Suchergebnisse

Czechoslovak statehood took shape gradually from the middle of the 19th century onwards, progressing from the thoughts of František Palacký and František Ladislav Rieger during the course of the Great War to take the specific form of a new state. It originated both on the battlefields, where the legions fought for a new independent state, and, first and foremost, in the diplomatic efforts of the foreign resistance movement of our leading politicians and future statesmen. It was Masaryk's idea of a Czechoslovak state that came to fruition in October 1918. Masaryk pursued the creation of a liberal democratic state along the lines of the Swiss model, though with two ethnic nations, in which all citizens would have equal standing regardless of their nationality, race or religion.

This study gives an account of the basic principles of social policy in interwar Czechoslovakia and introduces the leading Czech theorists in this area of domestic politics. Of the extensive activities in the area of social politics, particular attention is paid to those based on co-operation between state welfare and voluntary care for citizens who found themselves in critical social situations resulting from lost employment, illness or old age. The democratic climate of the young state created a dignified environment comparable with standards seen in Europe as a whole.

The "Metelka Act", which laid out the procedure for the establishment of new minority schools, was, in terms of nationalities, the most important of the large number of educational laws issued following the foundation of the Czechoslovak Republic. Although the act made it possible for all minorities to build schools, under the given political conditions it tended to accommodate the needs of Czech national education in particular. Many Czech organisations and societies, such as the Central School Foundation, branches of Sokol, professional teacher organisations and many regional women's and youth organisations (including, in South Moravia, the National Union for Southwest Moravia), had an interest in the establishment of Czech minority education. This paper, in addition to a theoretical section on Czech minority education, also offers a concise look at the situation in minority education in three districts in the former German language island to the south of the historical centre of the City of Brno.

This study focuses on the process of the gradual shaping of Czech national awareness in Moravia from the beginning of the nineteenth century onwards when the necessary conditions for the development of improved mutual relations between the Czech (Slavic) population in the two Lands of the Czech Crown – Bohemia and Moravia – were slowly being formed. Moravia faced a number of handicaps to the development of a national revival in comparison with Bohemia, the most significant of which was the relatively high degree of Germanisation of the land. A change to the image of Moravia came in the revolutionary years 1848/1849, when Czech national awareness spread to broader sections of society in Moravia. The view of Bohemia held by the Moravians underwent significant change and a period of increasingly intensive political and cultural contact between the two lands arose.