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“The Czech Nation must be Catholic!” An Alternative version of Czech Nationalism during the First Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Cynthia J. Paces
Cynthia J. Paces*
Affiliation:
College of New Jersey, U.S.A.
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Extract

Jaroslav Durych, a popular Czech Catholic poet and essayist, began his weekly column in Lidové listy's (People's News) 10 May 1923 issue with the following proclamation: “The Czech Nation must be Catholic!” What did Durych mean by this puzzling statement? The majority of Czechs in the new Czechoslovak state considered themselves at least nominally Catholic. Yet Durych's article did not address the confessional status of Czechoslovakia's population, nor did it address religious differences between Czechs and Slovaks. Instead, Durych concerned himself with the representation of the Czech nation in popular mythology and official symbolism. He demanded that the Czech national symbols reflect the country's majority religion and not the Protestant experiment of the late Middle Ages.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , September 1999 , pp. 407 - 428
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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References

Notes

1. Durych, Jaroslav, “Český národ musí být katolický!” [The Czech Nation must be Catholic!], Lidové listy , 10 May 1923.Google Scholar

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 církve a patriarcha G. A. Prochazka [The Rise of the Czechoslovak Church and Patriarch G. A. Prochazka] (Brno: Ústřední rada Čsl. církve, 1932).Google Scholar

3. Miloš Trapl, Political Catholicism and the Czechoslovak People's Party in Czechoslovakia, 1918–1938 (Boulder: Social Science Monographs, 1995), p. 9.Google Scholar

4. The People's Parties are also referred to as the Populists.Google Scholar

5. Trapl, Political Catholicism , p. 54.Google Scholar

6. James Ramon Felak, At the Price of the Republic: Hlinka's Slovak People's Party (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994), p. 29.Google Scholar

7. 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 Československá akademie věd, 1958–1960), p. 104.Google Scholar

8. Trapl, Political Catholicism , p. 16.Google Scholar

9. On the pětka, see Mamatey and Luža, History of the Czechslovak Republic , pp. 108–110 and pp. 125–127. The tremendous power of the pětka, which was extraconstitutional, 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.Google Scholar

10. 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.Google Scholar

11. 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.Google Scholar

12. Trapl, Political Catholicism , p. 58.Google Scholar

13. Durych, “Český národ musí být katolický!”Google Scholar

14. Ibid.Google Scholar

15. Ibid.Google Scholar

16. 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].Google Scholar

17. “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.Google Scholar

18. “Zpupná urážka českěho národa!” [Arrogant insult to the Czech nation!], Socialista, 10 May 1923.Google Scholar

19. “Nový požadavek.”Google Scholar

20. “Zpupná urážka.”Google Scholar

21. Ibid. The “black” refers to the populist party. Several parties were nicknamed with a color: the Agrarians (green); Socialists and Communists (red); Populists (black).Google Scholar

22. 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.Google Scholar

23. “Sloup třidění duchu” [The column of class spirit], Pražský Večerník , 12 May 1923.Google Scholar

24. Durych, “Český národ musí být katolický!”Google Scholar

25. Ibid.Google Scholar

26. Čech , 30 October 1923.Google Scholar

27. See Čech and Lidové listy throughout fall 1923.Google Scholar

28. “František Sauer ze Žižkov” [František Sauer from Žižkov], Lidové listy , 11 November 1923.Google Scholar

29. “Zbaběty hrdina” [Cowardly hero], Čech , 8 November 1923; and “František Sauer.”Google Scholar

30. Franta Kysela-Sauer, “Kdo strhl mariánský sloup na Staroměstkém náměstí?” [Who demolished the Marian Column on Old Town Square?] Rudé právo , 4 November 1923.Google Scholar

31. Ibid.Google Scholar

32. Antonín Šorm, “Co bude státi znovuvybudování Mariánského sloupu v Praze” [What will be the rebuilt Marian Column in Prague?] Pražský Večerník , 3 November 1923.Google Scholar

33. 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).Google Scholar

34. Vlnas, Jan Nepomucký, passim .Google Scholar

35. 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.Google Scholar

36. 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.Google Scholar

37. This occurred sometime between 1396 and 1416.Google Scholar

38. Vlnas, Jan Nepomucký , p. 281.Google Scholar

39. Vlnas, Jan Nepomucký , p. 282.Google Scholar

40. 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.Google Scholar

41. Jiří Rak, Byvalé Čechové: České historicke myty a sterotypy [The Czechs of Old: Czech Historical Myths and Stereotypes] (Prague: Nakladatelství H ∧ H, 1994).Google Scholar

42. From Šibeničky (Prague, 1919–1920). Reprinted in Vlnas, Jan Nepomucký, p. 259.Google Scholar

43. Vlnas, Jan Nepomucký , p. 244.Google Scholar

44. Zdeněk Hojda and Jiří Pokorný, Pomníky a zapomniky [Monuments and Forgetting] (Prague: Paseka, 1996).Google Scholar

45. Peroutka, Budování státu, Vol. 1, pp. 407–408.Google Scholar

46. “Vítězství Jana Nepomuckěho v pátém roce republiky” [Victory of Jan of Nepomuk in the fifth year of the Republic,], Večern í Rudé Právo, 16 May 1923.Google Scholar

47. “Svatojanské slavnosti v Praze” [Saint Jan Festival in Prague], tech, 12 May 1923 and 13 May 1923.Google Scholar

48. “Svatojanské,” 13 May 1923.Google Scholar

49. 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.Google Scholar

50. Rudolf Horský, “Národní náš svátek” [Our National Holiday], Čech , 16 May 1923. Western Bohemia, near the German border, had a large German population.Google Scholar

51. “Stav otázky svatojanské” [State of the Saint Jan Question], Právo lidu , 16 May 1923.Google Scholar

52. Ibid.Google Scholar

53. “Vitězství.”Google Scholar

54. Ibid.Google Scholar

55. “Svatojanské,” 13 May 1923.Google Scholar

56. Ibid.Google Scholar

57. “Svatojanské,” 12 May 1923.Google Scholar

58. Ibid.Google Scholar

59. “Svatojanské,” 13 May 1923.Google Scholar

60. Ibid.Google Scholar

61. “Upozornění veškerému uchovenstvu Velké Prahy” [Public announcement for Greater Prague audience], tech, 13 May 1923.Google Scholar

62. “Svatojanské,” 13 May 1923.Google Scholar

63. Horský, “Národní náš svátek.”Google Scholar

64. Ibid.Google Scholar

65. Gellner, Ernest, Nations and Nationalism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983), passim.Google Scholar

66. Mamatey and Luža, History of the Czechslovak Republic , p. 128.Google Scholar

67. Trapl, Political Catholicism , p. 66.Google Scholar

68. Hajek, “Catholics and Politics,” p. 175.Google Scholar

69. 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).Google Scholar

70. The Czechoslovak National Church was founded in 1918 by nationalist Czech ex-Catholics who incorporated Catholic rituals with Hussite traditions.Google Scholar

71. “Rada starších čsl. církve” [Elder council of the Czechoslovak Church], Ministry of Education Fond (MS, c. 3145 pres/1924), SÚA.Google Scholar