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The Battle over National Schooling in Bohemia and the Czech and German National School Associations: A Comparison (1880–1914)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2020

Mikuláš Zvánovec
Mikuláš Zvánovec*
Affiliation:
Department of German and Austrian Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
*
zvanovec.m@gmail.com
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Abstract

Liberal political changes in the Habsburg monarchy during the 1860s and 1870s, especially those caused by the December Constitution of 1867 and the ensuing schooling laws, created the necessary legal framework for German and Czech school associations to establish national monolingual schools in Bohemia—the so-called minority schools. These local organizations, however, were soon superseded by central school associations, namely the German association in Vienna (Deutscher Schulverein) and the Czech one in Prague (Ústřední Matice Školská). Founded in 1880, these associations were aimed at schools in the linguistically, and therefore nationally, contested regions along the “language frontier.” This study focuses on the dynamics of the national contestation over schooling prior to World War I and compares the activities of these two associations against the background of political democratization, mass mobilization, and the social questions of the fin de siècle. The comparative analysis of the proclamations, activities, and political contacts of the competing central school associations aims at revising theses about the position and meaning of these organizations and shows their very close interdependence upon political processes, especially on the unsuccessful Czech-German negotiations on a national compromise for Bohemia.

Keywords

school associationsAustria-Hungarynationalismnational identitiesCzechGermanBohemiaminority schoolslanguage
Type
Articles
Information
Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 51 , May 2020 , pp. 173 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

1

This article was enabled by a grant of the Charles University, project GA UK No. 632217, and a scholarship of the Research Consortium “Border/s in National and Transnational Cultures of Memory” supported by the Bavarian-Czech Academic Agency.

References

2 See Letter of the Local Group of DSV Mies to the Management of DSV in Vienna, May 1913, Austrian State Archive, Vienna, AVA / Unterricht, collection Deutscher Schulverein, box 13, file Solislau.

3 For an overview of the negotiations on the Czech-German compromise since the 1880s, see for example: Haslinger, Peter, Nation und Territorium im tschechischen politischen Diskurs (Munich, 2010), 34Google Scholar; Scharf, Christian, Ausgleichspolitik und Pressekampf in der Ära Hohenwart (Munich, 1996), 40Google Scholar. Deep insight into individual negotiations was provided by Karel Kazbunda. See for example, Kazbunda, Karel, “Krise české politiky a vídeňská jednání o t. zv. Punktace roku 1890” [The crisis of Bohemian politics and negotiations about the so-called punktace of 1890 in Vienna], Český časopis historický [Czech historical magazine] 40, nos. 1, 2, 3–4 (1935): 41–82, 294–320, 514–54Google Scholar.

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17 See Article 19 of the State Basic Law on the General Rights of the Citizens in Reichsgesetzblatt (RGBl.) no. 142 (1867).

18 According to the laws from 1805 and 1838, school supervision was practiced by churches on the local level by priests and dechants. Evangelical schools had their own supervision. Jewish schools were under Catholic supervision. See Vítězslav Houdek, O správě záležitostí školských. Soustavné vypsání nejdůležitějších ustanovení zákonných a nařízení úředních o školství obecném na Moravě [About the administration of school matters: Systematic listing of the most important legal and official regulations about primary schools in Moravia] (Brünn, 1883), 2.

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24 See Stourzh, Gleichberechtigung der Nationalitäten, 176.

25 Ibid., 119. For a critical analysis of the development of the personality principle of nationality since 1848, see Lukas, Territorialitäts- und Personalitätsprinzip, 365–85.

26 See Weidenfeller, Gerhard, VDA, Verein für das Deutschtum im Ausland: Allgemeiner Deutscher Schulverein (1881–1918): ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des deutschen Nationalismus und Imperialismus im Kaiserreich (Bern, 1976), 104Google Scholar.

27 Cohen, Gary, Politics of Ethnic Survival (Princeton, 1981), 119–20Google Scholar.

28 After the establishment of the central school associations some of these local initiatives were either incorporated into the new associational structures as local groups, or, as with most Czech local organizations like the “Komensky Association” and the local school associations in Budweis (České Budějovice) and Olmütz (Olomouc), kept their independent position in the region and cooperated closely with the central school association, which also provided financial support. See František Bělehrádek, “Školství menšinové a Ústřední matice školská” [Minority schooling and the Ústřední Matice Školská] in Jan Auerhahn, Česká politika. Díl pátý, Kulturní, zvláště školské úkoly české politiky [Czech politics, fifth part, Cultural, especially schooling tasks of Czech politics] (Prague: 1913), 403.

29 The feared negative influence on the German bureaucrats has been recently contested by Deak, John, Forging a Multinational State: State Making in Imperial Austria from the Enlightenment to the First World War (Stanford, 2015), 206Google Scholar.

30 See Neumann, Karl, Zehn Jahre deutscher Arbeit. Eine Gedenkschrift zum zehnjährigen Bestande des Deutschen Schulvereins in Wien (Vienna: 1890), 7–8Google Scholar.

31 See Věstník Ústřední Matice Školské [Bulletin of Ústřední Matice Školská] (hereafter Věstník ÚMŠ), no. 4–5 (1922): 71.

32 See Balcarová, Jitka, Bund der Deutschen a jeho předchůdci v procesu utváření “sudetoněmecké identity” [Bund der Deutschen and its predecessors in the creation of the Sudeten German identity] (Prague, 2013), 104Google Scholar.

33 See Zahra, Kidnapped Souls, 19–20; Schmied, Erich, “J. W. Titta und der Deutsche Volksrat für Böhmen,” Bohemia 26 (1985): 313Google Scholar.

34 Znaimer Tagblatt, 29 Apr. 1903, 2.

35 Weidenfeller, VDA, Verein für das Deutschtum im Ausland, 133; Graf, Alexander, “Los von Rom” und “heim ins Reich”: Das deutschnationale Akademikermilieu an den cisleithanischen Hochschulen der Habsburgermonarchie 1859–1914 (Berlin, 2015), 194Google Scholar.

36 See Neumann, Zehn Jahre deutscher Arbeit, 16.

37 See Jubilejní výroční zpráva o činnosti Ústřední Matice Školské v Praze za 25 roků spolkové činnosti (1880–1905) [Jubilee annual report of Ústřední Matice Školská] (Prague, 1905), 4Google Scholar. The statutes of the DSV were officially approved on 9 Sept. 1880, the statutes of the ÚMŠ on 15 Nov. 1880. See Statutes of the ÚMŠ, Czech National Archive (hereafter NACR), Prague, collection Ústřední Matice Školská, sign. 707, box 59; Statutes of the DSV, Österreichische Landsmannschaft, Vienna, Archive of the DSV.

38 Jubilejní výroční zpráva, 4.

39 Deutsche Böhmerwaldzeitung, no. 23, 5 June 1908; Jubilejní výroční zpráva, 69–72.

40 See Barta, Erwin and Bell, Karl, Geschichte der Schutzarbeit am deutschen Volkstum (Dresden, 1930), 29Google Scholar; Věstník ÚMŠ, no. 10 (1894), 154Google Scholar.

41 Since, according to the association law from 1867, the DSV couldn't establish local groups in the German Empire, a cooperating school association, Allgemeiner Deutscher Schulverein, was established 1881 in Berlin and supported above all national German school activities in Transleithania. This association was transformed after 1908 into “Verein für das Deutschtum im Ausland.” See Gerhard Weidenfeller, VDA, 140–77.

42 Věstník ÚMŠ, no. 8 (1889), 205Google Scholar.

43 See Cohen, Politics of Ethnic Survival, 185.

44 See Pamětní list vydaný na oslavu půlstoleté činnosti Ústřední matice školské v Praze [Commemorative bulletin published to celebrate the half-century anniversary of the activity of the Ústřední Matice Školská] (Prague, 1931), 76Google Scholar; Übersicht über die Tätigkeit des Schulvereines for years 1880–1914.

45 See Protocol from the Session of the Bohemian Diet, Feb. 1896, accessed 24 Jan. 2020, http://www.psp.cz/eknih/1895skc/1/stenprot/024schuz/s024009.htm.

46 See Prager Tagblatt, no. 75, 16 Mar. 1897, 10.

47 See Judson, Pieter, “The Bohemian Oberammergau: Nationalist Tourism in the Austrian Empire,” in Constructing Nationalities in East Central Europe, eds. Judson, Pieter and Rozenblit, Marsha L. (New York, 2005), 91Google Scholar.

48 See Věstník ÚMŠ, no. 7 (1908), 213Google Scholar or Věstník ÚMŠ, nos. 8–10 (1908), 232Google Scholar.

49 Věstník ÚMŠ, no. 7 (1908), 210Google Scholar.

50 Gary Cohen showed that even a small German community in Prague couldn't extinguish the differences between German liberals and Social Democrats; Cohen, Politics of Ethnic Survival, 184.

51 Monika Streitmann, Der Deutsche Schulverein vor dem Hintergrund der österreichischen Innenpolitik (Ph.D. diss., University of Vienna, 1984), 176.

52 František Cajthaml-Liberté, Škola v Teplicích-Šanově [The school in Teplitz-Schönau] (unpublished manuscript), p. 2, NACR, Prague, collection František Cajthaml-Liberté, box 7.

53 See Document of the School Ministry concerning the Czech Minority Schools, 5 Sept. 1910, NACR, Prague, collection Presidium ministerské rady, sign. 1910, box 58.

54 Deutsche Böhmerwald-Zeitung, 21 May 1909.

55 Getreuer Eckart, no. 10 (1907), 257Google Scholar.

56 Budweiser Kreisblatt no. 96, 1 Dec. 1888, 2.

57 Mitteilungen des Deutschen Schulvereins, no. 19 (1886), 3Google Scholar.

58 See “Das Ende der deutschen Judenschulen in Böhmen in Getreuer,” Eckart, no. 11 (1913), 420Google Scholar.

59 Letter from the Jewish Community in Gaya to the DSV Management, 28 May 1918, Österreichische Landsmannschaft, Vienna, Archive of the DSV, box Mähren, file Gaya.

60 See Stourzh, Gleichberechtigung der Nationalitäten, 112.

61 For Czech frustrations over the DSV's numerical predominance in the beginning of their existence, see for example Desátá výroční zpráva Ústřední Matice Školské za desátý rok správní (Prague, 1881), 3Google Scholar. For German unhappiness about the slow German dynamic especially in the end of the researched era, see for example Brüxer Zeitung, 29 May 1914.

62 See Burger, Hannelore, Sprachenrecht und Sprachgerechtigkeit im österreichischen Unterrichtswesen 1867–1918 (Vienna, 1995), 101–3Google Scholar.

63 Věstník ÚMŠ, no. 12 (1903), 249Google Scholar. These arguments were not sufficient for the Highest Administrative Court in cases brought before it. See Stourzh, Gleichberechtigung der Nationalitäten, 173.

64 See Protocol Record on Establishing a Public School with Czech as Language of Instruction in Mariaschein (Bohosudov), 30 Sept. 1909, NACR, Prague, collection František Cajthaml-Liberté, sign. 609, box 7.

65 See Protocol Record on Establishing a Public School with Czech as Language of Instruction in Seestadtl (Ervěnice), 10 May 1907, NACR, Prague, collection Ústřední matice školská, sign. 690, box 354.

66 Neumann, Karl, Zehn Jahre Deutsche Arbeit (Vienna, 1890), 26Google Scholar.

67 See Deutsche Böhmerwald-Zeitung, no. 50 (1910), 445Google Scholar.

68 See Fiedler, Rudolf, Böhmen und der Deutsche Schulverein (Vienna, 1901), 9Google Scholar; Doležal, Jan, Z bojů o českou školu v Podkrušnohoří [About the battles over the Czech schools in the Podkrušnohoří] (Liberec, 1964), 17Google Scholar.

69 See § 63 of the school law in RGBl., no. 62 (1869). Because of the very reluctant assumption of responsibility for the public Czech minority schools by the German municipalities, the ÚMŠ also took responsibility for equipping the many new public minority schools. See Memorial Document on Deficits of the Czech Minority Schools in the Kingdom of Bohemia, 1 Sept. 1908, NACR, Prague, collection Presidium ministerské rady, sign. 1910, box 58.

70 Czech demonstrations against German municipalities prevailed in the northwest of Bohemia in places like Dux (Duchcov), Bruch (Lom), Hostomitz (Hostomice nad Bílinou), Ladowitz (Ledvice), Kopist (Kopisty), etc. See Memorial Document on Deficits of the Czech Minority Schools in the Kingdom of Bohemia, NACR, Prague, collection Presidium ministerské rady, sign. 1910, box 58. The Czech minorities supported by the defense associations demonstrated against hindering the development of Czech schools, as well as against the poor hygienic conditions of the new public schoolhouses. See Report of the Gendarme Management in Prague to the Presidium of the Governor, 5 Aug. 1908, NACR, Prague, collection Menšinové muzeum, sign. 650, box 15.

71 See Stourzh, Gleichberechtigung der Nationalitäten, 167.

72 The danger of imposing a financial burden on municipalities was also recognized by the Bohemian governor Alfred von Kraus. See Burger, Sprachenrecht und Sprachgerechtigkeit, 93.

73 See Letter of the Management of the DSV to the District Committee in Starkenbach (Jilemnice), 16 Sept. 1913, Österreichische Landsmannschaft, Vienna, Archive of the DSV, box Böhmen, file Benetzko.

74 See Letter from the County Group (Bezirksverband) of the DSV in Hohenelbe to the DSV Management in Vienna, 21 Oct. 1913, Österreichische Landsmannschaft, Vienna, Archive of the DSV, box Böhmen, file Benetzko.

75 Not included are two higher schools in Orlová (with a public law status) and Prachatice owned by the ÚMŠ. See Výroční zpráva ÚMŠ z roku 1913 [Annual report of the Ústřední Matice Školská from 1913], p. 28; Übersicht über die Tätigkeit des Deutschen Schulvereins im Jahre 1913, p. 1–3.

76 Věstník ÚMŠ, no. 9 (1912), 126Google Scholar.

77 See Alexandra Špiritová, Ústřední Matice Školská, 182; and Miloš, Hořejš, Die nationalen “Schutzvereine” in Böhmen, Mähren und Schlesien (1900–1938) in Wirtschaftsnationalismus als Entwicklungsstrategie ostmitteleuropäischer Eliten, eds. Kubů, Eduard and Schulz, Helga (Prague, 2004), 207Google Scholar.

78 See for example, Hönsch, Jörg K., Geschichte Böhmens: von der slawischen Landnahme bis ins 20. Jahrhundert (Munich, 1987), 395Google Scholar.

79 See Haslinger, Nation und Territorium, 142.

80 See for example, Věstník ÚMŠ, no. 9 (1893), 125–26Google Scholar.

81 For activities of the economically oriented defense associations as well as their umbrella organizations during censuses see Kladiwa, Pavel et al. , Národnostní statistika v českých zemích 1880–1930: mechanismy, problémy a důsledky národnostní klasifikace [National statistics in Bohemian lands 1880–1930: Mechanisms, problems and consequences of national classification], 2 vols. (Ostrava, 2016), 227–56Google Scholar.

82 See Directive of Ortsrat Komotau to all municipalities in the district Chomutov, 7 Nov. 1910, State District Archives Chomutov in Kadan, Archive of the town Ervěnice, sign. 446, box 87. Because of the usually clear national positioning of the census takers, there were many complaints from the other side. This led to a ban on appointing teachers as census takers in 1900, which was lifted for the next census. See Brix, Emil, Die Umgangssprachen in Ältösterreich zwischen Agitation und Assimilation: Die Sprachenstatistik in den zisleithanischen Volkszählungen 1880 bis 1910 (Vienna, 1982), 270Google Scholar.

83 Brix, Die Umgangsprachen in Altösterreich, 41.

84 See Stourzh, Gleichberechtigung der Nationalitäten, 171.

85 Key studies included, for example, Antonín Hubka, Naše menšiny a smíšené kraje na českém jihu [Our minorities in the Czech South] (Prague, 1899); Zemmrich, Johannes, Sprachgrenze und Deutschtum in Böhmen (Braunschweig, 1902)Google Scholar; Rauchberg, Heinrich, Der nationale Besitzstand in Böhmen (Leipzig, 1905)Google Scholar; Boháč, Antonín, Boj o české menšiny v zemích českých v posledních dvou letech [Battler over Czech minorities in Bohemian lands in the last two years] (Prague, 1909)Google Scholar.

86 Both František Ladislav Rieger and Gustav Groß were liberal parliamentary politicians. They were cofounders of the school associations. For biographies, see Sak, Robert, Rieger Konzervativec nebo liberál? [Rieger—A conservative or a liberal?] (Prague, 2003)Google Scholar; Brigitte Deschka, Dr. Gustav Groß (Ph.D. diss., University of Vienna, 1966).

87 Speech of Gustav Schreiner at the Fourth Session of the Bohemian Diet from 4 Jan. 1902, accessed 14 Feb. 2019, http://www.psp.cz/eknih/1901skc/1/stenprot/004schuz/s004005.htm.

88 See Interpellation of Josef Čipera et al. to the Governor of Bohemia, accessed 14 Feb. 2019, http://www.psp.cz/eknih/1908skc/1/stenprot/001schuz/s001006.htm.

89 See for example, Letter of the Lawyer Franz Bernt from Saaz (Žatec) to the DSV in Vienna, 26 May 1911, Austrian State Archive, Vienna, AVA Unterricht, collection Deutscher Schulverien, box 14, file Rannay.

90 See for example, the suggestions for an administration division of the municipalities of Kopist (Kopisty) und Kummerpursch (Konobrže) in Brüxer Volkszeitung, 8 Aug. 1911, 2. Or, for the transfer of the municipalities Malesitz (Malesice) and Kottiken (Chotíkov) from the judicial district Tuschkau Stadt (Město Touškov) to the Pilsen district, see Český denník, 7 Mar. 1914.

91 See Letter from the School Committee in Solislau to the Management of the DSV in Vienna, May 1913, Austrian State Archive, Vienna, AVA Unterricht, collection Deutscher Schulverein, box 13, file Solislau.

92 See Application for Exclusion from the Sitzkreis School District, Österreichische Landsmannschaft, Vienna, Archive of the DSV, box Böhmen, file Sitzkreis.

93 See Complaint to the Provincial School Board about the Election into the Local School Board, NACR, collection Ústřední Matice Školská, box 418, file Prachatice or box 445, file Třebenice. For German complaints, see Decision of the Supreme Administrative Court in Vienna about the Election of the German School Board in Schüttenhofen (Sušice), 14 Sept. 1903, Österreichische Landsmannschaft, Vienna, Archive of the DSV, collection Böhmen, file Schüttenhofen.

94 Josef Wenzel Titta (b. 24 Jan. 1863 in Prosmik near Leitmeritz/Prosmyky u Litoměřic, d. 10 Aug. 1923 in Brüx/Most) was a physician and German national activist who led the German national defense association Deutscher Volksrat für Böhmen. For more details on Titta see Schmied, Erich, “J. W. Titta und der Deutsche Volksrat für Böhmen,” Bohemia—Zeitschrift für die Geschichte der böhmischen Länder 26 (Feb. 1985): 309–30Google Scholar.

95 See Letter of the Secretary of the ÚMŠ to Municipal Council in Trebnitz (Třebenice), 12 Nov. 1912, NACR, Prague, collection Üstřední Matice Školská, box 445, file Třebenice.

96 The proposal for a legal basis for the minority schools that respected the principle that “Czech children belong in Czech schools” was brought before the Bohemian Diet in 1884 and soon named “Lex Kvíčala” after its author, the deputy and provincial school board member Jan Kvíčala. See Stenographic Protocol From the 23rd Session of the Bohemian Diet, 15 Oct. 1884, accessed 14 Feb. 2019, http://www.psp.cz/eknih/1883skc/2/stenprot/023schuz/s023001.htm.

97 See Lectures of Národní jednota pošumavská in Potfohre (Potvorov), NACR, Prague, collection Menšinové Museum, box 31, file Manětín. These lectures were intended not only to collect money for national actions but also they had a strong mobilization function before elections or censuses. See Zach, V., Ervěnice 1907. Zápas o českou školu na území zněmčeném (Most, 1907), 9Google Scholar.

98 See the brochure “Czech Children Belong in Czech Schools,” NACR, Prague, Collection Menšinové Museum, sign. 650, box 31; on this, see also Zahra, Kidnapped Souls, 23–27.

99 See Copy of the Circular to Czech Parents in Dux (Duchcov), 19 July 1913, Austrian State Archive, Vienna, AVA Unterricht KB, collection Deutscher Schulverein, box 8, file Dux.

100 For school strikes in Bruch (Lom), Brüx (Most), Dux (Duchcov), Oberrosenthal (Horní Růžodol), Teplitz-Schönau (Teplice), see Národní Politika, 3 Nov. 1907; for Bilin (Bílina) see Národní listy, 11 Nov. 1908; for Nürschan (Nýřany), see Český denník, 25 Nov. 1913; for Schwaz (Světec), see Právo lidu, 9 Nov. 1913 for Briesen (Břežánky), see Národní Politika, 25 Mar. 1914.

101 See Report of the Gendarme Management to the Presidium of the Governor on the Upcoming Czech School Strike, 5 Aug. 1908, NACR, Prague, Collection Presidium ministerské rady, sign. 1910, box 58.

102 See Letter of a Representative of Parents in Seestadtl (Ervěnice) Huml to the ÚMŠ, 30 Jan. 1908, NACR, Prague, Collection Ústřední Matice Školská, sign. 783, box 354, file Ervěnice.

103 See Letter of the Regional Council in Komotau (Chomutov) to the Regional School Board in Seestadtl (Ervěnice), 27 May 1909, State District Archives Chomutov in Kadan, Archive of the Town of Ervěnice, sign. 422 Školní záležitosti, box 65.

104 See Letter of a Constable of the Gendarmery Command in Kommern (Komořany) to the Regional Council in Brüx (Most), 20 Dec. 1909, NACR, collection Presidium ministerské rady, sign. 1910, box 58.

105 See Judson, Guardians of the Nation, 53–63.

106 See Letter by the Management of the DSV to the Secretary of the Local Group of Deutscher Volksrat für Böhmen, 7 Aug. [before 1914], Austrian State Archive, Vienna, collection Deutscher Schulverein, box 8, file Dux.