Mimoň

Mimoň
Town
1. máje Square
Flag Coat of arms
Mimoň Location in the Czech Republic
Coordinates: 50°39′23″N 14°43′49″E / 50.65639°N 14.73028°E / 50.65639; 14.73028Coordinates: 50°39′23″N 14°43′49″E / 50.65639°N 14.73028°E / 50.65639; 14.73028
Country	Czech Republic
Region	Liberec
District	Česká Lípa
First mentioned	1371
Government
• Mayor	Petr Král
Area
• Total	15.48 km2 (5.98 sq mi)
Elevation	280 m (920 ft)
Population  (2021-01-01)[1]
• Total	6,369
• Density	410/km2 (1,100/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	471 24
Website	mestomimon.cz

Mimoň (German: Niemes, Lower Sorbian: Mimonjecy) is a town in Česká Lípa District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 6,400 inhabitants.

Administrative parts[]

Mimoň is made up of town parts of Mimoň I–VI and villages of Srní Potok and Vranov.

Geography[]

Mimoň is situated on the conclusion of the Ploučnice River and Panenský Stream. There is a system of four breeding ponds in the area, Mimoň Ponds, fed by the Ploučnice.

It lies in the vicinity of the cone-like mountain of Ralsko.

History[]

Early history[]

The area around Mimoň was inhabited as far back as the Bronze Age. It was later inhabited by the Celtic Boii tribes during the Roman Era (the Boii being the predecessors to the 'Bohemians' or 'Böhmen'). The first Slavic settlements appeared around the 5th–6th century. The area was part of the Duchy of Bohemia until it became part of the Holy Roman Empire in the 11th century, and then the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198.

The town was first mentioned in writing in 1262 as a seat of the 'Lords of Nemans'. Ethnic Germans and Czechs appeared to have co-existed in the area throughout the Middle Ages. The names Niemes and Mimoň may have co-existed as well.^[2][3]

Mimoň was then mentioned as a customs post in 1371 on an old trading route from Zittau to Prague. At the time the town was under the control of the Lords of Wartenberg, who also built a castle/manor house in the town. The Wartenberg clan also controlled the stone fortress on top of the Ralsko mountain peak, built in the 13th–14th century, overlooking Mimoň on its north-east side.

A parish Catholic Church of Saints Peter and Paul was first mentioned in 1384.

Mimoň did not appear to be greatly affected during the Hussite Wars. By the early 1500s, the fortress on top of Ralsko Mountain appeared to have no practical use due to its remote location and the use of gunpowder weapons. It was abandoned and slowly fell into ruins. The remains of a tower are still visible today from the peak.^[4]

17th century[]

According to historians, Mimoň may have been caught up in the 1618 Protestant Bohemian Revolt during the early phase of the Thirty Years' War, until it was suppressed by the Catholic Emperor Ferdinand II of the Holy Roman Empire and his Imperial Army after 1620 (Battle of White Mountain). However, in 1632 the Saxons (allies to the Protestants and the Swedes) attacked northern Bohemia and may have occupied Mimoň, as well as Prague. That same year the Emperor pleaded for his best ex-general, Albrecht von Wallenstein, to raise a new army to repel the threat. Wallenstein quickly attacked Prague and northern Bohemia to dislodge the Saxons during this campaign. It may have been during this time that Mimoň was destroyed by fire.

The town, the castle and the church were rebuilt after the war, and even expanded from the 1650s to the 1680s. Mimoň (and all of Bohemia) would continue to be under Habsburg control until the 20th century. In the 1660s a series of caves and tunnels were made next to the church which served as storage rooms for the town brewery. They still exist today but are closed to the public for security reasons. In 1677 a statue dedicated to the Virgin Mary was set up in the town square. It exists to this day.^[5]

18th and 19th century[]

In the 18th century, Mimoň Castle in the town centre housed a large collection of books under the direction of Adam Franz von Hartig, a Bohemian diplomat. In June 1806 the town was again almost completely destroyed by a fire.^[6]

In 1836 a textile factory was established by master cloth maker Anton Schicketanz (1803–1866).^[7]

After the Revolutionary events in 1848 Mimoň became part of the judicial district of Niemes for the Habsburg Crownland of Bohemia (and later for Austria-Hungary). This district included 26 small villages in a large wooded area east of Mimoň such as Kuřívody, Hvězdov, Hradčany, Vranov, Svébořice, Černá Novina, Strážov, Stráž pod Ralskem and Olšina.^[8]

From the 1850s to the 1900s many German-speaking and Czech-speaking Bohemians left their homes, like Mimoň, and migrated to the United States and Canada for a new life. Many of them settled in the American mid-west and Great Lakes region, such as Illinios, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska and Iowa.^[9][10][11]

In June 1866, during the Austro-Prussian War, a small battle was fought at Hühnerwasser (Kuřívody) about 10 kilometers south-east of Mimoň, in the opening days of the Königgrätz Campaign. It was a Prussian victory.^[12]

In 1883, the first railway station of the Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways (k.k. Staatsbahnen) was completed in Mimoň.^[13]

At the end of the 19th century, Mimoň had a furniture factory, cloth and cotton weaving companies, a tannery and a beer brewery. Agriculture and forestry was also practiced.^[14]

20th century[]

After the World War I and the Dissolution of Austria-Hungary, Mimoň became part of the newly created Czechoslovak Republic in late October 1918. German citizens in Mimoň protested until Czech soldiers entered the town to keep order. In 1930 the population was of Mimoň was over 6,000 of which over 5,000 people were German-speaking.^[15]

With the rise of Naziism in Germany, so did German Nationalism through much of German-Bohemia. After the Munich Agreement in 1938, Mimoň became part of the Deutsch Gabel County, Aussig district, in the Reichsgau Sudetenland of Nazi Germany. Some citizens of Mimoň became part of the paramilitary group 'Sudetendeutsches Freikorps' who officially welcomed German Wehrmacht troops into the town on 10 October 1938. During the World War II, there was a military training camp of the Hitler Youth in Mimoň.^[16]

In 1945 an airfield was built in Hradčany, just south of Mimoň.^[17]

From 6–11 May 1945, during the Prague Offensive, Czechoslovakia was liberated by the Soviet Red Army and Czech freedom fighters. The Red Army bombed Mimoň by air and arrived in Mimoň on 10 May 1945. By the summer of 1945, Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia began a program to prosecute surviving Nazis and evict ethnic Germans out of the country. Most of the German population of Mimoň was emptied and re-populated by Czechs.

During the Cold War Era, Mimoň became a manufacturing hub for furniture, textiles as well as a Machine Tractor Station, (state enterprise for maintaining agricultural machinery).^[18]

The historic castle in Mimoň was used by the Czechoslovak army and fell into disrepair. By the 1980s, the castle was in ruins and was demolished in 1985. The only reminder of the castle still in existence is the Mimoň Castle Park and the castle pond.^[19]

21st century[]

In 2010 Mimoň was hit by a severe flood. Afterwards, the town made extensive repairs to its infrastructure.^[20]

Transport[]

Mimoň lies on the Liberec–Ústí nad Labem railway.

Sights[]

• Church of Saints Peter and Paul, including caves and tunnels behind the church
• Mimoň Castle Park, a town park, lake and one-time location of the Mimoň Manor Palace
• Mimoň Town Museum
• 1. máje Square, a town square with a statue of the Virgin Mary, built after the Thirty Years' War
• Vranovské Rocks, rock formations by the administrative part of Vranov

Notable people[]

• Louis Nerz (1867–1938), screenwriter and actor
• Stefanie Rabatsch (1887–197?), Hitler's love interest
• Rudolf Watzke (1892–1972), bass singer
• Jaroslav Bureš (born 1954), lawyer and politician

Twin towns – sister cities[]

Mimoň is twinned with:^[21]

• Nová Baňa, Slovakia
• Oelsnitz, Germany
• Złotoryja, Poland

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mimoň.

• Official website