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The ‘Minority Problem’ and National Classification in the French and Czechoslovak Borderlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2008

TARA ZAHRA
TARA ZAHRA*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago, 1126 East 59th Street, Mailbox 85, Chicago, IL 60637, United States; tzahra@uchicago.edu.
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Abstract

In the aftermath of the First World War, a so-called ‘minority problem’ loomed large in European politics. This problem was understood, moreover, to be peculiar to central and eastern Europe. In fact, however, linguistic diversity was not a unique feature of the east, but also an ongoing challenge in states that had long claimed to have a unified national culture. This article compares policies of national classification and minority rights in France and Czechoslovakia after the First World War. It suggests that even as east/west binaries structured the unequal application of new international minority rights protections, France, rather than Czechoslovakia, implemented a more radical and racist policy of forcible national classification.

Le ‘problème des minorités’ et la classification nationale dans les zones frontalières françaises et tchécoslovaques

A la suite de la première guerre mondiale, le ‘problème des minorités’ était très important dans la politique européenne. De plus, ce problème était entendu comme particulier à l'Europe centrale et orientale. En fait, la diversité linguistique n'était pas une caractéristique unique de l'Est, mais aussi un continuel défi dans des états qui revendiquaient depuis longtemps une culture nationale unifiée. Cet article compare les politiques de classification nationale et le droit des minorités en France et en Tchécoslovaquie après la première guerre mondiale. Il argumente que la classification de l'appartenance nationale était, en France, plus radicale et plus raciste qu'en Tchécoslovaquie, même si on pouvait encore reconnaître la divergence traditionnelle dans l'octroi des droits des minorités.

Minderheiten und die staaliche politik nationaler klassifizierung in den französischen und tschechoslowakischen grenzgebieten

Nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg bestimmte ein so genanntes ‘Minderheitenproblem’ die europäische Politik und wurde besonders auf Zentral- und Osteuropa bezogen. Tatsächlich jedoch trat linguistische Vielfalt nicht nur im Osten Europas auf, sondern bildete auch eine kontinuierliche Herausforderung in Staaten, welche scheinbar eine vereinheitlichte nationale Kultur aufwiesen. Dieser Artikel vergleicht die Art und Weise, wie in der Politik Frankreichs und der Tschechoslowakei nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg Minderheiten nach nationalen Kriterien klassifiziert und Minderheitsrechte durchgesetzt wurden. Er argumentiert, dass die Klassifikationen von nationaler Zugehörigkeit in Frankreich radikaler und rassistischer war als in der Tschechoslowakei, auch wenn man den traditionellen Gegensatz in der Gewährung von Minderheitenrechten noch erkennen kann.

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Articles
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Contemporary European History , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , May 2008 , pp. 137 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

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22 This approach borrows from the insights of Peter Sahlins and Pieter Judson, who have both explored the ways in which nationalists constructed their self-image in so-called borderlands. See Peter, Sahlins, Boundaries: the Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989)Google Scholar; Judson, Pieter M., Guardians of the Nation: Activists on the Language Frontiers of Imperial Austria (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006)Google Scholar.

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25 After 1867 the Hungarian half of the Dual Monarchy was governed much more like a nation-state along the French model than were the Austrian crown lands. The government of Hungary sought to assimilate its linguistic minorities through policies of Magyarisation.

26 Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen, 67–94.

27 On the role of the Austrian state in facilitating nationalist movements see especially King, Budweisers into Czechs and Germans; Judson, Guardians of the Nation; Stourzh, Die Gleichberechtigung der Nationalitäten; Tara, Zahra, ‘Each Nation Only Cares for its Own: Empire, Nation, and Child Welfare Activism in the Bohemian Lands, 1900–1918’, American Historical Review, 111, 5 (2006), 1378–402Google Scholar.

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34 Gilbert, Murray, ‘Introduction’, in Mair, L. P., The Protection of Minorities: The Working and Scope of the Minorities Treaties under the League of Nations (London: Christophers, 1928), v–viGoogle Scholar.

35 Carole, Fink, Defending the Rights of Others: The Great Powers, the Jews, and International Minority Protection 1878–1938 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 360Google Scholar. On the political considerations which shaped the minority treaties see also Patrick, Finney, ‘An Evil for All Concerned: Great Britain and Minority Protection after 1919’, Journal of Contemporary History, 30, 3 (1995), 533–51Google Scholar. On inter-war minority protection see also Mark, Mazower, ‘Minorities and the League of Nations in Inter-war Europe’, Daedelus, 126 (1997), 47–61Google Scholar and ‘The Strange Triumph of Human Rights’, Historical Journal, 47 (2004), 379–89. For an excellent overview of work on the League of Nations see Pederson, Susan, ‘Back to the League of Nations’, American Historical Review, 112 (October 2007), 1091–117CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36 Murray, ‘Introduction’, The Protection of Minorities, vii.

37 Fink, Defending the Rights of Others, 278, 287, 298, 310–11. See also Mazower, ‘Minorities and the League of Nations’, 47–61.

38 French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, on 24 January 1919. Cited in Harvey, Constructing Class and Nationality, 544.

39 On the Habsburg state's anti-Czech politics during the First World War see Jan Havránek, ‘Politische Repression und Versorgungsengpässe in den böhmischen Ländern 1914 bis 1918’, in Mommsen et al., Der erste Weltkrieg, 47–67; Křen, Die Konfliktgemeinschaft, 312; Healy, Vienna, 122–159; Rachamimov, POWs and the Great War.

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44 Jean, Claude Farcy, Les camps de concentration français de la première guerre mondiale (Paris: Anthropos, 1995), 51–63Google Scholar. Among the 10,000 people classified by the military commission, 5,247 were issued the carte tricolore, 219 were considered suspect, 936 were freed before the commission arrived, 219 were considered hostages and 4,214 were classified as Austro-Germans. See Fischer, ‘Alsace to the Alsatians?’, 212.

45 Commissions interministerielle de classement des Alsaciens Lorrains, Paris 25 Mars 1919, 121 AL 902, Archives départmentales du Bas-Rhin (ADBR).

46 Fischer, ‘Alsace to the Alsatians’, 214–16. On similar tensions between Alsatian evacuees and French hosts in the south-west during the Second World War see Boswell, Laird, ‘Franco-Alsatian Conflict and the Crises of National Sentiment During the Phoney War’, Journal of Modern History, 71 (September 1999), 552–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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48 Boswell, ‘From Liberation to Purge Trials’, 131–2. On Alsatian particularities see also Fischer, ‘Alsace to the Alsatians?’, 55–62; François Uberfill, La société strasbourgeoise entre France et Allemagne, 1871–1924 (Strasbourg: Société Savante d'Alsace, 2001).

49 Wetterlé, Ce qu'était l'Alsace-Lorraine, 27.

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53 On the ethnicisation of German–French difference in France see Jeismann, Das Vaterland der Feinde, 349–64.

54 Edgar Bérillon, ‘La psychologie de la race allemande d'après ses carictéristiques objectives et spécifiques’, lecture, 4 February 1917, Association française pour l'avancement des sciences, (Paris, 1917), 77–139, 118, 121, cited in Annette Becker, Oubliés de la grande guerre. Humanitaires et culture de guerre, 1914–1918. Populations occupées, déportés civils, prisonniers de guerre (Paris: Noêsis, 1998), 328. For other contemporary examples of the racialisation of French–German difference see Louis Battifol, L'alsace est française par ses origines, sa race, son passé (Paris: E. Flammarion, 1919); E. Sainte-Marie Perrin, Ce que pense l'Alsace (Paris: Cussac, 1918), 29.

55 Harris also discusses the vigorous debate about abortion provoked by racial fears about children of German soldiers. Ruth Harris, ‘The “Child of the Barbarian”: Rape, Race, and Nationalism in France during the First World War’, Past and Present, 141 (1993), 170–206. See also Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau, L'enfant de l'ennemi: vol, avortement, infanticide pendant le Grande Guerre (Paris: Aubier, 1995).

56 Alfred Zeil, Rapport sur les questions de nationalité. Comités d'études économiques et administratives relatives a l'Alsace-Lorraine, Adopté en séance du Comité du 23 Fevrier 1918, 4, 30/AJ/96, Archives nationales françaises (AN).

57 Ibid., 27. Zeil also cited the Jews of Romania as a model for the treatment of Germans in Alsace.

58 Ibid., 28.

59 121 AL 907–8, ADBR; 286 D 175, ADBR.

60 Zeil, Rapport sur les questions de nationalité, 46–7.

61 Cathérine Lefevre à Monsieur le Haut-Commissaire de la République, 17 April 1919, 286 D 175, ADBR.

62 For similar debates in both French and German colonial contexts see Lora, Wildenthal, German Women for Empire, 1884–1945 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001)Google Scholar; and Stoler, ‘Sexual Affronts and Racial Frontiers’, 286–322.

63 Telegram, Metz 4305 11/10, 23 May 1921, 30/AJ/296, AN.

64 Memo from Hirschauer, 30 June 1921, 30/AJ/296, AN.

65 Hélène Herr à Monsieur le Haut-Commissaire de la République, 27 March 1919, 286 D 175, ADBR.

66 Joseph Kropfinger à Monsieur le Haut-Commissaire de la République, May 9, 1919, 286 D 175, ADBR.

67 Jacques Guthier à Monsieur le Haut-Commissaire de la République, 28 March 1919, 286 D 175, ADBR.

68 Monsieur Ziegler à Monsieur le Haut-Commissaire de la République, 11 April 1919, 286 D 175, ADBR.

69 Le commissaire de la République à Strasbourg à Monsieur Ziegler, Inspecteur de la Prison Civile, 16 April 1919, 286 D 175, ADBR.

70 Commission de triage et de classement du 2ème degré (Metz) à Commissaire général de la République (Strasbourg), 7 July 1919, 121 AL 902, ADBR.

71 Denunciation of Ludzig Bauni, 21 January 1919, AL 121 906, ADBR.

72 Bergen, Doris L., ‘The Nazi Conception of “Volksdeutsche” and the Exacerbation of Anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe, 1939–45’, Journal of Contemporary History, 29, 4 (1994), 569–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

73 Otto Lergenmueller à Monsieur le Haut-Commissaire de la République, 9 March 1919; Le Commissaire de la République à Monsieur Lergenmueller, Otto, 18 March 1919. For other uses of anti-German sentiment as ‘proof’ of Frenchness see Charles Thomas à Monsieur le Haut-Commissaire de la République, 29 April 1919; Emile Ruos à Monsieur le Haut-Commissaire de la République, 16 April 1919; Charles Kraft à Monsieur le Haut-Commissaire de la République, 19 March 1919; Chrétien Knösel à Monsieur le Haut-Commissaire de la République, 14 March 1919. All in 286 D 175, ADBR.

74 Heinrich, Rauchberg, Der nationale Besitzstand in Böhmen (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1905), 435Google Scholar. Other districts in Bohemia with a high percentage of bilingual children included Most/Brüx (22.4 per cent), Budějovice/Budweis (16.2 per cent), Liberec/Reichenberg (16.1 per cent) Duchcov/Dux (17.1 per cent) and Litoměřice/Leitmeritz (13.4 per cent). Statistics are not available for Moravia, but one nationalist pedagogue referred to bilingual education in the home as a ‘Moravian specialty’ in 1883. See Jan, Kapras, Řeč mateřská orgánem školy obecné a znakem národnosti (Prague: Urbánek, 1883), 9–10Google Scholar.

75 Indra, Richard, ‘Návod, jak reklamovati české dítky z něměckých škol’, Zákon perkův, právní priručky pro učitelstvo (Zábřeh: Družstvo knihtiskárny, 1913), 43Google Scholar.

76 Z. 6962/22, Carton 857, NSS, NA. For more on the Lex Perek and reclamations see Zahra, ‘Reclaiming Children for the Nation’. More than 300 cases reached the Czechoslovak Supreme Administrative Court, in which the court was charged with determining whether individual children were Czech or German.

77 See King, Budweisers into Czechs and Germans, 164–5, for a discussion of the 1921 census.

78 No author, Unsere deutsche Schulen und das Vernichtungsgesetz (Eger: Böhmerland Verlag, 1920), 7.

79 This strategy was successful. For statistics see Friedmann, František, Mravnost či oportunita? Několik poznámek k anketě acad. spolku ‘Kapper’ a českožidovství a sionismu (Prague: Sionistický výbor pracovní pro Čechy a Moravu, 1927), 24–6, 36Google Scholar.

80 See Vládní nařizení č. 256/1920, 8 April 1920 and č. 592/1920, 20 Ocbober 1920 in Sbirka zákonů a nařizení státu československu (Prague: Státní nakladatelství, 1920), 1503–6.

81 Oddělení spisovny 11, č. 57, podčislo 15, Carton 251, MV-SR, NA.

82 Oddělení spisovny 11, č. 58, podčislo 4, Carton 251, MV-SR, NA.

83 Ibid., podčislo 7, carton 251, MV-SR, NA.

84 Ibid., podčislo 38, carton 251, MV-SR, NA.

85 Ibid., podčislo 44, carton 251, MV-SR, NA.

86 Ibid., podčislo 19, podčislo 17, podčislo 28, podčislo 38, all in carton 251, MV-SR, NA.

87 Sčitání lidu 1930, Memo from the NRČ to the State Statistical Office and the Presidium of the Council of Ministers, 16 May 1930, carton 183, NRČ, NA.

88 Vládní nařizení ze dne 26 června 1930 o sčitání lidu v roce 1930, Sbírka zákonů a nařízení státu československého (Prague: Státní nakladatelství, 1930), 480.

89 Memo to Josef Mičkov in Frýdek, Odděleni spisovny 8, č. 247, podčislo 19, carton 2995, MV-SR, NA.

90 Odděleni spisovny 8, č. 249, podčislo 16, carton 2996, MV-SR, NA.

91 Germany's 2000 citizenship law automatically grants citizenship to children of non-citizens born on German soil, if at least one parent has the status of permanent resident and has been residing in Germany for at least eight years. Such children are required to apply to retain citizenship status at the age of 23, and may not have dual citizenship. Germany's naturalisation law requires prospective citizens to live in Germany for eight years and take 650 hours of German language instruction.

92 Michael, Johns, ‘Do as I Say, not as I Do: the European Union, Eastern Europe, and Minority Rights’, East European Politics and Societies, 17, 4 (2003), 682–99Google Scholar. For Minority at Risk data see http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/inscr/mar/ (last visited 3 August 2007).

93 Tony, Judt, Post-war: A History of Europe Since 1945 (New York: Knopf, 2005), 8–9Google Scholar.

94 For further discussion on the creation of minorities in Europe after 1918 see Bahm, Karl F., ‘The Inconveniences of Nationality: German Bohemians, the Disintegration of the Habsburg Monarchy, and the Attempt to Create a “Sudeten German” Identity’, Nationalities Papers, 27, 3 (1999), 375–405CrossRefGoogle Scholar; John, Swanson, ‘Nation, Volk, Minderheit, Volksgruppe: Die deutsche Minderheit in Ungarn in den Begriffskämpfen der Zwischenkriegsära’, Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropaforschung 55, 4 (2006), 526–47Google Scholar; Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed, 55–78; Theodora Dragostinova, ‘Between two Motherlands: Struggles for Nationhood among the Greeks in Bulgaria, 1906–49’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois, 2006; Chu, Winson, ‘“Volksgemeinschaften unter sich”: German Minorities and Regionalism in Poland, 1918–39’, in Gregor, Neil, Roemer, Nils and Roseman, Mark, eds., German History from the Margins. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006), 104–26Google Scholar; Brown, Biography of No Place, 18–51.