Langenau

And what is this? Another "Lost Place" for photographers? Who lived in these ruins?

it used to be a thatched roof

This is a truly lost place , but no one comes here for photo workshops. Every few years a visitor from Germany comes and mourns over this neglected property. 

This is my mother-in-law's home in Langenau, Silesia, in a beautiful valley north of Hirschberg, now Jelenia Gora,  now Poland.  Here she grew up in her family with her father, mother and four sisters on their own large farm with cows, horses and over 40 ha of fields and land, where they and their ancestors had lived for hundreds of years . A very beautiful but very poor valley. 

the valleys north of Hirschberg towards Langenau

This house next door is in slightly better condition and still occupied. A Polish family still lives there.  This was the home of my father-in-law, who lived across the street in the same village. They were farmers, too, as many other families in the valley, but had an electrician's workshop  where my father-in-law learned his first trade. 

In May 1945 the Russian army on their way westwards moved into the houses and farms and stayed for six weeks, followed by Polish families, who became the new owners. It was a lawless time, his father kept records that the stories of such gross injustice and horrendous atrocities will be remembered. Finally, after months of uncertainty, all German families, who had held out, were moved out in two treks to the west, the first half in July 1946, the second in July 1947, when everybody had to leave everything behind. 

1038 inhabitants from Langenau, 35 people and their luggage in each railway waggon, 20 kg of bare necessities per person, which were often taken away, robbed, during the various "controls" - all his family were transported off to other parts of Germany where they arrived about eight months later, having lost everything and having buried a grandmother and many much younger friends, members of other Langenau families, on the way.

All in all up to 14 million people were expelled from the eastern parts of then-Germany to make a new life in the western parts, 14 million were added to the local population in the destroyed cities of post-war Germany; the newcomers were not welcome. 
Here they had to start from scratch - the younger generation tried to make a living out of nothing, my father-in-law, 19 years old at the time, studying hard at night and working during the day, became an engineer, the older generation suffered from the trauma for the rest of their lives.  

The old protestant church of Langenau - only the tower is left. The cemetery was flattened, no German names can be found here anymore. The only reminder of the long German history, heritage and culture of Langenau (now called Czernica) I found in this old German plaque about its foundation on the church tower walls.  

Increasingly, the last surviving members of these lands and their children and grandchildren come to visit and learn about their history and try to make up with the Polish population, who have been so luckless in the cultivation of the fertile soil and the upkeep of the old homesteads.