Monument to the victims of WWI and WWII

The creation of a memorial to the fallen soldiers in WWI for the village of Březhrad was first discussed at a meeting of the municipal council on 23 February 1920. It was decided that it would be made by a stonemason from the nearby village of Pouchov, Karel Hilse. The amount allocated for the monument was CZK 6,000. Furthermore, the municipal council decided that the monument would be placed in front of the school building. 

 

The unveiling of the monument took place on 31 May 1920. At the ceremony a speech was given by the local teacher Stanislav Hakl. The monument was then symbolically handed over to the municipality by the chairman of the committee Viktor Hampl. The end of the ceremony was an exercise parade held by the local Workers’ Gymnastic Union in the park behind the school. 

 

Hilse conceived the monument as a block of rock on which an Austro-Hungarian soldier stands holding a gun in his left hand, caressing a little girl who is saying goodbye to him with his right hand. Behind his back, a lime tree is carved into the sandstone block; under the tree, there used to be a relief of the president of President T. G. Masaryk, which was removed during the communist regime. On the base of the monument there is an inscription: “Dedicated to the memory of the fallen fellow citizens by the municipality”, and there are also names of the fallen, originally supplemented by porcelain plates with photographs (which unfortunately have not survived to this day): “1920 Josef Jaroš, 25. 5. 1894 – 1918, Oldřich Pečníka 1896 – 1916, Josef Pešek 1873 – 1915, Václav Balcar 9. 11. 1884 – 1918, Václav Hampl 1880 – 1914, Alois Pecem 1883 – 1915, Frant. Prudký 1880 – 1916, Karel Lán 1885 – 1916, Václav Polda 1885 – 1916, Josef Pleskot 1883 – 1917, Frant. Ruda 1877 – 1918, Frant. Souček 1897 – 1918, Frant. Bezvoda 1884 – 1918 Ant. Fiedler 1894 – 1914. We gave life, you give love to your country! SČM Mir. Mihulka, 1. VI. 1921 – 9. V. 1945, Frant. Lán, 28 February 1920 – 4 February 1943, K. Hilse, Pouchov.” After the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1945, the names of three victims of the WWII were added. 

In the 1960s, the monument was moved from the original site of the old school No. 38.

 

In 2004 the monument was completely restored..

 

JFB