ARTIFICIAL INDUSTRIALIZATION

Together with the disappearance of small tradesmen after 1948, new businesses were being introduced to the town of Blatná, which was a district town until 1960. Ordinary businesses such as the rose-making firm of Jan Böhm, fishing companies or quarries had been centralized and continued their activities, often even with the very same staff.

A change had come with a company called ‘České závody motocyklové’ (English: Czech Motorcycle Works). As the old production hall had been burnt down by fire, they built a new one, where, starting from 1960, they began to manufacture components for the ČZ 125 and 150 motorcycles and the ČZ 150 scooter, which was dubbed the ‘pig’ because of its typical sound. After 1989, this enterprise was acquired by DURA.

Another enterprise was DŘEVOKOV, which had associated all small craftsmen since 1950. In the beginning, they manufactured vestibule walls and, in 1952, after incorporating RESONET, their production expanded to electrical musical instruments. In 1964, they began to manufacture a system of harrows for agricultural activities.

The most important company was probably Tesla, which relocated to Blatná in 1958. The town provided the company with the buildings of the Elementary Vocational School to create a production plant for small electronic items. Their production of resistors was transferred there in 1961. Since 1967, photoresistors were produced, which, as components of the astronaut S. Jähn’s camera, reached space. In 1982, the company had 1,195 employees, of which 69% were women.

As regards livestock production, one needs to mention the local dairies, which produced the AKAVI cheese since 1956 and the JADEL cheese and Dutch Cheese since 1967. In 1972, Blatná saw the arrival of MYKOPRODUKTA, a company specializing in mushroom growing. For this purpose, the firm was handed over the land of the former rose-making business of Jan Böhm.

This industrialization of Blatná had brought not only wealth, but also the need for labour force and accommodation space, an issue which was to be resolved by the construction of prefabricated houses. The construction of houses in Blatná began in 1959 and continued until the late 1980s. The first space to be built up was the site between B. Němcové Street and Čechova Street, where only some fields were located. Since 1984, the construction of prefabricated houses continued in Nad Lomnicí Street, which affected the square. This solved the housing issue in Blatná only partly, since in the second half of the 20th century the local population grew by 3,000 people.