체코-독일: 갈등과 공존의 역사

Czechs-Germans: the history of conflict and coexistence

After ‘Velvet Revolution’ in 1989, Czech Republic has developed to democratic state and tried to become a full member of European Union. But some Germans have protested against Czech’s entering the EU. Why some Germans have opposed the goal of Czech Republic. Germans, descendant of Sudeten Germans, have asserted their rights to be restored the confiscated lands and properties by Czechoslovak government after the second World War. What happened before and after the second World War between Czechs and Germans. In this paper, I try to analyze the relation between Czechs and Germans by using two concepts, conflict and coexistence. The Czechoslovakia state was created in 1918 following the collapse of Austro-Hungarian Empire. The new country was ethnically heterogeneous; in addition Czech and Slovak populations, there were large number of Germans, Hungarians and Poles and so on. The large German minority in Czech land, located primarily in the Sudeten borderland, presented the biggest headache for the first government of Czechoslovakia. Many Germans, long accustomed to being the dominant nationality and now finding themselves in a minority position in a new Slavic state, were openly opposed to Czechs and legitimacy of a new state. Some German organizations sought to detach German-inhabited territories and join them up with either Austria or Germany. However the majority of Germans eventually accepted the legitimacy of Czechoslovakia, but criticisms persisted over the structure of a state and over alleged anti-minority discrimination. During the Great Depression in 1930s, Germany supported for the autonomist and nationalist (political) parties in the Sudetenland. With the order from Hitler, Sudeten German Party attended the general election to be the largest party in 1935. And finally Hitler occupied Czech and supported Slovaks to become an independent state. After war, E. Benes, the President of Czechoslovakia, declared ‘Benes’s Decree’ to expel Germans from Czech land. Proceed on this decree, the large German minority in Czech land fled or were deported en messe. According to the 1950 census, only 165,000 German ethnics were left out of a population of some 3,391,000. Before and after World Wars, two nations got a deep wound from each other. Since those histories of the pasts are an impediment for two nations, it is need to find a way to exclude difficulties to develope the relations of two nations.