History of the Czechs in Vienna
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The city of Vienna, Austria is home to a long-established 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, 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's admission to the European Union in 2004.


History

The city was part of the realm of King Ottokar II of Bohemia, 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, his embalmed body was initially kept in the Minorites Church before his burial in Prague, 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 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

Around the start of the 20th century, Vienna ( Czech ''Vídeň'', Hungarian ''Bécs'') was the city with the second-largest Czech population in the world (after Prague). 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 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 of the Mauthausen concentration camp operated in the city during World War II. 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).


See also

*
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 ...
*
Czech schools in Vienna During the 20th century, there were numerous Czech schools in Vienna. These provided the city's large Czech population with instruction in Czech. Habsburg Monarchy The first Czech primary school with attached kindergarten was opened in the Q ...


References


Further reading

* Basler, Helena. ''Vídeňští Češi 1945-2005 : k dějinám národnostní menšiny = Die Wiener Tschechen 1945-2005 : zur Geschichte einer Volksgruppe'', Wien ; Praha : České kulturněhistorické centrum, 2006-. * Baslerová, Helena; Kulturní klub Čechů a Slováků v Rakousku. ''Die Wiener Tschechen 1945-2005 : zur Geschichte einer Volksgruppe'', Wien : Tschechisches kulturhistorisches Institut ; Praha : KLP - Koniasch Latin Press, 2006-. * Bernas, Karl. ''Sokol Favoriten'', Wien : Museumsverein Favoriten, 2000. * Brousek, Karl M. ''Wien und seine Tschechen : Integration und Assimilation einer Minderheit im 20. Jahrhundert'', München : Oldenbourg, 1980. * Glettler, Monika. ''Böhmisches Wien'', Wien : Herold, 1985. * Glettler, Monika. ''Sokol und Arbeiterturnvereine (D.T.J.) der Wiener Tschechen bis 1914.'', München, Wien, Oldenbourg, 1970. * Lutz, Freddy. ''Böhmische Emigranten'', Wien : F. Lutz, 1993. * Hauner, Milan. ''The Czechs in Vienna around 1900. Structural Analysis of a National Minority in a Metropolis'', Philosophy and History, v8 n2 (1975); 264–266. * Martin, Otto. ''Das tschechische Schulwesen in Wien'', (Salzburg) (Druck von R. Kiesel), 1924. * Valeš, Vlasta. ''Die wiener Tschechen, einst und jetzt : eine Einführung in Geschichte und Gegenwart der tschechischen Volksgruppe in Wien = Vídeňští češi včera a dnes : úvod do dějin a současnosti české národnostní skupiny ve Vídni'', Praha : Scriptorium, 2004. * Wonisch, Regina. ''Tschechen in Wien : zwischen nationaler Selbstbehauptung und Assimilation'', Wien : Löcker, 2010.


External links


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