Publication details
Memory Activism in the Czech Republic: Bringing the Historic German Presence into the Czech National Narrative
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| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | In the period between 1945 and 1947, over three million ethnic Germans were expelled, partly violently, from their homes in Czechoslovakia to neighboring Austria, East and West Germany. With the 1948 communist coup in Czechoslovakia, the issue of expulsions of German inhabitants became a taboo, sustained by the communist propaganda. After the 1989 Velvet Revolution, questions about the legality and morality of these expulsions became a sensitive issue in Czech politics after the 1989 Velvet Revolution, while also having a negative effect on relations with Austria and Germany. More recently, Czech defensiveness around the expulsions of Germans have diminished somewhat. A growing number of civil society organizations and local initiatives have emerged that seek to acknowledge the historic presence of Germans in the territory of current Czechia and their contribution to the pre-WW2 economic, cultural and social development of the country. This paper explores the reasons for this shifting landscape using semi-structured in-depth interviews with 15 memory activists from across the country, both at the levels of center and periphery, to trace their motivations, visions and strategies. The paper uncovers changing narratives vis-a-vis the expulsions of Germans from Czechoslovakia that expand the boundaries of Czech national identity beyond traditional ethnonationalist one towards a more civic one. We argue that the most successful narrative constructed by vigorous activities of individuals and institutions has conceived expulsions as “cultural trauma” (Alexander 2004) caused by removing an essential part of Czech history and identity and diminishing Czech cultural and material development. |
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