german letter

Dear Neighbour,

What do Germans know about your country?

The good news is: Czechs don't have a bad reputation here in Germany, which is – unfortunately - uncommon for an Eastern European country.

Anna Wandschneider Anna currently studies Media Sciences and English and wants to become a journalist afterwards. She loves books just as much as Heavy Metal. Anna won the second prize in her country's national history competition and participated in the Eustory Academy in Berlin.

Some Germans tend to demonise our Eastern neighbours, or at least look at them with a slight contempt. To them, those states mean poverty - not third-world sordidness, but some sort of economical backwardness, which has led to an influx of low-wage workers in Germany.

Although the Czechs may not be disliked, Germans do not know them well either, despite the long history that our nations share, which started well before World War Two, before deportations and displacement. The Holy Roman Empire, for example, included Bohemia. Jan Hus, a Czech protestant preacher who was executed in a German city called Konstanz, influenced Martin Luther and the Second Defenestration of Prague led to the Thirty Years War in 1618.

And please don't forget Kafka, whose books I love! Our teachers practically forced us to read his novel The Trial, but never told us he wasn't German. All-round education really is not what it was in the good old times, but I guess that saying is international. By now I've come to realise that I know a Czech writer (I'm into literature) who, as a member of a German-speaking Jewish minority, wrote in German – clear proof of how close we used to be.

Anyway, regarding Czech-German history, most people only seem to remember the crimes committed by the National Socialists in the 1940s.

I found out, to my astonishment, that over 25 per cent of the minority population in the former Czechoslovakia was German, mostly located in the Sudetenland. They had wished to join German Austria, back in 1918, and Hitler used that to annex first the Sudetenland, then the rest of Czechoslovakia shortly after Austria in 1939.

We both know of the horrors that followed with deportations, Theresienstadt and the murder of the inhabitants of the Czech villages Lidice and Lezaky.

Dear neighbour, I think we could really advance our relationship or, to put it differently, start building up a close relationship. Things are indeed improving, with several town twinnings and the Czech Republic becoming a holiday destination for Germans. Personally I'm going to follow this trend and go on vacation to Prague this summer. I'll see Kafka's birthplace, and maybe even you? Then hopefully I will get to know my neighbour better.

When I read or hear about the deportations, I always ask myself what I would do if I were a displaced person. How could I deal with this bitterness of my comrades? And how would I react if people mistook me for one of them? Would I be ashamed? I've seen some documentaries about displaced persons who reacted normally; who have travelled back to Sudetenland, visited their old house, without hate or grief; have had even become friends with the current inhabitants. It works, you see? It does. There are Jews who visit Germany, even returned here, live here, and they suffered so much, and, I think it's ok to say so, they suffered more. The displacement of Germans afterwards seemed unsurprising.

Still, I suppose, the brutal way in which the displacement happened put a strain on the relationship between our countries for many years. Sixty years have passed, and still the "Bund der Vertriebenen", the Federation of Expellees, causes – let's call it – trouble. It is absolutely acceptable for me that those people have organised a movement, but the revisionist view some of them have gives me the shivers. The most outstanding example, and one you probably know, is their president, Erika Steinbach. She was the one who voted against the acceptance of the Oder-Neisse-line in 1991. She is especially disliked in Poland (you might know the caricature showing her in SS-uniform) and it is said that she trivialises Nazism. When the Czech Republic and Germany were officially reconciled in 1997, she said the reconcilation was a denial of all the German victims' fate.

Lots of love,

Anna

Czech Answer

Dear Anna,

Ondřej Kolínský Ondřej is 21 years old and studies theoretical economics at Charles University in Prague. He is an active member of the Eustory network, taking part in seminars and serving as an application coordinator for Central Europe. He is interested in social sciences, current affairs and literature.

You wrote that Czechs are not very well known in Germany and that from your side there is hardly any relationship at all. Well, it won't be surprising that, for us, it is a completely different story. Germany is our biggest and most powerful neighbour and the relationship to it has always been vital for the sovereignty of the Czech state.

I would like to add one example from our common history to those you already mentioned, to explain why Germany has mostly been seen as an oppressor by the Czechs. It is said that the worst tragedy in our history was the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, where the Czech nobility was defeated by the troops of the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic league. While in Prague this summer, you will still be able to see 27 white crosses on the Old Town square commemorating the noblemen executed after the battle.

What followed was an era of forced Germanisation and recatholisation which uprooted the national identity. It is quite self-explanatory that during the Czech National Revival in the 18th and 19th centuries, the most important task was to teach people the Czech language, because only the lower classes spoke it by then.

The animosity between our nations reached its peak in the 20th century, in the two wars and the expulsion of Czechoslovak Germans which followed. I would never advocate the brutal way in which German inhabitants were banished after World War II and I hate it when people compare it with the war crimes to make it look better, but I can understand that the expulsion was seen as something small compared with the thousand year long struggle with Germany.

And indeed, the situation has changed in the last sixty years but most probably for different reasons. During the August occupation of 1968, Soviet Russia took over the role of the oppressor and Czech fear and rage reoriented to the east.

Photo: sakura_chihaya (CC-SA)

Despite the tragic past between the Czech Republic and Germany, there is no more bitterness between the countries.

I have read somewhere that Czechs are like a toy in the hands of the great powers and it describes the reality of our history pretty well. But, at the same time, it is believed to be typically Czech to put ourselves in the role of the victim and to wait for a miracle instead of fighting, far too often. And I may be confirming this weepy reputation by writing about all the injustice instead of the glorious moments of our history.

Obviously, I have saved all the words of hope for the end of my letter. I'm proud to write, my dear neighbour, that today there is hardly any bitterness left in our relationship towards Germany. It is only now and then that someone tries to bring back to life the old demons of hatred and it usually causes embarrassment rather than a surge of national pride.

We are quite familiar with Germans today. There are lots of travelling between our countries, kids mostly learn German as their second foreign language. The economies are particularly interconnected; many German firms invest in the Czech Republic and even more Czech producers export to Germany. German politics is quite frequently discussed in our media and for instance your democratic institutions or green energy policy are often cited as a good example for our own reforms.

Not to forget about stereotypes, Germans are perceived as industrious workers, but also as quite heavy drinkers. But as there are lots of them coming here, this could be statistics rather than just stereotypes.

I have met dozens of young Germans and I think that we are very much alike. There seems to be enough openness on both sides and I believe that our relationships will continue to improve in the near future. To start with, I'd like to invite you for a beer when you're in Prague this summer. The best beer Europe has to offer, as many admit after trying.

Lots of love,

Ondřej