high, has a tunnel in Hirschbergen, crosses several times the border between the Czech Republic and Austria and leads into the river "Grosse Muehl", which itself leads into the Danube river. After 320 kilometers (200 miles) from the beginning the logs reached their destination: Vienna, at this time capital of the Austrian Hungarian Monarchy. After the "peaceful revolution" in the Czech Republic the borders are open again and the canal forms one of the most beautiful routes for bikers and hikers in the center of Europe.
Since 1960 the Moldau river forms the biggest artificial lake in the Czech republic and drowned 13 villages. This postcard from 1912 shows one of the highlights along the canal: the tunnel in Hirschbergen, built between 1821 and 1823.
	Josef Falta was one of the students of Rosenauer and the engineer planning the tunnel after Rosenauers death. The tunnel is 419 meters long. The entrance has a portal in gothic style, the exit in classicistic style.
After 1950 the border between Austria and Czechoslovakia became the "Iron Curtain". Fences with landmines, watch-towers and high-voltage wires formed a zone of death, which isolated the Bohemian Woods from the "free world". Even Czech inhabitants could not reach the canal, which forms the border for about one kilometer.
	Every building on the bohemian side of the canal was destroyed in 1956. Here people, standing on the Austrian side of the canal, had to watch as a Czechoslovakian driver of a bulldozer destroys the house of Josef and Franziska Hinterberger in Asang 28. In this area nearly one hundred villages with former German speaking inhabitants were destroyed and vanished totally.
It was late 1990 when the former inhabitants of Glöckelberg could enter their village for the first time after the war. Here one could watch a spooky scene in front of the half-destroyed church: Out of the soil, which once was a graveyard, came crosses, stones and bones of the former inhabitants of Glöckelberg.
	This is my book about the story of the canal, with 200 old and rare pictures and a few pages of text (Sorry, the text is in German). The cover shows a scene in Neuofen around 1900. At this time a new "switch" at the wooden bridge in the background could direct the logs to Austria (right) or down to the Moldau (left).

Ein historischer Bildband über den ehemaligen Holztransportweg

A historic picture series,- publication over the former wood transportation system

Auf 128 reich illustrierten Seiten führt der Autor den Leser auf einen Streifzug durch die Geschichte des Schwarzenbergischen Schwemmkanals im Grenzgebiet zwischen Österreich, Böhmen und Deutschland. Über 200 Fotografien und Grafiken zeigen das historisch bedeutsame Bauwerk und das Leben und Arbeiten am Kanal, mit dessen Hilfe Brennholz aus den böhmischen Wäldern über die europäische Haupt-Wasserscheide nach Wien gebracht wurde. Aus privaten Fotosammlungen, Erzählungen von ehemaligen Bewohnern des Böhmerwalds, Holzhauern und Schwemmarbeitern sowie zahlreichen Plänen und Abbildungen aus Archiven und Heimatmuseen hat Fritz Lange die interessantesten Objekte gewählt und zu einem öffentlichen Fotoalbum zusammengestellt. Dieser Bildband lädt ein zum Erkunden, zum Neu- und Wiederentdecken des ehemaligen Wasserweges.

On 128 very explained illustrated pages, the Autor guides the reader through a series of history of the Schwarzenberg (wood)floating channel in the border area between Austria, Bohemia and Germany. Over 200 photos and illustrations are showing this historic important building project, and the life and work on the channel; with their help was fire wood from the bohemian forest delivered over the main European water dividing line to to Viena.

From privat photo collections,interviews from former residents of the Bohemian Forest, wood cutters an channel workers, as of blue prints and copies from Archives and Homeland Museums, Fritz Lange selected the interesting objects, and made a public photo album. This picture serie invites you to inquire to a new disvovery of the former waterway.

Das einleitende Kapitel erzählt die spannende Geschichte von Joseph Rosenauer, genialer Planer, Erbauer und erster Schwemmdirektor des Schwarzenbergischen Schwemmkanals.

The first section describes the thrilling story of Joseph Rosenauer, genial planer an builder, and the first Schwemm Director of the Schwarzenberg floating channel.

· In weiteren Kapiteln folgt der Bildband bei sechs Spaziergängen dem Verlauf des Kanals von der Großen Mühl bis zum Lichtwasserbach in Böhmen. Verschwundene Ortschaften wie Asang, Glöckelberg, Josefstal und Hüttenhof werden genauso zum Leben erweckt wie die Arbeit und das Leben in den Schwarzenbergischen Wäldern und am Kanal.

· Die Bilder in diesem Buch spiegeln die Entwicklung des Holztransportweges vom ersten Projekt 1776 über Bau und Nutzung bis in die jüngste Zeit wieder, in der der alte Wasserweg, freigelegt und restauriert, zu einem der schönsten Wander- und Radwege Mitteleuropas wurde.

Der Autor Dipl.-Ing. Fritz Lange beschäftigt sich seit Jahrzehnten mit den technischen und historischen Details des Kanalbaus und hat für dieses Buch Bilddokumente aus einer Zeitspanne von 240 Jahren ausgewählt. Im Sutton Verlag ist 2003 sein erstes Buch „Von Wien zur Adria. Der Wiener Neustädter Kanal“ erschienen, das jetzt schon seine 3. Auflage erreicht hat.

In further sections follows a picture series of six walking trips of the course of the channel from the big river Mühl

Till to the Lichtwasser creek in Bohemia. Disappeared Villages like Asang, Glöckelberg, Josefstal and Hüttenhof are awaken a life again, and as the work and life in the Schwarzenberg forests and on the channel.

The pictures in this book are reflecting the progress of the wood transport road from the first project in 1776,

during the building and operating until the present time, in which the old water way was cleared an restored

The Author Dipl.- Ing. Fritz Lange, researches already decates with technical and historic details for the channel

Building, and selected for this book pickture documents from a time period of 240 years

The Sutton Publishers issued his first book in 2003,-„From Viena to the Adria“.

Von Böhmen nach Wien

Der Schwarzenbergische Schwemmkanal

von Fritz Lange

erscheint im November 2004, Due in November

beim Sutton Verlag

ISBN 3-89702-723-2

18,90 EUR [A]

128 S., ca. 200 Abb.

Die Reihe Archivbilder ist im gut sortierten Buchhandel erhältlich.

Der Sutton Verlag wurde vom britischen Verleger Alan Sutton gegründet und hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, die Alltagsgeschichte von Städten und Gemeinden in historischen Bildbänden einzufangen. Bisher hat der Sutton Verlag in seiner Reihe „Archivbilder“ in Deutschland und Österreich über 500 Bildbände herausgegeben.

THE Sutton Publishers Co. Were established from a British Edtidor Alan Sutton, he made his target to catch all days stories from cities and municipalities

In historic picture books. Since, the Sutton Publishers issued a series of „Archive Pictures“ in Germany and Austria, and issued over 500 picture volumes.

Pressestimmen über verschiedene Bände der Reihe Archivbilder:

„...eine Vielzahl von Schnappschüssen, für die nachfolgende Generationen dankbar sind.“ Die Presse

„Für eine Schmökertour durch die Geschichte des Heimatbezirkes sind diese üppig illustrierten und für jedermann erschwinglichen Bände sehr zu empfehlen.“ Wiener Zeitung

For a Schmöker tour trough history of the home district, are these luxurious illustrations afordable and very recommended for everyone. VIENA NEWSPAPER

„Die kurzen, schnörkellosen Texte beschönigen nichts und verleihen den Privataufnahmen eine ganz besondere Authentizität.“ APA

„the short script less texts don’t hide nothing and give the privat made pictures a special authentic ,“ APA

„Nicht nur eine Sache für Nostalgiker, eine Entdeckungsreise für jeden.“ Oberösterreichische Nachrichten

„Not only a matter for Nostalic, a exploration trip for every one, “ Upper Austrian Nachrichten.

Sutton Verlag – Verlagsbüro Österreich

I have also heard the story that Ken Mauritz related. Father Bastian was for a long

time the Pastor of St. Vincent's, and it was because of him that the Church which

to Germany, the Alsatian, or Alsace Lorraine region, during the 1868 war, between

For many years his relatives continued to go to St. Vincent Church, and I believe

they lived on South Park Avenue towards the Lake. I don't know if they are still in

This event probably occurred in 1914, and at that time, the sentiment in Oshkosh was for

the German Army, but later in 1917, when the U.S. joined the war, and many people of

Oshkosh had to register for the Draft, that sentiment changed overnight. I have seen

records that my grandfather Alois Nigl registered for the draft in 1917, but since he

Pressestimmen über verschiedene Bände der Reihe Archivbilder:

Sutton Verlag – Verlagsbüro Österreich

The Bohemian Forest

A tale of two National Parks