Bohemia

Czech: Čechy; Latin/English: Bohemia; French: Bohème; Polish: Czechy

The German name ‘Böhmen’ is derived from the toponym‘Boiohaemum’, meaning ‘the homeland of the Boii’, a Celtic tribe that lived in the area now known as Bohemia from the 4th to the 1st century BC. The name‘Boiohaemum’ continued to be used by Latin authors (Tacitus [56–120], Pliny the Elder [23/24–79]) to refer to the settlement area of the Marcomanni, and was subsequently passed down by medieval authors.

The Czech plural noun‘Čechy’is derived, as a toponym, from the Slavic inhabitants’ self-designation as‘Čech’, which is most likely derived from the root ‘čel-’ and means roughly ‘member of the family’.

Bohemia covers an area of approximately 52,000 km². Today, it borders the Federal Republic of Germany (Bavaria, Saxony) to the west and north, Poland to the east, Moravia to the south-east, and Austria to the south.

The region of Bohemia has been inhabited since the Stone Age. In the 4th century BC, the Celtic ‘Bojer’ lived here; 400 years later, it was the Marcomanni. In the 4th century, the Thuringians and Lombards invaded Bohemia; they were succeeded by the Slavs in the 6th century.

With the election of John’s son Charles (1316–1378, King of Bohemia from 1347) as King of the Romans (in 1346 and 1349 respectively), Prague became the centre and Bohemia the heartland of the Holy Roman Empire. In keeping with its new role as a focal point, Prague was expanded in the High Gothic style and was elevated to an archbishopric in 1344. The university was founded in 1347. As German Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV annexed New Bohemia to Bohemia; whilst this was not a contiguous territory, it did comprise extensive holdings in the Upper Palatinate. In the Golden Bull of 1356, Charles IV regulated primogeniture in Bohemia, a measure which was ultimately directed against the electoral rights of the Bohemian nobility. Furthermore, he established Moravia’s feudal dependence on Bohemia, whilst Silesia was also bound to Bohemia by feudal law. As Imperial Arch-Cupbearer, the King of Bohemia became the most distinguished of the Electors.

With the election of Vladislav II of the Jagiellonian dynasty (1456–1516; reigned from 1471) as king – a monarch who spent most of his time abroad in the Kingdom of Hungary – the lords and knights cemented their position in the Bohemian Land Ordinance of 1500, in which King Vladislav II was compelled to grant them significant rights. Under his reign, Bohemia began to recover.

The attempts, already begun by King Louis I (1506–1526; reigned from 1517) had already begun—namely, to strengthen royal power at the expense of the nobility, to reconcile Utraquism, espoused by the Hussites, with Rome once more, and to suppress the Moravian Church and Lutheranism —shaped the entire century. After Louis I was killed in the Battle of Mohács (1526) against the Ottomans, the throne passed, under various succession agreements, to his brother-in-law Ferdinand of Habsburg (1503–1564; reigned from 1526), following which, with only two interruptions, Bohemia was ruled by the Habsburgs (Habsburg-Lorraine) until 1918.

When an uprising by the estates was suppressed in 1547, King Ferdinand I found himself in a position of strength that enabled him to establish the monarchical principle in Bohemia. The estates were effectively forced to renounce their right of resistance, to recognise a royal court of appeal and, above all, to accept the Habsburgs’ dynastic right of succession. By bringing in the Jesuits (from 1556), the king sought to further consolidate his policies in line with the Counter-Reformation. The Renaissance flourished in architecture, music and science, particularly during the ‘Golden Age’ under Rudolf II (1552–1612; reigned from 1575), who moved his residence to Prague in 1582.

The massive disregard under Matthias I (1557–1619, reigned 1611–1617) for the rights of the Bohemian Brethren—who had been granted equal status with the established denominations of the Utraquists and Catholics since 1609— Lutherans and Neo-Utraquists—who had been granted equal status with the established denominations of the Utraquists and Catholics since 1609—ultimately led to an uprising and, with the Defenestration of Prague (1618), to the Thirty Years’ War.

In 1619, the Bohemian estates deposed Ferdinand II (1578–1637), who had been accepted as king in 1617, adopted a new constitution emphasising the rights of the non-Catholic nobility, and in 1620 elected the Calvinist Elector Frederick V of the Palatinate (1596–1632) as King of Bohemia in 1620; however, he failed to form a united Protestant front against Ferdinand’s policy of escalation. The Battle of White Mountain (1620), which proved devastating for the Estates’ faction, gave Ferdinand II the opportunity to reorganise Bohemia without regard for the estates by means of the ‘Vernewerte Landesordnung’ (1627), through which the Bohemian lands were definitively declared a Habsburg hereditary kingdom. The king secured for himself legislative power and supreme judicial authority, as well as the right to appoint officials, to confer nobility and to grant admission. The equal status of German and Czech as official languages, as well as the relocation of the Bohemian court chancellery to Vienna, became visible and audible symbols of Habsburg rule. The towns now had only a single collective voice in the provincial diet, which had retained the right to approve taxation.

During the Thirty Years’ War, Bohemia was ravaged on several occasions by various armies; amongst others, the Saxons succeeded in capturing Prague in 1631. In 1648, Swedish soldiers were in the country; they remained until 1649 and carried off numerous treasures from Prague. Following the turmoil of the Thirty Years’ War, Bohemia was profoundly changed by the emigration of a large proportion of the Lutherans, Utraquists and the Moravian Church.

From 1649 to 1740, Bohemia experienced a period of peace, though not of economic prosperity, as it had to bear a large part of the costs of the Turkish Wars.

At the head of the kingdom stood the king; in his absence, a governor. Ever since the king had taken up residence in Vienna, he had been regularly represented by the holders of the highest provincial offices, all of whom had to be members of the nobility.

Under Ferdinand I, the ‘Bohemian Chamber’ was established in the 16th century; it was responsible for the finances of the royal estates within the territory of Bohemia and the lands of the Crown of St Wenceslas.

The Bohemian Provincial Diet had been the supreme representative body of the estates since the Middle Ages. Even after 1627, it remained an important body of the provincial administration, although Maria Theresa and Joseph II severely curtailed its rights in favour of Vienna, or ceased to convene it altogether. In 1848, an attempt to make the Provincial Diet an elected body failed, whereupon the old estates-based Provincial Diet was also dissolved. With the so-called ‘February Constitution’ of 1861, a Provincial Diet elected on the basis of a census suffrage was established. At the head of the administration stood the Provincial Committee, with the Provincial Marshal, appointed by the Emperor.

Under Otakar II Přemysl, Bohemia had been administratively divided into districts (kraje); from the 15th century onwards there were 14 districts, and following a reform under Maria Theresa in 1751, this number rose to 16, though Prague was not included among them.

Two district captains, one from the nobility and one from the knighthood, each appointed by the King for a term of one year – and, in the 16th century, also elected by the district assembly – presided over the district assemblies. Their task was to maintain public order, organise the mobilisation of troops and, where necessary, command them. They convened the county assemblies – from the reign of Ferdinand I onwards, only by royal command – and presided over them. From 1620 onwards, it was no longer the most distinguished and wealthiest nobles who were appointed, but frequently poorer nobles, some of whom were not even resident in the county. Their sphere of influence was gradually expanded; amongst other things, they were given responsibility for the supervision of provincial borders (1663) and tax collection (1705).

Following short-lived territorial reforms in 1849 and 1854, the district administration was completely abolished in 1862 and districts were introduced. In 1920, plans were made to establish the ‘Gau’ administration in Bohemia as well, though this ultimately did not come to pass. A provincial president assumed the role previously held by the governor until 1928, when a new provincial administration was introduced, consisting of a provincial council (zemské zastupitelstvo), which was partly elected and partly appointed by the government, as well as a provincial committee (zemský výbor) acting as the executive and a provincial office (zemský úřad).

Population figures for the first few centuries of Bohemian history can only be estimated. It is assumed that at the start of the Slavic migration around the year 600, the population of Bohemia consisted of around 200,000–300,000 people, a figure which had risen to around 400,000–500,,000. For the period around 1200, conservative estimates put the population at around 600,000, whilst more generous estimates suggest up to 850,000 people. For the year 1400, estimates range from 1 million to 2.2 million people. Whilst the Black Death did not ravage Bohemia as severely as other parts of Europe, and the Hussite Warsdid not have a profound impact on population trends, at least 30 per cent of the estimated 1.25–2 million inhabitants fell victim to the turmoil of the Thirty Years’ War; maximum estimates suggest the population was reduced by half. Despite a new outbreak of the plague in 1681, the population rose considerably, partly due to immigration from neighbouring German-speaking countries, so that whilst the population stood at one million around 1650, fifty years later it had already reached 1.5–1.8 million. Further setbacks to population growth were caused by the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) and a famine in 1771. The Theresian and Josephine reforms made it easier to marry, which led to an increase in birth rates. Combined with the effects of industrialisation and increased life expectancy, Bohemia’s population saw annual growth rates of between six and 18 per cent, with the exception of the war years 1810, 1866 and 1918.

From around 1870, rapid urbanisation began in Bohemia, the first phase of which ended around 1910. Whilst in 1830 there were only two towns with more than 10,000 inhabitants (Prague with 103,670 and Reichenberg/Liberec with 10,900), by 1880 the region had 43 towns, 38 of which had been founded after 1850, forming a dense network of smaller towns surrounding the metropolis of Prague. In the mid-19th century, just under four per cent of the population lived in towns, whilst by 1900 the figure had risen to 17 per cent.^[3]

A key point of contention in all subsequent – unsuccessful – attempts at reconciliation (such as the Baden language regulations of 1897) was the question of the official use of German and Czech, the latter of which, thanks to and since Dobrovský, had developed into a modern language that was increasingly being written and read. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that most Germans were unwilling to learn Czech, meaning they were at a disadvantage when civil servants were required to be bilingual.

The language dispute and the national division of Bohemia led to the splitting or duplication of cultural institutions: thus, in 1868, the Technical University and, in 1882, the University were separated along linguistic lines. Other organisations fostered their respective national consciousness and thus the drifting apart of Czechs and Germans, such as the Czech gymnastics association Sokol (Falcon), founded in 1862, or the German Singers’ Federation, founded in 1864.

Categorisation of the population according to the criterion of ‘everyday language’ by the Austrian censuses and the Czechoslovak census of 1921.^[4]

Under emphyteutic law (ius teutonicum) and with the involvement of some German settlers, the colonisation of uninhabited areas was carried out. At the same time, methods of land cultivation changed, and water mills increasingly tapped into new sources of energy. Following the Hussite Wars, the nobility succeeded in worsening the legal position of the peasants by binding them to the land. Corvée labour obligations were extended and the villages’ rights to self-government were curtailed. Only a small proportion of peasants remained free peasants. After the Thirty Years’ War, the lords owned over half the land, whilst the clergy and the nobility each owned around one-tenth. The increase in corvée labour led to a peasant uprising in 1680. An imperial patent subsequently limited corvée labour to three days a week, though this did little to counteract more than the worst excesses of corvée labour; the same applied to the subsequent corvée patents (1717, 1738, 1771). It was not until 1781 that serfdom was completely abolished. The restriction or abolition of compulsory labour freed up a workforce that found employment in Bohemia’s burgeoning agricultural industry.

Banks

The modern banking system emerged in Bohemia in the 1850s and 1860s; initially, cooperative banks predominated, whilst older private banks were supplanted by joint-stock companies. Czech banks in particular gained great importance from the 1890s onwards, notably the Commercial Bank for Bohemia and Moravia in Prague (Živnostenská banka pro Čechy a Moravu v Praze), which was owned exclusively by Czech shareholders. It was founded in 1868 as a joint-stock company to assist Czech tradespeople in the face of an economy dominated by German Bohemians, whilst also expanding into South-Eastern Europe. Its board of directors included prominent politicians such as František Ladislav Rieger (1818–1903), one of the leading figures of the Old Czech Party.

In 1575, Lutherans, the Bohemian Brethren and the Utraquists joined forces to form the Confessio Bohemica, which became the basis for an opposition movement comprising the estates that succeeded in securing religious freedom in 1609. Following the defeat at the Battle of White Mountain and when, in 1624, Catholicism became the only recognised denomination, the Utraquists, Lutherans and, in particular, the Bohemian Brethren were forced to convert or emigrate. At that time, around 36,000 families – some 150,000 people – left the country.^[5] Their estates, comprising about two-thirds of the total land area, were handed over to Bohemian nobles loyal to the Habsburgs – such as the Sternbergs, Lobkowitzes and Czernins – and to numerous non-Bohemian nobles, including Coudenhove-Kalergi, Schönborn and Hohenlohe, whose families soon merged to form a new Catholic landed aristocracy. The Church and the monasteries were able, at least in part, to make up for the losses suffered during the Hussite period.

Recatholisation began as early as the 16th century. Devotion to the Virgin Mary was intensified by the newly established orders of the Jesuits and Piarists, whilst at the same time the Czech vernacular was promoted in religious literature and homiletics. Despite all efforts to root the Catholic faith among the people, for example through the popularisation of John of Nepomuk (c. 1350–1393), who was canonised in 1729, it was never possible to fully convert the crypto-Protestants, who managed to hold their ground in Bohemia until the Edicts of Tolerance issued by Joseph II in 1781.

As a representative of the (German) Habsburgs, the Catholic Church was increasingly rejected in the 19th century by the growing Czech national movement, which drew on Hussite traditions. In 1902, the Union of the Catholic Clergy (Jednota katolického duchovenstva) was founded, which advocated a Czech liturgy and a policy of breaking away from Rome. Following the First World War, a section of this movement, led by Karel Farský (1880–1927), founded the Czechoslovak Hussite Church(Církev československá husitská). Despite this national religious revival and numerous defections from the Church—which were due not least to a widespread secularisation that had already begun in the 19th century—the majority of the population of Bohemia remained nominally Catholic even after the founding of Czechoslovakia.

One of the earliest schools in Bohemia was the Chapter School at St Veit in Prague, where Cosmas of Prague, amongst others, was educated, and which had close links with the School of Liège. There is evidence of municipal schools dating back to the 13th century, such as the one in Saaz in 1256, whose rectors were usually also municipal notaries. Other schools were run by religious orders, in particular the Benedictines and Premonstratensians.

With the founding of the University of Prague in 1348, the number of town schools also multiplied, with the university having the right to fill all teaching posts at the town schools throughout the country. In the period leading up to the Battle of White Mountain, various attempts were made to reform the town schools. A key figure in this was the Ordo studiorum of Petrus Codicillus (Petr Knížek z Tulechova, 1533–1589) and his joint efforts with Martin Bacháček z Nauměřic (1539–1612) to increase the number of town schools and improve their facilities, as well as to train teachers and refine teaching methods, played a significant role. The Bohemian Brethren went their own way, opening numerous schools themselves, for example in Jungbunzlau/Mladá Boleslav, Sobieslau/Soběslav, Prague, Leitomischl/Litomyšl and Landskron/Lanškroun, although their schools were more numerous in neighbouring Moravia.

After the Thirty Years’ War, the Society of Jesus took over Charles University, which had been known as the Carolo-Ferdinandea since 1654; prior to this, the Society had already established numerous colleges, including in Prague, Český Krumlov and Jindřichův Hradec.

Maria Theresa’s school reforms were of great significance; amongst other things, she introduced German as the language of instruction in place of Latin. Czech continued to be cultivated primarily by the Piarists, who had been present in Bohemia since 1640; as a teaching order, they succeeded the banned Society of Jesus and were integrated into the reform. From 1784 onwards, lectures at universities were delivered exclusively in German, with the exception of the chairs of pastoral theology at the seminaries. The elementary school system was reformed by Abbot Johann Ignaz von Felbiger (1724–1788) for all the hereditary lands. Ferdinand Kindermann (von Schulstein) (1740–1801) rendered outstanding services to general education in Bohemia; he founded the industrial schools as an alternative to the lower levels of the school system, which soon spread beyond Bohemia as well. In 1774, Kindermann was entrusted with the supervision of schools in Bohemia, for which he founded the Prague Normal School as a teacher-training college. Schooling for children in Bohemia was increasingly extended to all children of compulsory school age, with the result that by the end of the 19th century the illiteracy rate stood at around six per cent – a figure that was very low even within the monarchy as a whole.

It was not until 1848 that Czech was formally granted equal status with German as a language of instruction. Nevertheless, in the 1850s, higher education was provided almost exclusively in German. In 1859, an imperial decree then stipulated that graduates need only possess sufficient German language skills. In 1866, despite protests from German-speaking Bohemians, a provincial law was enacted in Bohemia stipulating that both provincial languages were to become compulsory subjects at grammar schools where the other language was the medium of instruction; however, this did not take hold in German-speaking grammar schools, where Czech was often not taught. The Act of 1873 divided the country into German and Czech school districts, which encouraged increasing linguistic and national segregation within the education system; this became particularly evident in 1881 with the division of Prague University into a German and a Czech university. At the same time, the number of Czech schools lagged behind that of German-speaking schools in relation to the language spoken in everyday life.

The language spoken in schools in Bohemia around 1900.

Churches designed with a central plan, particularly simple rotundas with apses, mark the beginning of Bohemia’s architectural history. They have been widespread in the region since the early days of Přemyslid rule. As witnesses to Bohemia’s earliest history, they have been systematically studied since the mid-19th century. Depending on the prevailing stance in German-Czech relations, and later also during the Cold War, their origins were sought in western Germany (Aachen), in Italy, in Byzantine Thessaloniki or in Dalmatia. In the 1970s, a more balanced view gained acceptance, identifying influences from both the West and the South-East.

Among the most significant rotundas outside Prague are the Rotunda of Sts Peter and Paul in Budeč, which dates back to Spytihněv I, St Clement’s in Levý Hradec, as well as the Church of Sts George and Adalbert on Mount Říp and the Rotunda of Sts Peter and Paul in Old Pilsen/Starý Plzenec. Other rotundas were built in the 11th century in castles, particularly in Central Bohemia.

With the arrival of the Benedictines in Bohemia, the form of the three-nave basilica also gained ground, as can be seen in the Benedictine convent of St George at Prague Castle, which is the only one of these convents to have retained its Romanesque character. The St Wenceslas Basilica in Stará Boleslav is also Romanesque at its core. From the 12th century onwards, churches with galleries, such as the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Mohelnice nad Jizerou, were increasingly built, whilst elsewhere single-nave churches with rich sculptural decoration were erected, such as St James’s Church in Zirkwitz/Církvice, consecrated in 1165 by Bishop Daniel I of Prague in the presence of King Vladislav II.

Among the Romanesque castles, some of which can be traced back to an extensive building programme undertaken by Sobeslav I, Pfraumberg Castle (Přimda), built in 1126, stands out. It is not only one of the oldest stone castles in Bohemia, but also holds a special place within Europe.

The Premonstratensian monasteries in Mühlhausen/Milevsko and Tepl/Teplá represent the high point of the Romanesque period, although the three-nave hall church of the Tepl monastery already displays Gothic elements. Also worthy of note is the ‘Vinecká skupina’, a more or less cohesive group of late Romanesque village churches in northern Bohemia, which takes its name from the Church of St Nicholas in Vinci and shows connections to the Imperial Palace in Eger and to Saxony.

Among the early examples of Baroque architecture in Bohemia, which was still strongly influenced by Mannerism, is the Humprecht hunting lodge, built around 1668 for Humprecht Johann Czernin von Chudenitz and inspired by the Galata Tower in Constantinople; it was designed by Carlo Lurago (1615–1684). Lurago also designed the pilgrimage monastery of Heiliger Berg/Svatá Hora near Freiberg in Bohemia/Příbram and the town hall in Nachod/Náchod.

Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer served, amongst other roles, as master builder to the Benedictines of Braunau/Brevnov and constructed numerous churches and several secular buildings both in and outside Prague. These include, in particular, the project to give Braunau Abbey a Baroque makeover – a project already begun by his father Christoph – as well as numerous lesser-known buildings, including Herdle/Hrdly Castle near Bauschowitz on the Eger/Bohušovice nad Ohří.

One of the distinctive features of the Bohemian Baroque is the so-called ‘Baroque Gothic’, which was shaped by Johann Blasius Santini-Aichel (1677–1723). His outstanding projects include the reconstruction of the church of the Benedictine monastery at Kladrau/Kladruby – an originally Romanesque church that had been destroyed during the Hussite Wars – the church of the Cistercian monastery at Sedletz/Sedlec, and that of the Premonstratensian monastery in Seelau/Želiv – in other words, churches belonging to the old monastic orders, which, much like other European projects of the post-Gothic period, sought to hark back to a pre-Reformation era perceived as a ‘golden age’.

In Bohemia, the Baroque period lasted particularly long. A significant revival of building activity, which fell far short of that seen in previous eras, did not take hold again until around 1800. Architectural ensembles in the Empire style emerged particularly in the spa towns of Franzensbad, Karlsbad and Marienbad, whilst in the capital, Prague, only a few projects were realised. Notable Empire-style buildings in Bohemia include the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross in Franzensbad, completed in 1819, Adlerkosteletz Castle/Kostelec nad Orlicí and Gatschina Castle/Kačina, which was built to plans by the Dresden architect Christian F. Schuricht (1753–1832). Both estates are set within large English-style landscape parks, a style that also became widespread in Bohemia during the last third of the 18th century.

In the second half of the 19th century, historicism took hold, as it did throughout Europe.

Among other things, there was a renewed focus on the Renaissance, which around 1900 was partly understood as the starting point for a national style, but was generally regarded more as an important component of the regional architectural tradition. Among the most important exponents of this Neo-Renaissance was Antonín Wiehl (1846–1910), who also played a key role in the early days of heritage conservation in Bohemia. However, Josef Mocker (1835–1899) was also a leading figure in Bohemia as a conservationist and architect, championing a purist Neo-Gothic style. He rendered outstanding services to the completion of Prague Cathedral (from 1874), but was also active outside Prague, for example in the restoration of Karlstein Castle and St Bartholomew’s Cathedral in Plzeň.

Historicism was succeeded by the Secession movement, examples of which can be seen, for instance, at Prague Main Station, the People’s House in Proßnitz in Moravia/Prostějov (1906–07) and the East Bohemian Museum in Hradec Králové (Muzeum východních Čech v Hradci Králové), which was designed by Jan Kotěra (1871–1923). His pupil, Josef Gočár (1880–1945), later became one of the leading figures of Czech Rondocubism. During his later functionalist phase as an urban planner, he was particularly active in Hradec Králové.

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[1] According to a letter from King Ferdinand I dated 1545; quoted from Alexander Begert: Bohemia, the Bohemian Electorate and the Empire from the High Middle Ages to the End of the Old Empire. Studies on the Electoral Status and Constitutional Position of Bohemia (Historical Studies 475). Husum 2003, p. 320.

[2] Martin Wihoda: The Sicilian Golden Bulls of 1212: Emperor Frederick II’s Privileges for the Přemyslids in the Discourse of Memory. Vienna et al. 2012, p. 257.

[3] Ludmila Fialová: Dějiny obyvatelstva českých zemí [History of the Population of the Bohemian Lands]. Prague 1996.

[4] Statistics, from History to the Present Day. Prague 2006.

[5] Marie-Elizabeth Ducreux: The Emigration of Protestants from Bohemia and Moravia in the 17th and 18th Centuries. In: Cahiers du CEFRES (Centre Français de Recherche en Sciences Sociales), 31, 2011, pp. 53–78, here p. 54.

[6] Ingrid Stöhr: Bilingualism in Bohemia: German Primary Schools and Grammar Schools in Prague during the Kafka Era. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2010, Table 6, p. 176.

[7] Ludwig Schlesinger: History of Bohemia. Prague, Leipzig 1869, p. 22.

[8] Václav Vaněček: The Přemyslid State and the Medieval Empire. Prague 1945.

Stefan Albrecht: Bohemia. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2021. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p32546 (accessed 4 February 2021).