¹ Křen points out, for example, that Czechs who were educated in the 1890s and 1900s were much less likely to be fluent in conversational German, and few Germans bothered to learn Czech by the end of the century. Jan, Křen, Konfliktní společenství: Češi a Němci, 1780–1918 (Conflictual society: Czechs and Germans, 1780–1918) (Prague, 1990);Google ScholarCohen, Gary B., The Politics of Ethnic Survival: Germans in Prague, 1861–1914 (Princeton, N.J., 1981).Google Scholar In an interesting study of the national identity of an individual, Claire Nolte demonstrates how, as late as the 1860s, it was still possible for a Bohemian of German ancestry to adopt a Czech national identity. Families often included cousins, some of whom saw themselves as German and others as Czech. Claire, Nolte, “Choosing Czech Identity in Nineteenth–Century Prague: The Case of Jindřich Fügner,” Nationalities Papers 24, no. 1 (03 1996): 51–62.Google Scholar

² The Badeni language ordinances expanded the use of Czech in the bureaucracy in Bohemia and provoked German street protests and parliamentary obstruction in 1897; their repeal in 1898 led to similar Czech protests.

³ For the impact of boycotts on Jewish businesses in the Bohemian Crownlands, see Kieval, Hillel J., Czech Jewry: National Conflict and Jewish Society in Bohemia, 1870–1918 (New York, 1988), esp. chap. 3.Google Scholar

⁴ On the Czech National Socialists, see Kelly, T. Mills, “Czech Radical Nationalism in the Era of Universal Manhood Suffrage, 1907–1914” (Ph.D. diss., George Washington University, 1996).Google Scholar

⁵ Even though the central offices of the national protection societies and many of their supporters were located in Prague, the focus of their efforts remained the Czech minority living along the so–called language border in the province. Similarly, the National Socialists had their main base of support in Prague and central Bohemia but nonetheless made the plight of Czech minorities one of their central political concerns.

⁶ Karl, Bahm, “Beyond the Bourgeoisie: Rethinking Nation, Culture, and Modernity in Fin–desiecle Central Europe,” Austrian History Yearbook 29 (1998): 19–35.Google Scholar

⁷ Prosperous German factory owners and professionals were centered in the north Bohemian town of Reichenberg, traded primarily with Germany, and received financing from Viennese banks. German Bohemian textile, coal mining, and porcelain and glass industries faced little direct Czech competition. The economic history written from this perspective ignored the Czechs, suggesting that Germans had migrated in the Middle Ages into an unpopulated (or at least underpopulated) and impoverished region, which they had transformed through their superior culture, skills, and hard work. For information on both German national protection societies and the German industrial barons of Reichenberg, see Catherine, Albrecht, “Economic Nationalism among German Bohemians,” Nationalities Papers 24, no. 1 (03 1996): 17–30.Google Scholar

⁸ Albín Bráf Národohospoářske potřeby České (Czech national economic needs) (Kralové Dvůr, 1905). This pamphlet is based on a lecture given in December 1904. Although Bráf's formulation of national awakening spreading from the cultural sphere to the political arena was not unique in East Central Europe, his understanding of the economic dimension of national development was. Bráf's pamphlet was cited repeatedly by other Czech political and economic leaders in the decade before the outbreak of World War I as a clarion call for national economic development.

⁹ Because of the importance of language issues, Czechs had one of the highest literacy rates in Europe. By 1900, 93.8 percent of all Czechs over the age of six could read and write. For Germans in the Habsburg monarchy, the literacy rate was 91.8 percent. The average literacy rate for all nationalities was 65.4 percent. Jiří, Kořalka and Crampton, R. J., “Die Tschechen,” in Die Habsburgermonarchie,1848–1918, ed. Adam, Wandruzska and Peter, Urbanitsch, vol. 3, Die Völker des Reiches (Vienna, 1980), 511.Google Scholar

¹⁰ In addition to the pamphlets written by Albín Bráf, the journal Obzor národohospodářský (National economic review), edited by Josef Gruber, the Česká společnost národohospodářská, and the Národohospodářský ústav (National Economic Institute) of the Czech Academy of Arts arid Sciences all embody this centrist perspective. For more information on associations of professional economists, who were strong advocates of the national value of industrial progress, see Catherine, Albrecht, “The Czech Economics Profession before 1914,” in The Professions in Modern East Europe, ed. McClelland, Charles E., Stephan, Merl, and Hannes, Siegrist (Berlin, 1995): 311–32.Google Scholar

¹¹ See, for example, Sykora, O., “O obchodním školství” (On business education), Obzor národohospodářský 3 (1901): 129–30.Google Scholar

¹² The Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Arts and Sciences kept an archive of its members’ biographies to record the achievements of the early entrepreneurs for future inspiration. Virtually all of the members of the institute from its inception in 1908 until it was closed by the Communists in 1953 were men. Archiv České Akademie věd a umění, Národohospodářskýústav, inv. no. 59, Osobní spisy čienů (Personal writings of members).

¹³ Women were, however, often present in visual allegories of the virtues needed for economic success. Providing an excellent example of female allegories of thrift, duty, and other economic virtues are the frescoes in the main building of the Czech Savings Bank in Prague.

¹⁴ Voluntary associations formed an essential part of public life in both Germany and Austria–Hungary. Bráf, for example, held membership cards to thirty–six different voluntary associations at the time of his death in 1912. The majority of these were Czech national associations. Archiv Národního Musea, Albín Bráf papers, carton 1, inv. no. 22, Legitimace a spolků (Membership cards and societies).

¹⁵ Samuel Smiles's works, including Self–Help, appeared in Czech translation soon after their publication in England. For more information on self–help and “each to one's own,” see Catherine, Albrecht, “National Economy or Economic Nationalism in the Bohemian Crownlands, 1848–1914,” in Labyrinth of Nationalism/Complexities of Diplomacy: Essays in Honor of Barbara and Charles Jelavich, ed. Richard, Frucht (Columbus, Ohio, 1992): 69–83.Google Scholar

¹⁶ For an interesting analysis of the multiple uses of “minority” and “majority” in the Bohemian Crownlands, see Jiří, Kořalka, “Mehrheiten und Minderheiten in der politischen Vertretungskorpern der Böhmischen Länder, 1848–1914,” in Kořalka, Tschechen im Habsburgerreich und Europa, 1815–1914 (Munich, 1991), 126–74. Kořalka points out that the Czechs were a minority in Austria–Hungary but a majority in Bohemia; a majority at the center of the province but a minority along the “language border.” Germans, on the other hand, enjoyed a plurality within the western half of the Habsburg monarchy and a majority in Lower and Upper Austria and the Tirol as well as in the central bureaucracy. Within Bohemia, they were a minority, although they held a majority in the borderlands of the province. Each status could be employed at different times and for different purposes.Google Scholar

¹⁷ See, for example, the language in Václav Šafr, Národní očsta (National cleansing) (Prague, 1898), which spells out a National Socialist perspective.

¹⁸ In addition to the work of Šafr (ibid.), see also Josef, Bednář, Idea hospodářské soběstačnosti české “svoji k svému” (The idea of economic self–sufficiency of Czech “each to one's own") (Kolín, 1911), for an example of this radical perspective on Czech economic nationalism.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Mark, Cornwall, “The Struggle on the Czech–German Language Border, 1880–1940,” English Historical Review 109 (1994): 914–51.Google Scholar

²⁰ Judson, Pieter M., “"Not Another Square Foot!” German Liberalism and the Rhetoric of National Ownership in Nineteenth–Century Austria,” Austrian History Yearbook 26 (1995): 83–98;CrossRefGoogle ScholarHeinrich, Rauchberg, Der nationale Besitzstand in Böhmen, 2 vols. (Prague, 1905). Czechs like Bohdan Živanský responded with their own assessments of Czech “national property.”Google Scholar

²¹ Interestingly, both the National Socialist Party and the Národohospodářská jednota allowed women to participate as full members, and the National Socialists (along with T. G. Masaryk's Realists) were vocal and consistent advocates of women's suffrage before World War 1.

²² On the changes within the Young Czech Party, see Garver, Bruce M., The Young Czech Party, 1874–1901, and the Emergence of a Multi–Party System (New Haven, Conn., 1978).Google Scholar

²³ August, Seifert, “Národní rada česká” (Czech National Council), in Čechové a jejich obranná práce (Czechs and their defense work) (n.p.: 1912), 32. Seifert also notes that the motto of the National Council is to work “quietly, respectably, and, above all, correctly.”Google Scholar

²⁴ Kelly, T. Mills, “Taking It to the Streets: Czech National Socialists in 1908,” Austrian History Yearbook 29 (1998): 93–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁵ See, for example, the press release issued following the destruction by German rioters of the Czech národní dům (national house) in Reichenberg. Státní Ústrední Archiv, Národní Rada Česká (hereafter SÚA NRČ), inv. no. 412/2, Oct. 14, 1908.

²⁶ Státná Ústřední Archiv, Presidium Místodržitelství (hereafter SÚA PM) (1901–10), 8/1/86/11, flyer entitled “Svůj k svému,” Dec. 3, 1908.

²⁷ SÚA PM (1901–10), 8/1/3/1, flyer issued Nov. 17, 1897.

²⁸ SÚA PM (1901–10), 8/1/3/1, undated flyer “An die deutschen Bewohner der Stadt Bilin!” reminding German homeowners who rented to Czechs that they harmed themselves and their fellow citizens, since only homeowners paid taxes to support schools.

²⁹ SÚA PM (1901–10), 8/1/89/2, numerous complaints from 1902 to 1910.

³⁰ Schicht soap was also the object of boycotts during the turbulent years of 1897–98. SÚA PM (1891–1900), carton 2287, folder 8/1/3/1.

³¹ SÚA NRČ, inv. no. 406/2, undated flyer entitled “Českému konsumujícímu obecenstvu” (To the Czech consuming public) and circular letter addressed to Czech industrialists dated Nov. 1908.

³² Klofáé's circular letter concluded “Bud's námi nebo proti nám!” (Be with us or against us!). Ibid. Another common formulation was “Kdo není s námi jest proti nám” (Whoever isn't with us is against us). SÚA NRČ, inv. no. 412/2, press release on the destruction of the Czech národni dům in Reichenberg (n.d. [Dec. 10,1908?]).

³³ SÚA PM (1901–10), 8/1/86/11, flyer entitled “Svůj k svému,” Dec. 3, 1908.

³⁴ For numerous offers of property, see SÚA NRČ, inv. no. 406, passim.

³⁵ SÚA NRČ, inv. no. 411/2, Apr. 5,1911.

³⁶ SÚA NRČ, inv. no. 412/2, flyer from December 1908.

³⁷ See, for example, the June 1908 proclamation of the town council in Slaný calling on German visitors to speak only Czech in public, and the report of Apr. 4,1908, of a traveler who signed a hotel register in Mariánské lazné in Czech and was threatened by the owner, who promised to tell his business contacts to avoid conducting business with him. SÚA NRČ, inv. no. 412/2.

³⁸ For example, Terezie Liršová, who joined several Czech women's organizations, supposedly in order to sell blouses to Czech customers, was labeled in this way. Her husband, Jaroslav Lirš, was described in a complaint as “sometimes a Czech, other times a Social Democrat, yet other times a Jew.” SÚA NRČ, inv. no. 406/2, letter from Václav Moura, July 6,1908.

³⁹ SÚA NRČ, inv. no. 406/2, article in Rozvoj, Apr. 5, 1912; letter from Svaz českých pokrokových židů, Mar. 6,1912; and reply of the Národohospodářská jednota, Apr. 3, 1912.

⁴⁰ SÚA NRČ, inv. no. 412/2, flyer “O nákupu a prodejí zboži čes původu” (On the purchase and sale of goods of Czech origin), Jan. 1909.

⁴¹ SÚA PM (1901–10), 8/1/86/1, reported in Deutsche Volkszeitung, Mar. 23, 1905.

⁴² SÚA PM (1901–10), 8/1/86/1, several reports by district officials in Wittengau, Žižkov, and other towns, 1905.

⁴³ Jiří Kořalka, “Fünf Tendenzen einer modernen nationalen Entwicklung in Böhmen,” in Kořalka, Tschechen im Habsburgerreich und Europa, 23–75.

⁴⁴ SÚA NRČ, inv. no. 412/2, letter noting that Česká politika had carried an article condemning Schicht's treatment of his office workers on the same page as an advertisement declaring “Schichtovo mýdlo jest nejlepši!” Nov. 7, 1908.

⁴⁵ SÚA NRČ, inv. no. 410/1, Dec. 7, 1908.

⁴⁶ SÚA NRČ, inv. no. 412/2, Oct. 20, 1908.

⁴⁷ SÚA NRČ, inv. no. 406/2, Dec. 7, 1908.

⁴⁸ The official statement was distributed in a brochure published Jan. 18, 1909, “Stanovisko Národní rady české v otázce našeho národohospodářského posílení” (Position of the Czech National Council on the question of our national economic strengthening), SÚA NRČ, inv. no. 408/1. For Bráf's earlier drafts, which were modified only slightly for publication, see Archiv Národního musea, Albín Bráf papers, carton 46, inv. nos. 3679 and 3680.

⁴⁹ SÚA NRČ, inv. no. 407/1, “Návrh ke schůzi národohospodářského odboru Národni rady české 19 pros. 1908” (Recommendation for the meeting of the Economic Section of the Czech National Council, Dec. 19,1908), labeled “Naprosto důvěrné!” (Strictly confidential!).

⁵⁰ Alfred, Mayer, “Několik poznámek k našemu nejnovejšímu hospodářskému vývoji” (A few remarks on our most recent economic development), Obzor národohospodářský 17 (1912): 215–22, 267–78.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Národní Politika, Dec. 17, 1908.

⁵² SÚA NRČ, inv. no. 412/2, flyer entitled “Vážné a upřimně míněné slovo!” (Serious and sincerely meant statement!), June 1908.

⁵³ SÚA PM (1901–10), carton 3662, inv. no. 8/1/86/11, decree no. 1062, Dec. 12, 1908.

⁵⁴ Ibid., circular decree no. 20,968, Sept. 24, 1910. Boycotts against individuals who had declared minority language use were a particular concern following the 1910 census. Ibid., circular decree no. 28,900, Dec. 27,1910, and circular decree no. 174, Jan. 7, 1911.

⁵⁵ SÚA PM (1901–10), inv. no. 8/1/83/31, letter of 1910.

⁵⁶ Another explanation for the lack of documentation may be that local officials who identified with a national cause preferred to gloss over the truth in their reports to the Bohemian governor's office.