The Germans and the Czechs Upon the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918, the Czechoslovak Republic came into being through the efforts of Tomás G. Masaryk and Edvard Beneš, with Slovakia, separated from Hungary, joining Bohemia and Moravia. In order to achieve a majority in the new multi-ethnic state, they invented a Czechoslovak language and devised a Czechoslovak ethnicity, although neither had ever existed. The occupation of the German-speaking territories in 1918 and 1919 took place as a hostile takeover by Czech troops. In October 1938, the Munich Agreement forced these German territories to be ceded from Czechoslovakia to Germany. They formed the Reichsgau Sudetenland, with southern areas attached to Bavaria and Reichsgaue Upper Danube and Lower Danube. In his speech in Tabor on June 3, 1945, Beneš incited his audience: "Throw the Germans out of their homes, make room for our people!" He remarked sarcastically, "Let them keep their handkerchiefs so they can cry into them." In 1948, the CSR became the CSSR, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. For the suffering inflicted on the Czech people by National Socialism between 1938 and 1945, 3.2 million Germans were expelled without mercy. Communists played a huge role, many of whom last minute partisans. A law was passed in Czechoslovakia that established impunity for any crimes committed in connection with the expulsions. Many atrocities are recorded in publications and are widely known. More than one million of displaced persons settled in Bavaria; for others, the trains carried them on to other German states, but also to East Germany (later the GDR) and to Austria, where they could only obtain citizenship with difficulty. Ironically, the "Sudeten German Question" is often seen as a German problem linked to the crimes of Nazism; the connection with Austria (and the Principality of Liechtenstein) was underappreciated if not forgotten. In order to wipe out the memory of the Liechtenstein princes as the last sovereigns, the town of Jägerndorf, once eponymous with the Duchy of Jägerndorf, was incorporated into the Bruntál district, where, now called Krnov, is the largest town. Czechs continue to strive to obtain exclusive trademark rights for regional products. Examples are the Karlsbad wafers and the Becher-Bitter (Becherovka), which also originated from there. The three-word pun "Altvater-Gessler-Jägerndorf" associated with the local herbal liqueur is still recognized today; in addition to the town Jägerndorf, it referenced Altvater, the highest mountain of the region, and Gessler, the producer of the beverage. The author of this book is a descendant of an Austro-Silesian born in the Jägerndorf district. He wrote it based on intensive research for a history of his ancestors´ homeplace.

Das Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts sah eine neue europäische Beschäftigung mit außereuropäischen Regionen, die aufgrund der weltweiten Vernetzung durch Eisenbahn und Linienschiff für immer mehr Menschen direkt erfahrbar wurden. Auch im tschechischen Kontext diskutierten Wissenschaftler, Publizisten und Reisende, wie sich die eigene Gesellschaft – und ab 1918 auch der tschechoslowakische Staat – in einer sich globalisierenden Welt zu verorten habe. Vor allem anhand von Reiseberichten über Afrika, Asien, Australien und Lateinamerika wird hier der tschechische Umgang mit Kolonialismus, Rassismus sowie Globalisierung und schließlich auch eine eigene Form des Reisens „zweiter Klasse“ aufgezeigt. Die diesem Buch zugrundeliegende Dissertation wurde mit dem Grete-Mostny-Preis der Universität Wien ausgezeichnet.

Hausarbeit, die während des Erasmus+-Programms in Regensburg geschrieben wurde Research paper written during the Erasmus+ Programme in Regensburg