THE GERMAN QUESTION IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA
By LEWIS EINSTEIN' THE stranger who wishes to study conditions in Czechoslovakia may be bewildered when he tries to draw inferences from the contradictory statements he will hear. Germans will tell of their grievances and how since the Republic was established hundreds of their schools have been closed and that they furnish only a trifling proportion of State officials. The Czechs will then explain that only those schools kept for propa- ganda purposes in Czech districts have been shut down, and that the reason why there are so few Germans in the Government service is because not many of these are able to qualify in the Czech language.
Controversies of this kind have been going on in Bohemia for generations, and have developed a remarkable technique in pinpricks and prevarication. Similar dis- putes exist in much the same way in other States where two so-called races live side by side, and politicians thrive by exploiting national differences. In no democratic country will a majority ever refrain from picking the plums, or will it ever act quite fairly toward its opponents. That not a few Czech officials were inquisitorial and overbearing was due at fast to inexperience, but is also something of a characteristic of continental bureaucracy chiefly resented when bureaucrats are of another race. But it may be said in favour of the Czech administration that, though often tactless and unintelligent, the treatment accorded their German minority of 3f millions invites comparison with similar treatment in any other country in Central Europe, and most of the allegations of oppression have been grossly exaggerated. I recall a German manu-' facturer from Northern Bohemia asking for my sympathy because the Czechs had left them " only their skins," and when I laughed because he himself looked so pro- sperous, he also smiled.
The real causes for German discontent are not always the ones mentioned to strangers, and even if the Czechs were to give greater satisfaction to many specific com- plaints the deeper grievances would still remain. For the rancour of German Bohemians, like that of Germans in the Reich, comes principally from a feeling of inferiority after having so long been accustomed to regard themselves as masters.
* Mr. Einstein was TJ.S. Minister to Czechoslovakia from 1921 to 1930. The Peace Treaties left the new Republic with a larger number of German inhabitants than was desirable for a State which was ardently Czech nationalist as well as democratic. Mr. Lloyd George may have been more to blame for this circumstance than were the Czech leaders. The traveller from the West passes the Czechoslovak customs at the pleasant town of Eger, where Wallenstein was murdered. But Eger is also the centre of a rich plateau outside the old Bohemian Crown lands, acquired in the Middle Ages as security for an unredeemed loan which a King of Bohemia had advanced to the Emperor. More recently it has been a hotbed for that turbulent brand of Pan-Germanism which Bismarck regarded as a nuisance. At the Peace Conference, Dr. Benes privately suggested surrendering Eger to the Reich, with about a million German inhabitants of that region, in exchange for a few hundred thousand Lusatian Serbs, who lived across the northern border in Saxony, and still kept up Slav traditions. His plan was submitted to Mr. Lloyd George, but that debonnair statesman is reported to have dismissed the proposal with the words " On the one hand they want to give up, on the other they want to take; let them stay as they are."
Until Bohemia lost its independence in the Thirty Years' War, Czechs and Germans had lived side by side in friendship. They intermarried, and fought, and suffered, for the same causes. But during the nineteenth century the revival of the national spirit developed a sharp antagonism as the Czechs regained their land which under Hapsburg rule had been superficially Germanised. In this process a somewhat artificial Slavism was forged as a weapon to combat a somewhat inflated Germanism in a country which contained a blend of both ingredients. For between Germans and Czechs in Bohemia the principal difference was one of loyalty and language. Even in their hatreds they came to resemble each other and, although both sides would indignantly repudiate such a suggestion, apart from political creeds, the two are closer today than the German Bohemian is to the German of the Reich, or the Czech to any other Slay. A simple test of the truth of this _statement can be made by anyone who travels by car through the country. Between the German and Czech' regions the lingtfistic .frontier begins sonic thirty miles to the north, and forty to the west of Prague, where one enters German Bohemia after crossing a wide plain which in early summer is gay with climbing hops. But except for the different languages written on the signs, the physical appearance of houses, streets, villages, and people, whether Czech or German is the same, whereas between a German Bohemian, and a Saxon, or a Bavarian hamlet, although only across the border, one notices at once a real difference. Racial' theories become still more discon- certing when in the same family one branch or one brother called himself a Czech and the others described themselves as German.
By an odd paradox the nearer the two races had come together in their standards of life, the more bitter grew the feeling between them. Before the War Germans and Czechs neither frequented each Other's houses, cafes, or theatres, "and if anyqne had been bold enough to transgress this unwritten law he would have been ostracised by the other members of his community. With the advent of the Republic when Czech supremacy was established, President Masaryk did all he humanly could to break down this spirit of hatred. He brought German Ministers into the Cabinet and - persuaded German Agrarians;Clericals and Socialists whose economic interests were the same as those of their Czech counter- parts to enter the Government coalition. His con- ciliatory policy helped to soften much of the old animosity. German captainS .4tif industry attended receptions at the Castle-. More and more, while former hatreds slowly grew less, Germans and Czechs met on the football field and on the Win-tennis courts.
Then came Hitler. In Czechoslovakia where the depression hit German industrial regions hardest of all and a terrible unemployment increased the discontent, appeared the professor of gymnastics Henlein, whom the late Lord Curzon would probably have - described as " a man Of 'the utmost insignificance." He was sincere, he possessed a lusty physique, he enthused the youth and• rallied the remains of fourteen GerMan political parties. Although professing loyalty to the State he advanced an uncomfortably vague Claim for German " rights "and autonomy. Peasants and artisans, Catholics, and Jews, followed him, many because they believed in him, and some because they thought it wise not to stay outside his movement, and others also becatise they hoped to make use of his popularity and his inex- perience. I have heard German Bohemians admit that behind him are some very dangerous eleinents. Probably no one was more' surprised than Henlein when he found himself at the had of numerically the largest party in Czechoslovakia.
The situation created is not easy for either side. President Benes, like Masaryk before him, desires to conciliate the minority by any measures which will not endanger the Czech keystone of the State, and' a third highly respectable tame German sits today in the Coalition Cabinet. But a new Defence Act which contains a drastic clause of national trustworthiness virtually excludes' Germans from the extensive armament preparations in -progress that mainly benefit Czech industry. The Czechs are, as always, confronted with the dilemma either of admitting a minority which remains generallyloyal to Deutschtunz, feeling the cushion of the Reich behind, or 'else of keeping out the _Germans and facing the consequences. Without the Totalitarian State across the border, feeding its allies outside, this would have been easier. But Henlein is also in a difficult position, for his &lin* AO- obtain something tangible make§ 'him draw nearer' to the Nazis:' And Czech distrust increased- since his reeent Speech 'shoWed him travelling on the road to Berlin. From having been only a local 'issue the Germaa question in CzechosloVakia bidS fair to become a European one as Hitler's Eastern policy is steadily unfolded. After the Polish comes the Austrian Pact and politically, as geographically, Prague lies between Warsaw and Vienna. The Fiihrer may not wish, as yet, to annex the German Bohemians, partly because it is doubtful if la• majority could be obtained for 'this and still more because they can be of greater 'use as tools of discontent: Iti; has -been hinted 'in Berlin that he might shortly offer Prague a pa-et of friendship, but what is tci be its price'? Will he allow Czechoslovakia to continue- an ally of France and now of Russia ? The Czechs knoW how much they stand to lose by war, but they do not propose to lose their independence by peace, and - will fight to remain masters in a house which they have waited three hundred years 'to regain. That explains their pact with • Moscow and why -the first round between Hitler and Stalin may take place over a German minority in a country which detests Communism quite as much as it does the Nazi.
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