the nationality of all inhabitants of the czech provinces and ...

The Czechs and Germans and the Birth
of Czechoslovakia
other criteria, was provided by the census
of 1921, organised in accordance with
Law No. 592 of 1920.
The row headed “Czechoslovak” are
combined figures for Czechs and
Slovaks. According to those same
statistical findings, 1 952 368 persons
declared themselves to be Slovak
speakers (as against 1 687 112 in 1910).
After the republic was established a
number of Czechs moved to Slovakia
and Carpathian Ruthenia chiefly to
work in the education system and the
civil service. The row headed “Jewish”
includes only those Jews who declared
themselves to be of Jewish nationality,
so it does not relate to religious
affiliation or other criteria.
A significant issue in relation to the
establishment of Czechoslovakia were
the levels of illiteracy among certain
minorities, which rose progressively
eastwards. The 1921 census recorded in
the Czech lands 2.38% illiteracy among
the Czechoslovaks and 2.52% among
the Germans (an average of 2.44%). In
Slovakia, illiteracy among
Czechoslovaks was 15.72% but 43.55%
among the Ruthenians (an average of
15.03%), while in Carpathian Ruthenia
the level was 16.29% among
Czechoslovaks, but 65.67% among the
Ruthenians (an average of 50.16%.)
Considerable differences in levels of
education were also reflected in the
national consciousness of the population
in individual parts of the republic.
The largest minority in the historical
lands were the Germans. They could not
constitute a homogeneous group,
however, either in national or tribal
terms, but in terms of language (dialect),
culture and politics, they were linked to
the German populations in the
neighbouring provinces and states. That
difference in attitude was expressed in
the attempts at secession and annexation
by other states after the establishment of
Czechoslovakia in 1918.
From the outset the Czechoslovak
leaders paid close attention to the
relationship with the German minority.
In his first message to the National
Assembly as President of the Republic
59
Chapter II
on December 22, 1918, T.G.Masaryk
declared that the territory of the
Czechoslovak state inhabited by
Germans would always remain part of
the state. He urged the Germans to
abandon their aggressive pan-German
and anti-Czech policies and assist in
building the new state. In accordance
with the “Washington Declaration”, he
promised that minorities would enjoy
full national rights and equality as
citizens, but the state would never
consent to the secession of its territory,
just as the United States had resisted
the secession of the South.
The leaders of the home resistance
also accorded major significance to
relations with the German minority and
voiced their conviction that they would
manage to live together in harmony
according to democratic principles.
However, the German population for
the most part sought to preserve their
previous supremacy and privileges.
Law No. 592 of 1920 enshrined the
right of all to choose their nationality.
The criteria of nationality were
essentially subjective, i.e. personal choice,
and not based on an assessment of
external features (mother tongue, tribal
affiliation, etc.) by the authorities, as was
the case in other countries. The law was
chiefly intended to give choice to the
Jewish population which until then had
suffered most from state regulation and
restrictions. While it is true that since the
mid-nineteenth century they had not
been obliged to live in ghettoes, they had
been subject to attacks from different
quarters. (The emperor Joseph II had
obliged them to adopt German surnames
as part of his authoritarian policies.)
Within the Jewish community, the
choice of national affiliation under that
law greatly varied in different parts of
the territories making up
Czechoslovakia. The Jewish minority as
a whole supported the Czechoslovak
state, whose democratic regime
guaranteed political equality and
minority rights, and above all prevented
the racial discrimination and pogroms
that applied in the surrounding states. In
Bohemia 49.9% of the Jewish minority