Horní Benešov

Geobox | Settlement
name = Horní Benešov
other_name =
category = Town


image_caption =


symbol = Horní_Benešov_znak.png etymology =
official_name =
motto =
nickname =
country = Czech Republic
country_

state =
region = Moravian-Silesian
region_type = Region
district = Bruntál
district_type = District
commune = Bruntál
municipality = Horní Benešov
part =
river =
location =
elevation = 568
lat_d = 49
lat_m = 58
lat_s =
lat_NS = N
long_d = 17
long_m = 36
long_s =
long_EW = E
highest =
highest_elevation =
highest_lat_d =
highest_long_d =
lowest =
lowest_elevation =
lowest_lat_d =
lowest_long_d =
area = 20.40
area_round = 2
population = 2460
population_date =
population_density = auto
established = 1253
established_type = Founded
mayor = Josef Klech
timezone =

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map_background = Czechia - background map.png map_caption = Location in the Czech Republic
map_locator = Czechia
map1 = Moravian-Silesian Region - outline map.svg
map1_background =Moravian_Silesian_Region_-_background_map.png map1_caption = Location in the Moravian-Silesian Region
map1_locator = Moravian-Silesian_Region
commons = Horní Benešov
statistics =
website = [http://www.hbenesov.cz/ www.hbenesov.cz]
footnotes =

Horní Benešov (IPA2|ˈɦorɲi: ˈbɛnɛʃof; Czech: "Benešov" until 1926, German: "Bennisch") is a small town in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic.

Benešov has a long mining tradition. It started as a mining settlement at the beginning of the 13th century. The town was officially founded in 1253, and the rights were confirmed in 1271 by the Bohemian King Přemysl Otakar II. It was destroyed by a Hungarian invasion in 1474 and then during the Thirty Years' War. The mining was in decline since 17th century. During the 19th and 20th centuries, economic development of Benešov was driven mostly by textile industry.

According to the Austrian census of 1910 the town had 3,826 inhabitants, 3,807 of whom had permanent residence there. Census asked people for their native language, 3,800 (99.9%) were German-speaking. Jews were not allowed to declare Yiddish, most of them thus declared the German language as their native. Most populous religious groups were Roman Catholics with 3,766 (98.4%), followed by Protestants with 30 (0.8%) and the Jews with 25 (0.6%). [Ludwig Patryn (ed): " [http://www.kc-cieszyn.pl/biblioteka/strony/ramka.php?autor=Patryn&licz=1 Die Ergebnisse der Volkszählung vom 31. Dezember 1910 in Schlesien] ", Troppau 1912.]

John Kerry's ancestry

The town gained some attention when it was learned that Fritz Kohn, the paternal grandfather of John Kerry, the U.S. Democratic Party's candidate for United States President in the 2004 election, was from Horní Benešov. Kohn, who was born to a Jewish family here, changed his name to Kerry and converted to Catholicism before emigrating to the U.S. in 1905.

When Kohn was born, the town was populated almost entirely by Germans with only a very small Jewish community, and was part of the Silesia region of Austria-Hungary. After World War I, the town was within the state of Czechoslovakia and in 1926 was given its present name. Today it is almost entirely Czech.

References

External links

* [http://www.hbenesov.cz/ Official website]
* [http://www.kr-moravskoslezsky.cz/obce2_en.html?id=4235 Statistics for Horní Benešov]