After WW1 Czechoslovakia for the first time in it’s history became it’s own state. It was sort of a golden age here. Many super influential Czechs flourished during this period like T.J. Masaryk, the first president, and Tomas Bata a manufacturing and marketing tycoon. The Czech language finally became official, and there was a burst of nationalism and culture. Here anyways the time between the wars was a high point in Czech history. The First Republic. People still look back at this time with a lot of nostalgia.
On the other side, if you were a German Czech things got a bit tougher for you. People started speaking less and less German, and German culture began to lose favor. Czech language and czech culture were all pretty much smashed underfoot during the long centuries of Hapsburg rule. Once there was a bit of self-determination, the resentments began to bubble a bit.
Then in the late 30s with Hitler annexed the Sudetenland in west and north Czechoslovakia the resentment really came to a head. There was nothing normal people could do about this of course while occupied, but as soon as Nazi Germany fell, the Czechs forcefully expelled, and even murdered many otherwise innocent german czechs. Whole villages were razed, property was seized, graveyards were destroyed. Still now every few years some mass grave is discovered here with the bodies of german czechs, or nazi sympathizers. No one has really ever dealt with this nasty little piece of czech history in a public way here at all, and mostly people pretend like it didn’t happen.
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After WW1 Czechoslovakia for the first time in it’s history became it’s own state. It was sort of a golden age here. Many super influential Czechs flourished during this period like T.J. Masaryk, the first president, and Tomas Bata a manufacturing and marketing tycoon. The Czech language finally became official, and there was a burst of nationalism and culture. Here anyways the time between the wars was a high point in Czech history. The First Republic. People still look back at this time with a lot of nostalgia.
On the other side, if you were a German Czech things got a bit tougher for you. People started speaking less and less German, and German culture began to lose favor. Czech language and czech culture were all pretty much smashed underfoot during the long centuries of Hapsburg rule. Once there was a bit of self-determination, the resentments began to bubble a bit.
Then in the late 30s with Hitler annexed the Sudetenland in west and north Czechoslovakia the resentment really came to a head. There was nothing normal people could do about this of course while occupied, but as soon as Nazi Germany fell, the Czechs forcefully expelled, and even murdered many otherwise innocent german czechs. Whole villages were razed, property was seized, graveyards were destroyed. Still now every few years some mass grave is discovered here with the bodies of german czechs, or nazi sympathizers. No one has really ever dealt with this nasty little piece of czech history in a public way here at all, and mostly people pretend like it didn’t happen.