14 May 2007
Czech Republic: German language community lacks protection
Praha, Monday, 14 May 2007 by Peter Josika
The Germans of the Czech Republic, formerly one of the largest linguistic minorities in Europe, have only qualified for limited protection measures based on Part 2 of the European Charter of Regional and Minority Languages (ECRML). The ECRML entered into force in the Czech Republic on March 1, 2007.
The more substantive section of the Charter- Part 3- does not cover German, but only Polish and Slovak. Part 3 stipulates measures to promote the use of regional or minority languages in public life, including bilingual signage and education.
Based on current Czech legislation, national minorities have the right to bilingual signage if they constitute at least 10% of the population. Besides Poles and Slovaks, Germans fulfil this requirement in 13 municipalities. However, according to the Czech Minister for Minority Affairs, Dzamila Stehlikova, the remaining Sudeten Germans are mostly elderly and show insufficient interest in bilingual signage. ''The Germans in the villages affected constitute a very small group in absolute numbers with a high average age who we know are not interested in supporting such changes.''
When asked about the demand of the expelled Sudeten Germans, the former German speaking citizens of the country, to put up bilingual signs in all areas where Germans constituted the majority until 1945, Ms Stehlikova
responded: ''The question of bilingual signage only applies to Czech residents''.
Education for national minorities in the Czech Republic is dependent on certain pre-defined minimum numbers of students per class and school. Due to the high average age and the comparatively high level of assimilation among the minority, Germans, like Slovaks, usually don't reach the required minimum to be provided with their own classes. The German minority have long been demanding bilingual classes instead, arguing that both Czech and German children will benefit. However, the decision on the establishment of bilingual classes is left to school headmasters who have so far failed to act.
The German minority is disappointed about the lack of interest among Czech authorities to protect their endangered heritage. German, besides Czech, had the status of an official language of the country for centuries.
Eurolang spoke to the President of the Assembly of Germans in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, Mrs Irene Kunc. ''When I was elected a few years ago I was full of optimism and enthusiasm.'' Said Mrs Kunc, continuing, ''Now I see how everything has worsened. After (the liberal and minority friendly) Minister Dr Petr Mares resigned in 2003, all our petitions and appeals seem to have been locked up in a draw and have since been ignored.''
In comparison, the much smaller Czech minority in neighbouring Austria qualifies for Part 3 protection according to the ECRML, while the Sorbs of Germany, closely related to the Czechs linguistically, enjoy Part 3 protection in their traditional area of settlement, regardless of the percentage of native speakers left.
Before World War II the German minority of the Czech part of former Czechoslovakia numbered 3.5 million people or one third of the entire population. In some regions, mainly in the so-called Sudetenland, Germans constituted the overwhelming majority.
In the final days of World War II around half a million Germans escaped the country, while more than 2.5 million were later forcibly expropriated and expelled on the basis of the Benes Decrees. These Decrees remain valid to this day despite ongoing protests by expellees, members of the German minority, human rights activists and parts of the international community.
Immediately after the War, many members of the German minority died as a result of mass murder, forced labour and other forms of mistreatment. An estimated 200,000 Germans, many of them members of the anti-Nazi resistance or German Jews, remained in the country, but were not allowed to use their native language in public. German children were not provided with education in their native tongue. The German minority, still the country’s largest until the 1970s, saw all German place-names abolished and replaced with Czech names. Monuments- in some instances even whole cemeteries- were destroyed if they contained German writings. Post-War Czechoslovakia aimed to erase all traces and memories of anything German, although German language and culture were an integral part of the country’s heritage for centuries.
Most German parents were forced to assimilate and speak Czech with their children to protect them from daily discrimination. Today there are 40,000 Germans left in the Czech Republic while there are an estimated five million people with Sudeten German roots in Germany, Austria, the US, Canada, the UK, Sweden, Brazil and other countries. (Eurolang 2007)
Website of the Newspaper “Landsezeitung”, Assembly of Germans in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, in German & Czech http://www.landeszeitung.cz/index.php
Website of the Council of Europe, List of Declarations on the application of the ECRML of each member state, in English http://conventions.coe.int
Website of the Czech Government Office for National Minorities, in Czech & English http://www.vlada.cz/en/rvk/rnm/default.html