“Silent Landscapes: Sudeten German and Czech Stories Remembered”
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Introduction
“Silent Landscapes” examines the traces of the nearly three million Sudeten Germans who were expelled from the border areas of Czechoslovakia between 1945 and 1947. For centuries, German-speaking communities lived in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, shaping the region’s cultural and economic identity. After World War II, their forced displacement led to the disappearance of entire villages, leaving behind abandoned homes, cemeteries, and ruins—silent witnesses to a painful history.
The expulsion was the result of long-standing tensions. After the forced cession of the Sudetenland in 1938, German troops invaded the remaining Czech territories in 1939. Nazi Germany established a harsh occupation regime under the name “Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.” The war devastated the country, and tragedies such as the destruction of Lidice in 1942 left deep scars in both Czech and German memory. The Beneš Decrees created the conditions for the expulsion of the German minority from Czechoslovakia in 1945, which was approved by the Allies in the Potsdam Agreement. Entire communities disappeared, and once-thriving villages became ghost towns. For those who had to leave, exile was permanent.
What remains today are traces of lives abruptly interrupted: moss-covered gravestones in forgotten cemeteries, crumbling church walls, and ruins overrun by silence.
The Sudetenland’s story is one of belonging and rupture, of coexistence undone. It is a fragile tale of memory and loss, the echoes of the displaced still whispering through the silent landscapes.
Nové Domky (Neuhäusel), near the Czech-German border.
In October 1946, my grandparents and their three children—Hugo, Traudel and my father Klaus—were forced to leave their home in Teplitz-Schönau (now Teplice v Čechách).
With just 24 hours’ notice and 50 kilograms of belongings, they were sent to an uncertain future in Germany, like millions of others.
My father, only four years old when he left, would never speak of his birthplace and refused to return, even for a visit. His silence was shared by many of those who lived through this upheaval.
Looking through the family archive in Oberursel .
I have lived in the Czech Republic for 30 years. After my father’s death in 2020, I set out on a journey into the past — one that would last four years.
This is what I found.
Train from Prague to Teplice (Teplitz-Schönau), October 2021.
My aunt Traudel in her 1st grade class photo in Teplice, most likely 1935 (top left corner). Audio: Conversation with my cousin Christa Demel, who gave me access to the family archive.
My aunt Traudel's Czech (1936/37) and German (1942/43) school certificates.
Main train station, Teplice (Teplitz-Schönau).
Teplice (Teplitz-Schönau).
Church of St. Valentine, Novosedlice (Weißkirchlitz)—where my grandfather Reinhold was baptized in 1899 —during its reconstruction in 2021.
Audio: Recitation of the Apostles’ Creed during Sudeten German Day in Hof.
So, they were born in 1928. Hugo, Klaus, … Hugo … he isn’t there … Klaus isn’t there either. This is from the year ’35 … it won’t be from ’26, or ’30. No, no.
Father Prokop Patrik Maturkanič, Teplice 2021
Audio: Father Prokop Patrik Maturkanič, the parish priest of Novosedlice (Weißkirchlitz), examining the parish register to find my relatives.
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"Our last Christmas in the homeland", Klaus and Uta. 26.12.1945.
Teplice (Teplitz-Schönau) municipal cemetery.
Novosedlice (Weißkirchlitz).
My grandmother Frederike Steinz in Teplice (Teplitz-Schönau).
Teplice (Teplitz-Schönau) municipal cemetery.
The street in Oberursel where the family rebuilt their lives, one of about 800 “Sudetenstraße(n)” across Germany.
My mother visiting my father’s family grave in Weißkirchen.
Teplá (Tepl).
Audio: President Beneš’s statement on the Lidice massacre, London, 29 June 1942.
Memorial to the Murdered Children of Lidice, 23 September 2006
Lidice, a Czech village, was destroyed by the Nazis in June 1942 as retaliation for the assassination of the so-called Deputy Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich, one of the co-organizers of the Holocaust.
Almost all the male inhabitants and children were murdered, and the women were deported to concentration camps.
Today, Lidice stands as a powerful symbol of Nazi terror and the lasting scars of the war in Central Europe.
On the fourth they came in. They surrounded all of Lidice. One of them spoke Czech. One of them always spoke Czech, and they were very polite, and everything went smoothly...
Jaroslava Skleničková (Lidice, 7th of March 2023)
Jaroslava Skleničková, the last surviving woman from Lidice, passed away on 27 September 2024, at the age of 98..
Lučina(Grafenried), a former German village.
Road to Lučina (Grafenried), a former German village.
I’m Helmut Roith from Treffelstein. I was born in 1960, and when it all started — that was in 2005 — I came to Grafenried for the first time. It was all wilderness, pure wilderness. This building was completely overgrown.
Helmut Roith, 14 February 2023
Since 2011, Bavarian Helmut Roith, along-side Czech historian Zdeněk Procházka and a dedicated group of volunteers, has been uncovering the remnants of the vanished village of Lučina (Grafenried), transforming it into a poignant site of shared memory and reconciliation.
Remains of the deserted German village of Lučina (Grafenried).
Remains of the Church of St. George.
72nd. Sudeten German day in Hof, Germany.
The Sudeten German Museum, Munich.
Remains of the deserted German village of Lučina (Grafenried).
The gravestones are all that’s left. We never moved the gravestones. They were all lying there, just as they are now, when we found them. Everything was overgrown with trees and weeds and so on. We’ve dug everything out by hand— in some places as deep as one meter.
Helmut Roith (Grafenried, 2023)
Lučina (Grafenried) Cemetery.
Maria Sommer was born in 1936 in Rathgebern (today Radkov, Czech Republic) and was expelled together with her family in 1948. They settled near Deggendorf in Bavaria, where she built a new life despite many difficulties. A deep connection to her lost homeland stayed with her throughout her life. Ms. Sommer passed away on February 4, 2024, in Regen, Bavaria.
Maria Sommer with her grandson Konrad (Image below).
The Church of St. Anne, Pořejov (Purschau). Audio: 72nd. Sudeten German day in Hof, Germany.
Tombstone in the Church of St. Anne (Pořejov) graveyard.
Novosedlice (Weißkirchlitz) Cemetery.
We had been in Breitenau for two or three weeks when then the resettlement happened, and that was the very worst for me. As a child, I remember—I realized that my parents were packing. And they explained to me that we had to leave again. And that was… I still haven’t come to terms with it to this day.
Ernst Willmann (Born 1938 in Breitenau)
Regensburg, May 2023
Křakov (Krakau) Cemetery.
Grave of Josef (1844–1895) and Magaretha (1842–1915) Medlinger at the Křakov (Krakau) Cemetery.
“And I’d heard beforehand that there was a teacher who taught German. So I looked for her and, of course, I found her. And now we write to each other. That’s friendship. What fault is it of the young woman? What fault is it of mine, an old woman? I was ten years old. That’s how I see it. Because my grandmother was Czech too.”
Annemarie Heilmann, (Born 1935 in Haid bei Tachau)
Regensburg, May 2023
Novosedlice (Weißkirchlitz) Cemetery.
Lučina (Grafenried) Cemetery.
And then came June 15, 1945. It was posted and announced that the next morning all residents of Leipa who were not employed had to leave their houses by 5:00 a.m. and gather in front of the brewery, taking with them only as much as they could carry…
Helga Heller (born in Böhmisch Leipa, 1927)
Regensburg, May 2023
Luby (Schönbach bei Eger) Cemetery.
Church of St. Anne, Pořejov (Purschau).
All we can do — and it’s something I’m always working on — is try to understand and not hate one another.
Dietmar Schmidt, (Born 1939 in Brünn)
Regensburg, May 2023
Grave of Karl Heinzmann (1878–1962), Luby (Schönbach bei Eger).
Jezeří Castle (Schloß Eisenberg) overlooks the North Bohemian coal basin, an area marked by lignite mining.
Novosedlice (Weißkirchlitz).
Křakov (Krakau) village cemetery.
The Holy Name of Mary Church in Otín (Ottenreuth).
In 1804, Jezeří Castle (Schloss Eisenberg) hosted the private premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, the “Eroica".
Lučina (Grafenried) Cemetery.
Czech-German borderland.
In 2006, the Czech Army removed cardboard coffins containing the remains of 4,300 German soldiers and civilians from a decommissioned factory where they had been stored since the Second World War. The dead had been waiting there for their final resting place. Their remains were later buried at the German military cemetery in Cheb (Eger).
Ústí nad Labem, 2006.
“We stand here on this bridge and remember the dead from Aussig and Schreckenstein who were murdered here on July 31, 1945. They were German residents.”
Brigitta Gottmann (Ústí nad Labem, 31 July 2022)
Edvard Beneš Bridge, Ústí nad Labem, 2022.
We remember here and call for peace and reconciliation...
This project is dedicated to all people around the world who have lost their homeland—both in the past and in the present.
And to my family, the Steinz family – this project would not have come into being without their story.
Credits.
My special thanks go to: Patrik Maturkanič, Jaroslava Skleničková & family, Helmut Roith, Maria Sommer & family, Ernst Willmann, Annemarie Heilmann, Helga Heller & Robert Heller, Dietmar Schmidt, Margot Havlik, Brigitta Gottmann.
“Silent Landscapes” could not have been realized without the generous support of two grants from VG Bild-Kunst in Bonn.
Thank you to my wife, Lucie Steinzová, for her editing, steady support, and belief.
Thankful to my cousin Christa Demel for granting access to our family archive. Thank you, André Kellerberg & Jakob Schauer - for your moving music. Thank you, Iván Gutiérrez, for your thoughtful feedback and careful reading. Thank you, Helen Oyeyemi, for your insight and advice on how to tell the story. Thanks to Panos Pictures—Adrian Evans and Michael Regnier—for believing in this project.
All visual content—video, stills, and overall concept—was conceived and realized by Björn Steinz, © 2025. All rights reserved.