Yeah, pointing that out is the easiest way I know to get into a shouting match with most Czechs. But the consequences are easy to see. Just compare pre-war mostly German-speaking towns with those that were mostly Czech-speaking. The latter tend to be quite dynamic and flourishing. They were the first to recover after the Revolution, as families got their businesses and property back in restitution and reopened them or started new ones. In contrast the German-speaking ones, populated with a motley assortment of people from farther east and rootless Czechs tend even today to be poorer and more inflexible. They mourn the past and have no desire to create anything themselves.
It was quite a lesson for this rootless person in how important a deep connection to place can be.
Yeah, pointing that out is the easiest way I know to get into a shouting match with most Czechs. But the consequences are easy to see. Just compare pre-war mostly German-speaking towns with those that were mostly Czech-speaking. The latter tend to be quite dynamic and flourishing. They were the first to recover after the Revolution, as families got their businesses and property back in restitution and reopened them or started new ones. In contrast the German-speaking ones, populated with a motley assortment of people from farther east and rootless Czechs tend even today to be poorer and more inflexible. They mourn the past and have no desire to create anything themselves.
ReplyDeleteIt was quite a lesson for this rootless person in how important a deep connection to place can be.
Seriously, although I do not think Silesia should have been given to Poland, what else could be done in Czechoslovakia?
ReplyDeleteListen to the interview.
ReplyDelete