Suchergebnisse

This study focuses on nationalist agitators and municipal politicians in the North Bohemian city of Reichenberg (now Liberec) during the period of nationalist political struggles before WWI. It explores — on the example of the record of the language of daily use in 1891 census and other conflicts between German and Czech activists — the ways in which the discourse of the political elites became nationalized — though this hardly reflects the intensity with which people were committed to national issues in their everyday lives. The intensification of the conflicts in Reichenberg is not regarded as a sign of the weakness of civil society, but rather of its growing strength. In the days when the Czech-speaking community in Reichenberg occupied an entirely inferior status, there was no friction between it and the majority German community. The friction came about when the Czech-speaking middle classes gained in strength and influence, and began to engage in nationalist agitation — which was confrontational in nature. The hostile response from the city authorities was essentially a symptom of a struggle for the symbolic occupation of public space. The response adopted by the Reichenberg City Hall (which was similar to other "German" authorities in ethnically mixed towns and cities in the Bohemian lands) was very hard, which to some degree explains (though it does not excuse) the highly confrontational approach taken by the independent Czechoslovak state towards its German citizens in the immediate post-war years.

This study focuses on nationalist agitators and municipal politicians in the North Bohemian city of Reichenberg (now Liberec) during the period of nationalist political struggles before WWI. It explores — on the example of the record of the language of daily use in 1891 census and other conflicts between German and Czech activists — the ways in which the discourse of the political elites became nationalized — though this hardly reflects the intensity with which people were committed to national issues in their everyday lives. The intensification of the conflicts in Reichenberg is not regarded as a sign of the weakness of civil society, but rather of its growing strength. In the days when the Czech-speaking community in Reichenberg occupied an entirely inferior status, there was no friction between it and the majority German community. The friction came about when the Czech-speaking middle classes gained in strength and influence, and began to engage in nationalist agitation — which was confrontational in nature. The hostile response from the city authorities was essentially a symptom of a struggle for the symbolic occupation of public space. The response adopted by the Reichenberg City Hall (which was similar to other "German" authorities in ethnically mixed towns and cities in the Bohemian lands) was very hard, which to some degree explains (though it does not excuse) the highly confrontational approach taken by the independent Czechoslovak state towards its German citizens in the immediate post-war years. ; 7 ; 26

This study presents the municipal electoral regulations for Moravia and Silesia, as well as the specific electoral rules for the so called statutory towns. It then focuses on the actual course of the municipal elections, in which competing parties made use of all means in the struggle for political power, including loopholes in the law and obvious frauds. The specific political culture of the municipal elections is portrayed in detail based on the example of the municipality of Zábřeh nad Odrou (nowadays part of Ostrava) in the early 20th century.

"Formal categorization of people presents significant challenges. When politics and law become ethnicized, the pivotal question arises: who is who? This problem surfaced in Moravia after the 1905 Settlement. Other countries faced similar dilemmas decades later, during affirmative action implementation. Contemporary Moravians, like Americans or Brazilians later on, possibly grappled with a clash between traditional individual rights and modern collective rights. The critical inquiry: how far can we limit individual rights for collective rights (nation, race, minority)? Moravia, in the early 20th century, served as the first experimental laboratory"--