The city of

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

is home to a long-established

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

population. During the time of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Czechs were the largest non-German speaking population in Vienna. After the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the independence of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, many of the Viennese Czechs returned to their homeland. Today, Vienna is home to a small Czech population that has grown in numbers since the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

's admission to the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

in 2004.

History

The city was part of the realm of King

Ottokar II of Bohemia Ottokar II ( cs, Přemysl Otakar II.; , in Městec Králové, Bohemia – 26 August 1278, in Dürnkrut, Lower Austria), the Iron and Golden King, was a member of the Přemyslid dynasty who reigned as King of Bohemia from 1253 until his deat ...

, considered one of the greatest rulers of Bohemia. In 1276, Ottokar II laid the foundation stone for the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

Minorites Church. After Ottokar II's death in the

Battle on the Marchfeld The Battle on the Marchfeld (''i.e. Morava Field''; german: Schlacht auf dem Marchfeld; cs, Bitva na Moravském poli; hu, Morvamezei csata) at Dürnkrut and Jedenspeigen took place on 26 August 1278 and was a decisive event for the history o ...

, his

embalmed Embalming is the art and science of preserving human remains by treating them (in its modern form with chemicals) to forestall decomposition. This is usually done to make the deceased suitable for public or private viewing as part of the funeral ...

body was initially kept in the Minorites Church before his burial in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, whereas his heart was buried in the Saint Catherine Chapel in Vienna. A number of Czech noble families had residences in the city, with notable preserved examples including the

Palais Kinsky Palais Kinsky is a Baroque palace in central Vienna, Austria. It was originally built for Count Wirich Philipp von Daun, the garrison commander whose son Leopold became a Field Marshal of Empress Maria Theresa. The palace was later bought by the K ...

Palais Lobkowitz Palais Lobkowitz, or Palais Dietrichstein-Lobkowitz, is a Baroque palace in Vienna, Austria. It was owned by the noble Lobkowitz family. Today, it houses the theatre museum, which is a part of the Kunsthistorisches Museum. History The palac ...

and

Palais Chotek Palais Chotek is a Baroque palace in Vienna, Austria. It is located at Währinger Straße 28 in the IX. district of Alsergrund. The building is named after the noble Chotek family The House of Chotek was an old and influential Czech noble fam ...

. History of

Czech print media in Vienna Czech print media in Vienna have a long history dating back to the 18th and 19th century, when Vienna had a sizeable Czech population. Habsburg Monarchy The first Czech language newspapers were short-lived and there were long periods without an ...

dates back to the 18th century.

20th century

GuentherZ 2007-01-27 Wien05 Margaretenplatz7

Around the start of the 20th century, Vienna (

''Vídeň'', Hungarian ''Bécs'') was the city with the second-largest

population in the world (after

). At its peak, in 1900, out of 1,674,957 inhabitants of Vienna, 102,974 people claimed Czech or Slovak as their colloquial language. However, as Umgangssprache (everyday language) was not properly defined by the Austrian authorities, there are claims that the Czech minority numbered as high as 250,000-300,000, making Vienna a city with the second largest Czech speaking population, only after Prague. After World War I, many

Czechs The Czechs ( cs, Češi, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, c ...

and other nationalities returned to their ancestral countries, resulting in a decline in the Viennese population. Czechs were among the prisoners of the Vienna-Schönbrunn

subcamp Subcamps (german: KZ-Außenlager), also translated as satellite camps, were outlying detention centres (''Haftstätten'') that came under the command of a main concentration camp run by the SS in Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe. The Nazi ...

of the

Mauthausen concentration camp Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with List of subcamps of Mauthausen, nearly 100 further ...

operated in the city during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. After the war, the

Soviets Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Nationality policy in th ...

used force to repatriate key workers of Czech and Hungarian origins to return to their ethnic homelands to further the Soviet bloc economy. In 1994, the Czech Centre in Vienna was founded.

21st century

The number of Czech citizens in Vienna grew from 3,179 in 2013 to 4,215 in 2019. During the same period, the population born in the Czech Republic fell from 16,193 (2013) to 13,620 (2019).

References

External links

The German National Attack on the Czech Minority in Vienna
{{Czech diaspora

History

20th century

21st century

See also

References

Further reading

External links