"The Czech nation must be catholic!" an alternative version of Czech nationalism during the first republic

Nationalities Papers

Volumn 27, Issue 3, 1999, Pages 407-428

  Paces, Cynthia J ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION; NATIONAL IDENTITY; RELIGION; TWENTIETH CENTURY;

CZECHOSLOVAKIA;

EID: 0040960836     PISSN: 00905992     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/009059999108948     Document Type: Article

References (77)

1. Jaroslav Durych, "Český národ musí být katolický!" [The Czech Nation must be Catholic!], Lidové listy, 10 May 1923.
2. It is difficult to assess the actual number of Czechoslovak Catholics. In the years immediately following the First World War, the Catholic Church lost 1,388,000 members in Czechoslovakia mainly in the Czech provinces. This figure includes victims of the war and emigrants, as well as those who left the church. About 500,000 to 800,000 joined the breakaway Czechoslovak National Church, established in 1919. In the 1921 census, 76.3% of the population reported themselves as Roman Catholic. This was a sharp drop from the 96.5% who reported themselves as Roman Catholic in 1913, a period when public and state employees were not permitted to report themselves as "without religion" if they wanted to keep their jobs. See Ferdinand Peroutka, Budování státu [The Building of the State], 3rd edn, Vol. 3 (Prague: Lidové Noviny, 1991), pp. 1404-1407; and Ferdinand Prasek, Vznik Českovslovenské ciŕkve a patriarcha G. A. Prochazka [The Rise of the Czechoslovak Church and Patriarch G. A. Prochazka] (Brno: Ústřední rada Čsl. církve, 1932).
3. It is difficult to assess the actual number of Czechoslovak Catholics. In the years immediately following the First World War, the Catholic Church lost 1,388,000 members in Czechoslovakia mainly in the Czech provinces. This figure includes victims of the war and emigrants, as well as those who left the church. About 500,000 to 800,000 joined the breakaway Czechoslovak National Church, established in 1919. In the 1921 census, 76.3% of the population reported themselves as Roman Catholic. This was a sharp drop from the 96.5% who reported themselves as Roman Catholic in 1913, a period when public and state employees were not permitted to report themselves as "without religion" if they wanted to keep their jobs. See Ferdinand Peroutka, Budování státu [The Building of the State], 3rd edn, Vol. 3 (Prague: Lidové Noviny, 1991), pp. 1404-1407; and Ferdinand Prasek, Vznik Českovslovenské ciŕkve a patriarcha G. A. Prochazka [The Rise of the Czechoslovak Church and Patriarch G. A. Prochazka] (Brno: Ústřední rada Čsl. církve, 1932).
4. Miloš Trapl, Political Catholicism and the Czechoslovak People's Party in Czechoslovakia, 1918-1938 (Boulder: Social Science Monographs, 1995), p. 9.
5. The People's Parties are also referred to as the Populists.
6. Trapl, Political Catholicism, p. 54.
7. James Ramon Felak, At the Price of the Republic: Hlinka's Slovak People's Party (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994), p. 29.
8. Victor Mamatey and Radomír Luža, A History of the Czechoslovak Republic (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973), p. 99. For full election results, see Historický ústav Československá akademie věd, Přehled Československých dějin [Survey of Czechoslovak history], Vol. III (Prague: Historický ústav Ceskoslovenská akademie věd, 1958-1960), p. 104.
9. Victor Mamatey and Radomír Luža, A History of the Czechoslovak Republic (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973), p. 99. For full election results, see Historický ústav Československá akademie věd, Přehled Československých dějin [Survey of Czechoslovak history], Vol. III (Prague: Historický ústav Ceskoslovenská akademie věd, 1958-1960), p. 104.
10. Trapl, Political Catholicism, p. 16.
11. On the pětka, see Mamatey and Luža, History of the Czechslovak Republic, pp. 108-110 and pp. 125-127. The tremendous power of the p̌etka, which was extraconstituuonal, was one of the only features of the country's politics which tarnished the image of a purely democratic Czechoslovak state. Yet, one could also argue that the pětka maintained balance among the main political parties and enabled the state to remain stable and resistant to the extreme politics prevalent in Central Europe during the interwar period.
12. The debate between centralism versus provincial autonomy would continue throughout the First Czechoslovak Republic. In May 1918, Tomáš G. Masaryk drafted the Pittsburgh agreement to gather support among Czech and Slovak Americans for an independent Czechoslovak state. In the statement, Masaryk wrote that Slovakia would have provincial autonomy, on the model of the American states, yet the particulars thereof would be determined by the elected representatives of the new government. When the constitutional assembly met in 1920, however, a centralized system was established. Slovak Agrarians did not believe their province ready for autonomy, and Slovak Social Democrats completely opposed decentralization. Furthermore, many politicians feared Hlinka's intentions when it was learned that he secretly went to the Paris Peace Conference. As a compromise, the assembly adopted the Hungarian system of counties (župy), which would have regional administrations. Slovak Populists, in particular, were angry that the integrity of Slovakia was not recognized in the constitution. They were not appeased by their inclusion as "state people," that is members of the Czechoslovak nation and not national minorities. By the 1930s the autonomy question would become one of the most divisive issues in the state.
13. Trapl, Politika Českěho katolicismu na Moravě, 1918-1938 [The Politics of the Czech Catholics in Moravia, 1918-1938] (Prague, 1968), p. 24; Karol Sidor, Slovenská politika na pode pražskěho sněmu [Slovak Politics in the Prague Parliament] (Bratislava: Nakladom Kuihtlaciame "Adreja", 1943), pp. 178-183.
14. Trapl, Politika Českěho katolicismu na Moravě, 1918-1938 [The Politics of the Czech Catholics in Moravia, 1918-1938] (Prague, 1968), p. 24; Karol Sidor, Slovenská politika na pode pražskěho sněmu [Slovak Politics in the Prague Parliament] (Bratislava: Nakladom Kuihtlaciame "Adreja", 1943), pp. 178-183.
15. Trapl, Political Catholicism, p. 58.
16. Durych, "Český národ musí být katolický!"
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs compiled a clippings folder on this press war of 1923. See Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Cut-out Archive [hereafter MZV-VA], No. 1220, 1923-24, Carton 2457, Státní Ústřední Archiv [hereafter SÚA].
20. "Nový požadavek lidově strany: pomník Mistra J. Husa musí byti odstraněn [Populist party's new demand: the Jan Hus Memorial must be taken down]," Večer, 11 May 1923.
21. "Zpupná urážka českěho národa!" [Arrogant insult to the Czech nation!], Socialista, 10 May 1923.
22. "Nový požadavek."
23. "Zpupná urážka."
24. Ibid. The "black" refers to the populist party. Several parties were nicknamed with a color: the Agrarians (green); Socialists and Communists (red); Populists (black).
25. Frank Joseph Hajek, "Catholics and Politics in Czechoslovakia, 1918-1929: Jan Sramek and the People's Party," Ph.D. dissertation, Emory University, 1975, p. 128. Šramek also avoided association with international Catholic movements and thought of his party as a national political movement.
26. "Sloup třidění duchu" [The column of class spirit], Pražský Večernîk, 12 May 1923.
27. Durych, "Český národ musí být katolický!"
28. Ibid.
29. Čech, 30 October 1923.
30. See Čech and Lidové listy throughout fall 1923.
31. "František Sauer ze Žižkov" [František Sauer from Žižkov], Lidové listy, 11 November 1923.
32. "Zbaběty hrdina" [Cowardly hero], Čech, 8 November 1923; and "František Sauer."
33. Franta Kysela-Sauer, "Kdo strhl mariánský sloup na Staroměstkém náměstí?" [Who demolished the Marian Column on Old Town Square?] Rudé právo, 4 November 1923.
34. Ibid.
35. Antonín Šorm, "Co bude státi znovuvybudování Mariánského sloupu v Praze" [What will be the rebuilt Marian Column in Prague?] Pražský Večerńk, 3 November 1923.
36. On Jan of Nepomuk, see especially Vít Vlnas, Jan Nepomucký, Česká legenda [Jan of Nepomuk, Czech legend] (Prague: Mladá Fronta, 1993); and Josef Pekář, Tři kapitoly z boje o sv. Jana Nepomuckého [Three chapters from the struggle over Saint Jan of Nepomuk] (Prague: [no publisher given], 1921).
37. On Jan of Nepomuk, see especially Vít Vlnas, Jan Nepomucký, Česká legenda [Jan of Nepomuk, Czech legend] (Prague: Mladá Fronta, 1993); and Josef Pekář, Tři kapitoly z boje o sv. Jana Nepomuckého [Three chapters from the struggle over Saint Jan of Nepomuk] (Prague: [no publisher given], 1921).
38. Vlnas, Jan Nepomucký, passim.
39. This Czech King Wenceslas is not to be confused with the martyr credited with spreading Christianity in the Czech Lands. Known for his piety and kindness, the first King Wenceslas died at his brother's order, in 973. Later he was immortalized in the famous British Christmas carol.
40. The less spectacular version of this legend is that Jan of Nepomuk refused to approve one of King Wencelas's appointments and was executed by drowning for his obstinacy.
41. This occurred sometime between 1396 and 1416.
42. Vlnas, Jan Nepomucký, p. 281.
43. Vlnas, Jan Nepomucký, p. 282.
44. See Antonín Šorm and Antonín Krejča, Mariánské sloupy v Čechách a na Moravě [Marian Columns in Bohemia and Moravia] (Prague: Tisteno a vydáno u A. Danka, 1939) for details on the building of hundreds of such monuments in Bohemia and Moravia under Jesuit patronage.
45. Jiří Rak, Byvalé Čechově: České historicke myty a sterotypy [The Czechs of Old: Czech Historical Myths and Stereotypes] (Prague: Nakladatelství H & H, 1994).
46. From Šibeničky (Prague, 1919-1920). Reprinted in Vlnas, Jan Nepomucký, p. 259.
47. From Šibeničky (Prague, 1919-1920). Reprinted in Vlnas, Jan Nepomucký, p. 259.
48. Vlnas, Jan Nepomucký, p. 244.
49. Zdeněk Hojda and Jiří Pokorný, Pomníky a zapomniky [Monuments and Forgetting] (Prague: Paseka, 1996).
50. Peroutka, Budování státu, Vol. 1, pp. 407-408.
51. "Vítězství Jana Nepomuckěho v pátém roce republiky" [Victory of Jan of Nepomuk in the fifth year of the Republic,], Večerní Rudé Právo, 16 May 1923.
52. "Svatojanské slavnosti v Praze" [Saint Jan Festival in Prague], Čech, 12 May 1923 and 13 May 1923.
53. "Svatojanské," 13 May 1923.
54. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs compiled a collection of press clippings about the Jan of Nepomuk celebrations of 1923. See MZV-VA 1220, 1923-24, Carton 2457, SÚA.
55. Rudolf Horský, "Národní náš svátek" [Our National Holiday], Čech, 16 May 1923. Western Bohemia, near the German border, had a large German population.
56. "Stav otázky svatojanské" [State of the Saint Jan Question], Právo lidu, 16 May 1923.
57. Ibid.
58. "Vitězstvi."
59. Ibid.
60. "Svatojanské," 13 May 1923.
61. Ibid.
62. "Svatojanské," 12 May 1923.
63. Ibid.
64. "Svatojanské," 13 May 1923.
65. Ibid.
66. "Upozornění veškerému uchovenstvu Velké Prahy" [Public announcement for Greater Prague audience], Čech, 13 May 1923.
67. "Svatojanské," 13 May 1923.
68. Horský, "Národní náš svátek."
69. Ibid.
70. Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983), passim.
71. Mamatey and Luža, History of the Czechslovak Republic, p. 128.
72. Trapl, Political Catholicism, p. 66.
73. Hajek, "Catholics and Politics," p. 175.
74. On Joan of Arc, see Bonnie Wheeler and Charles T. Wood, eds, Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc (New York: Garland Publishers, 1996); Wilfred T. Jewkes and Jerome B. Landfield, eds, Joan of Arc: Fact, Legend and Literature (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1964).
75. On Joan of Arc, see Bonnie Wheeler and Charles T. Wood, eds, Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc (New York: Garland Publishers, 1996); Wilfred T. Jewkes and Jerome B. Landfield, eds, Joan of Arc: Fact, Legend and Literature (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1964).
76. The Czechoslovak National Church was founded in 1918 by nationalist Czech ex-Catholics who incorporated Catholic rituals with Hussite traditions.
77. "Rada starších čsl. církve" [Elder council of the Czechoslovak Church], Ministry of Education Fond (MŠ, č. 3145 pres/1924), SÚA.