Master's Theses

Department

History

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Abstract

The conflict of nationalities in Bohemia ceased to be a purely regional conflict during the nineteenth century. The rise of a unified Germany combined with the escalating conflict between the Czechs and the Germans in their common homeland of Bohemia caused many persons not directly concerned with the problems of the two peoples to take an interest in their quarrel. The struggle reached its peak during the period 1867-1914 with the introduction of many attempts to compromise the issues of dissension between the two nationalities. The widely disparate backgrounds of the Germans and the Czechs in Bohemia, as well as the emotions aroused by a Europe that was heading toward war, made an objective study of the issues difficult. Scholars tended to align themselves on the side of either the Czechs or the Germans. Those historians of the politically democratic west, especially those of England and the United States, generally aligned themselves with the Czech faction. The outbreak of World War I saw this partiality pushed to an extreme which was not moderated until after the defeat of Germany in 1918 and the break up of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The creation of an independent Czechoslovakia, which saw the Germans of Bohemia relegated to a minor role, had a moderating effect on the scholarship of the inter-war period. In spite of the re-emergence of Germany as a European force under Adolph Hitler after 1933, the historiography of the pre-World War I German-Czech conflict continued the trend toward historical objectivity with a growing emphasis on research into the causes and effects of the German-Czech conflict. This concern with causal factors and the attempts at solving the conflict between the two peoples represented the main effort of a growing number of historians and other scholars, and remains at this time a major concern of students of the conflict of nationalities between the Bohemian Germans and Czechs.

Keywords

History

Advisor

H. J. Schmeller

Date of Award

Spring 1982

Document Type

Thesis - campus only access

Rights

© The Author(s)

Comments

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