Die versäumte Balance

Abstract

The common life of German and Czech populations in the Czechs Lands could be defined over the centuries as a peaceful convivium, which was certainly not completely free from conflicts but as a whole maintained itself at least until 1848. The political life was dominated by a strong sense of regional patriotism based on the local parliament. After the Revolution of 1848, the Czech emancipation could no more be contained and the two peoples began to diverge. The Czech society began to establish itself successfully in the economy and through education, and struggled to take part in the public spheres still dominated by the Germans, who in turn were adopting a defensive position. The demands of the Czechs were not satisfied by the emperor and during the First World War the Czech political elite moved to the solution of the independence of the Czech Lands together with Slovakia. The creation of Czechoslovakia was the answer to the former ambitions of the Czech politicians, the new republic was modeled after the American and French constitutions and it was a laic, centralistic and social-democratic state in which the Germans had their place as a national minority. The new state was governed by the idea of modernization in all spheres, mainly in the church affairs and the land property: the land reform was clearly aimed at reducing the influence of the church and of German (and Magyar) great landowners. This was resumed after 1945 and created actually a new problem, not only in the former Czechoslovakia, which is nowadays still unsolved.