By the middle of the 14th century, pest epidemics and starvation had virtually depopulated the entire area. The Catholic Church, the owners of the lands, administrated their properties via its cloisters in Bamberg, Augsburg and Brixen. These cloisters called upon German farmers to resettle the place. In those days the German language area comprised about 60 villages. But only 8 of these, with a total of about 3500 inhabitants, still existed before the eviction of the Germans after the World War II.
The inhabitants were mostly farmers. Their lives consisted mainly of hard work. The population was Roman Catholic. Therefore, the rhythm of life was mainly governed by the church and its festivities. An education in a German school was considered to be of great importance. Six villages had their own German elementary school and the town of Lissowitz even had a grammar school
