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12.
The time before and after 1848
When
the philosopher and theologian Johann Gottfried Herder resided
in Weimar and preached at the court of Karl August, he wrote
among other ruminations his "Reflections on the
Philosophy of the History of Mankind". Therein he
portrayed the Slavs as the champions of the future with the
mission to rejuvenate the world he saw in decline with the
oversaturated, old and outworn western civilization. Herder's
message fell on fertile ground very soon in the small Slavic
nations, Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, Serbs, Slovenians, and later
the Russians picked it up too. Herder's ideas also fitted well
into the concepts of the Eastern Orthodox Church about an
empire with Moscow becoming the "Third Rome". It did
not take long for Herder's chapter on the Slavs to be taken
out of context and published in Czech language. Herder's ideas
also bore fruit in Germany with folksongs, folk-studies,
folk-fairytales, folk-soul, and letting these words acquire
content and meaning. The romanticists continued the trend.
Furthermore, feelings ran high all over the lands with the
rise of France, the coronation of Napoleon as emperor, the end
of the Roman-German empire and the splitting up and
suppression of Germany. A powerful surge of patriotic passions
swept through sciences and literature. It was the period of
the Napoleonic Wars, victories and defeats. Bohemia was the
only territory never occupied by the French and Prague the
only city Napoleon never entered. Bohemia itself was arming
feverishly and became a singular military camp. The entry of
Austria into the war and the advance of soldiers from Bohemia
across the Ore and Elbe-Sandstone mountain ranges toward
Leipzig led to the decisive Battle of Nations where Napoleon
was defeated.
This
enormous drama of world history, which had unfolded around
Bohemia, left unforgettable impressions on both peoples of the
land. The national consciousness caused the hearts of the
Germans to beat higher, and Slavic Russia participating in the
struggle made the Czechs aware of having a mighty ethnic
cousin. At the same time Germans and Czechs recognized once
more the relationship given them by their common home and
history. But as time went on, nationalistic movements evolved,
at first mainly among the Bohemian students. The Sudetengerman
students went to Leipzig; the Slavs were drawn more to Jena,
where Slovaks, Croats and Serbs came together. Soon it began
to seethe everywhere. Handbills, songs, books and pictures of
national and patriotic content circulated far and wide. A
passionate youth abounding with ideas of national liberty also
grew up in Bohemia. All classes of the people aspired to more
freedom, the burghers of trades and commerce to a voice in
lawmaking and administration, the peasants to shake off their
serfdom; even the nobility wanted to do away with bureaucratic
patronage. These aspirations broke out in wild exuberance in
1848. The eruptions from below met with indecision from above.
The February-Revolution in France was enough to shake the
world of European states in its foundations. In Austria,
Metternich had to resign and the movement leapt from Vienna
over to the Bohemian capital. On March 11, a public gathering
took place at the Wenzel's Bath at Smychow where Czechs and
Germans jointly formulated democratic, liberal and social
demands without the question of nationality playing a role.
Only a smattering of these demands reached the towns in the
peripheral Sudetenlands. Committees and clubs were founded,
and club activities often turned into club mania.
Germans
and Czechs came to divergent views about the primary question
of whether or not representatives should be sent to the
national assembly in Frankfurt. The Czech historian Palacky
outlined the concept of a dualistic central Europe: only a
strong Germany and an equally strong Austria side by side
could guarantee a balance of power and peace. He spoke as an
Austrian, not so much as a Czech. The Czechs decided not to
attend the national assembly in Frankfurt. The Sudetengermans
sent 33 delegates. They could not abstain because the German
Alpine regions also sent representatives, and it could not be
foreseen that the Frankfurt assembly would exclude Austria
from the state of Germany. First rifts showed in the Bohemian
state-nation since the Hussite wars. Disturbances and acts of
violence flared up during the Slavic congress convening over
Whitsuntide. In Vienna the Reichstag was in session but -
compared to the Frankfurt assembly - it was more a meeting of
the peasantry; legislation on agricultural policy was its
major accomplishment. Hans Kudlich of Jägerndorf, student and
son of a peasant, introduced a motion for abolition of
servitude and freeing the peasants from all dues tied to the
land. This became a law in September constituting the second
step toward the full liberation of the peasantry. Kudlich's
liberating deed benefited the Czechs and Germans equally. The
Czech democratic movement with its wide rural base would have
been unthinkable without this second peasant liberation just
as much as without the first liberation instituted by Josef II.
In
December, during new warlike revolutionary unrest, a
succession took place in Olmütz: Kaiser Ferdinand abdicated,
his brother Franz Karl renounced the succession, and so the
just eighteen year old Archduke Franz was proclaimed Kaiser
Franz Josef I. Meanwhile, the assembly in Frankfurt expected
Austria to disintegrate and therefore resolved that no
territory with a non-German population should become a member
of the federation. This meant the exclusion of German-Austria
from Germany, the so-called Kleindeutsch solution. It was a
fateful precedent not only for the German partition of 1866,
but also for the demarcation lines of 1919 and 1945. The
Frankfurt resolution made it the more important what the
Reichstag at Kremsier would resolve for Austria.
The
young kaiser rejected democratic autonomy of communities,
nationality-defined counties and crown-lands related in
ascending order, as well as a central power divided between
monarchy and parliament (so the Reichstag's final draft). The
Reichstag was dissolved and a dangerous reaction foretold
itself. An all-state-constitution proclaimed by the kaiser
included among other points the equality of nationalities, but
unfortunately, it lacked the sanction of the peoples and
therefore the necessary stability. Therefore, this
constitution was never enacted, and two years later it was
repealed. "Neoabsolutism" was a period of fruitful
reforms in various fields, but censorship was oppressive;
every bit of liberal activity was squashed by the newly
organized police. In 1859, neoabsolutism collapsed on the
battlefields of Upper-Italy; the kaiser reverted back to the
constitutional form of government.
In
1862, Otto von Bismarck became prime minister of Prussia. He
thwarted Franz Josef's hope of being proclaimed kaiser of
Germany at Frankfurt in 1863. Moreover, Prussia blocked
Austria's membership in the German Customs Union. War with
Prussia for supremacy approached threateningly and erupted in
1866. Contrary to all expectations, the war was fought out in
the Sudetenlands. In the battle of Königgrätz, death reaped
a terrible harvest among the German-Bohemian regiments. The
last skirmish took place before the gates of Pressburg
(Bratislava). Bismarck dealt leniently with the defeated enemy,
so as not to drive him into irreconcilable enmity. Austria did
not have to cede any territories but had to leave the German
Confederacy and acknowledge the reconfederation of Germany.
The loosers were the Germans of Austria; they had been
expelled from their common fatherland. The historic unity
imparted by the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was now
buried for good and the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was born.
The Austro-Germans were left to fend for themselves.
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