Emil Kolben: The Czech Nikola Tesla (Part 1)

While on a Jewish vacation with KRC in Central Europe, we don’t just focus on the places we go to. We also put emphasis on the stories of people who have made their mark  in the history of the region. When on travelling with us, one such story you will come across is the one of Emil Kolben.

Emil Kolben

Emil Kolben (November 1, 1862, Strančice by Prague - July 3, 1943, Terezín Concentration Camp) was a Czech electrician and entrepreneur. He was the founder and the CEO of the famous “Kolben and Co.“, one of the largest electrical companies in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century. Kolben was also the main shareholder of Českomoravská-Kolben-Daněk (ČKD).

While Frantisek Krizik, who introduced electrical tram to Prague as one of the first cities of the world, is widely known as one of the most important Czech inventors, virtually nobody knows the name Emil Kolben.


Emil Kolben was born the first of many children in the poor Czech Jewish family in Stránčice u Prahy. The oldest mention of the Jewish Kolben family in Strančice dates back to 1787 when, according to a record in a familiant book, the glass-lover David Kolben received a marriage permit. His grandson Joachim (1828-1912), a housekeeper and a merchant, married Frantisek Freund of Radějov in 1862, speaking German in their family. From their marriage came nine children, the oldest of whom was Emil. His brother Alfred (1874-1942) also became an engineer and initially worked with Emile to develop electric machines, later becoming the director of the Industrial School in Brno.

He died in the concentration camp of Terezin in 1943. It was Kolben who left an indelible legacy not only in Prague but throughout the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. Let's take a closer look at him and his legacy.

It is  unfair because Kolben was at a higher level than Krizik and his factories were as important as Bata's empire. His only disadvantages were that he was a successful cosmopolitan Jew.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th century, the electrical world had been questioning whether DC was safer than AC. The main protagonists were Thomas Alva Edison as a DC supporter, and Nikola Tesla as an inventor and promoter of three-phase alternating current.

The controversy also spread to the Czechs, where František Křižík held Edison's position while Emil Kolben insisted unequivocally on the alternating current. Interestingly enough, Koben and Krizik were self taught theoreticians.. In contrast to Krizik, Koben had several advantages. Not only did he have a high-quality technical education but he was personally acquainted with both Edison and Tesla.

Emil Kolben and his children

The development proved Tesla to be right, because the direct current could not be transformed or powered efficiently by powerful machines. The controversy also resulted in Koben flourishing in Bohemia: Kolben built a business empire of international significance, while Křižík's business was brought to ruin!

Kolben's businesses had an overwhelming share in the prosperity of the so-called First Republic, and their glory lived in Czech engineering for a long time even under Communist rule. But their builder was to be forgotten...except for a chosen few like us. This is not all that there is to Emil Kolben, as we will learn later on in Emil Kolben: The Czech Nikola Tesla  (Part 2)!

To read the rest of the article:
Emil Kolben: The Czech Nikola Tesla  (Part 3)
Emil Kolben: The Czech Nikola Tesla  (Part 4)

The Charming Village Of Chybie (Part 2)

Matzevah Chybie Bielitz

Interested in knowing more about the humble town of Chybie? Check here The Charming Village Of Chybie (Part 1).

Then let us move on and read the rest:

Between 1911 and 1925 there was a or long-distance tram linking the train station in Chybie with nearby Strumeny and the local brick factory. Strumeny was not connected to the railway network at that time). It was cancelled after the new railway line "Chyby - Strumeň - Slezské Pavlovice" was established.

Its construction was related to the division of Těšín and the attempt to shorten the road between the Polish Těšín and the new administrative center, Katowice. In the interwar period, the track "Chyby - Skočov - Vistula" was built, which made the village a railway hub.

After the German attack on Poland in September 1939, Chybie, along with the rest of Silesia, became part of the Third Reich. In the winter of 1945 there was fierce fighting between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army. The village itself was occupied on February 11 during a battle, but the front-line around the town did not move until April.

 Post WWII Chybie

11 December 1945, Chybie along with Mnich, Frelichov, Záboří and Záříčí created the existing gmina (administrative community). Between 1975 and 1998, they belonged to the White Duchy. In 1955, the Goczałkowice Dam was built on Vistula. The resulting reservoir flooded parts of Frelichov and Záříčí.

In 1969, a local native of the name Franciszek Dzida founded an Amateur Film Club called “Klaps” in the village. He has made several dozen films and has won over 60 awards and medals, including the UNICA Gold Medal of the International Union of Independent Film. Dzida's story became the theme of Krzysztof Kieślowski's “Amator” (“The Amateur”).

In 2009, the local sugar factory was closed by a new private owner, Südzucker AG, which transferred it to the Polish Cerekev in Ratibořsk. Even the railway traffic was severely restricted at the beginning of the 21st century, and the track to Strumen was completely abolished in 2004.

The Chybie Jews

Jews are first documented in Chybie in the 18th Century, when a certain Lippmann Meyer (born in Chybie in 1791 as Nathan Neta ben Lippmann Heilprin) received citizenship in the town of Dzierżoniów in 1835. He later took the name of Reichenbach that was the German name for the city.

Bielitz Orthodox Synagogue

The town of Chybie has no sources of information on the pre-war Jewish community, but we can safely assume that it is identical with the Jewish community of nearby largest town, Bielsko. After the invasion of Poland, the approach of the Germans led to mass flight but many had to return to the city when their escape routes were cut off. The German army entered the town on Sept. 3, 1939 and immediately initiated an anti-Jewish reign of terror. On Sept. 4, 1939, the Nazis burned down both synagogues in Bielsko and the Bialik Jewish cultural home. A few days later the Germans burned down the two synagogues in nearby Biała, and its Orthodox Jews were forced to throw the holy books into the fire.

In the summer of 1940 a ghetto was established in Bielsko. The ghetto was liquidated in June 1942 when the town's remaining Jewish population was deported to the death camp in Auschwitz. Bielsko was amalgamated with *Biała in 1950 to form the city of Bielsko-Biała. After the war a few hundred Jews settled in Bielsko-Biała.

A children's home for orphans--survivors of the Holocaust--functioned there for a few years. The Jewish Cultural Society ran a club until June 1967 when the Polish government initiated its anti-Semitic campaign. After that, almost all the remaining Jews left Poland. There are no Jews in the village since the WWII. Jewish families whose ancestors came from Chybie can be found in Warsaw, South Africa, the United States, Australia and Israel. The only remnant of the once thriving Jewish community is the former synagogue, which is now used as the local cinema.

But even though no Jewish community stands there today, Chybie is still a place worth visiting on a kosher tour, if we are to pay our respects to the fellow Jews who once lived there.

The Charming Village Of Chybie (Part 1)

Chybie (Chybi in German, Chybia  חיביאin Yiddish) is a community in the Silesian Voivodeship, in the Czyiesin district of Poland. It lies on the territory of the Cziyesin Silesia in the center of the Zhabie Region. Together with the municipalities of Mnich, Frelichov, Záboří and Záříčí, they form the Chybie Gmina.

In the past, it was a relatively important economic center of Northeastern Těšínsko and was originally associated with fishmongery and later the sugar industry. The railway node on the Northern Railroad of Emperor Ferdinand runs through the town. Historically, this part of Silesia belonged to the Bohemian Crown, not to Poland.

Bielsko Synagogue

Chybie’s Beginnings

The first mention of the village dates back to 1568. It appears on a document of the Teschen prince, Wenceslas III Adam. It contains a confirmation of the sale of a meadow to the Těšín burgher Jakub Franck and a permission for setting up other ponds. The area is described as “Zeleny Chyb” (meaning "Green Forest”). This is due to the wooded area around the Bajerka stream, known as “Wald Zeleny” on the 19th century maps.

The Administrative Boundaries were first identified in the 17th century. The gradual transformation of the local landscape and the development of the village since the 18th century were connected with the drying of the ponds and the building of new houses. The field of dry ponds represented a quarter of the village's territory in the 19th century. To date, the outline of the old network is visible in the form of a street network.

The intersection was set in the first half of the 19th century by the Jesenice - Strumeň road, which became the main axis of the village. In neighbouring villages (including Jilovnice and Drahomyšl) there are numerous ponds and the whole area is called “Zhabie” (“Frog Region”). The mentioned road is lined in the eastern part of the village (towards Jasenice) over two hundred oaks, which were declared a natural monument in 1993.

Local cinema, before WWII the Chybie synagogue

A train station was commissioned on the Northern Railroad of Emperor Ferdinand in 1855. The main line linked Vienna across eastern and northern Moravia and Silesia with Krakow and Galicia. In 1884, the Těšín Chamber built a sugar factory in the village. After more than a hundred years, the majority of the population were employed by rail and sugar factories.

At the end of the 19th century, the village of Chybyie formally consisted of two parts: the Chybie-Village (at its borders Tarlisko and Chodnička) and Neuteich-Beňovec (“New Pond”). There was also the marginal sela Žabiněc (near the lake of the same name) and Zovišč (Zawisti).

According to the 1900 census, 1,321 people lived in Chybe. 73.8% were Polish, 16.7% were German and 5.1% were Czech. Religion-wise, 89% were Catholics, 3.5% were with the Evangelical Church, and 4.7% practiced Judaism. After the division of Těšín in 1920, Chybie was annexed to the Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship.

For those who want to go on a Jewish vacation to Poland, they might find Chybie to be a worthwhile visit, as we will discuss further in Part 2.