Introduction

In this chapter we will construct a historical context for the study of language contact and multilingualism in eastern central Europe, with a particular focus on Hungary and the Czech Republic. Our aim is to show what social and cultural spaces language policies and ideologies in Hungary and in what is now the Czech Republic have created in the past and for whom, and how their histories relate to the wider context of historic developments in the central European region. The key questions here are: which languages were important at what time and why, and what was the position of the German language within the multilingual and multiethnic context of the wider region? By focusing on the changing position of, and experiences with, the German language we can map out the changing relationships between the German language and language ideologies relating to Czech and Hungarian that emerged in the region in the nineteenth century, as well as the key developments that defined crucial points in history, which in turn would inform future policies. Examples of these developments include the collapse of Communism and its influence on foreign language learning, the impact of National Socialism and the Second World War, the aftermath of the First World War, as well as the emergence of independent nation-states and the break-up of multinational and multilingual empires. These developments will eventually form a trajectory across social and cultural spaces that were ‘inhabited’ by the German language and its speakers and which can be traced back through history.