Changes

In 1618, members of the Bohemian estates (the nobility), mostly Protestants, threw Catholic Habsburg officials out of a window of the Prague castle, killing them. The Prague defenestration, the catalyst for the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, is one of the best known acts of rebellion in early modern Europe, but it led to a very long horrible war and failed in the end.

In 1618, members of the Bohemian estates (the nobility), mostly Protestants, threw Catholic Habsburg officials out of a window of the Prague castle, killing them. The Prague defenestration, the catalyst for the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, is one of the best known acts of rebellion in early modern Europe, but it led to a very long horrible war and failed in the end.

===Czech nationalism===

===Czech nationalism===

In the time of Emperor [[Joseph II]] (reigned 1765 to 1790) language in Bohemia did not connote nationality but social class, as German was the language of culture and civility and Czech was the language of the peasantry. In the course of the 19th century national revival a rejuvenated Czech language became a component of the invented traditions of a Czech nation conceived as having been oppressed by the Germans since Hussite times, while immigration from the countryside made Czech the first language of the Prague working class and of a growing middle class. The connections between language and nationality made Prague the city of three nationalities, Czech, German, and Jewish; by 1880a certain Czech identity could now be seen as self-evident.<ref>Derek Sayer, "The Language of Nationality and the Nationality of Language: Prague 1780-1920." ''Past & Present'' 1996 (153): 164-210.</ref>  

In the time of Emperor [[Joseph II]] (reigned 1765 to 1790) language in Bohemia did not connote nationality but social class, as German was the language of culture and civility and Czech was the language of the peasantry. In the course of the 19th century national revival a rejuvenated Czech language became a component of the invented traditions of a Czech nation conceived as having been oppressed by the Germans since Hussite times, while immigration from the countryside made Czech the first language of the Prague working class and of a growing middle class. The connections between language and nationality made Prague the city of three nationalities, Czech, German, and Jewish; by 1880a certain Czech identity could now be seen as self-evident.<ref>Derek Sayer, "The Language of Nationality and the Nationality of Language: Prague 1780-1920." ''Past & Present'' 1996 (153): 164-210.</ref>

 

===Prague Circle===

===Prague Circle===

Beginning in 1895 a circle of Prague Jews ("Der Prager Kreis") established themselves as champions and translators into German of Czech literature, particularly poetry. This was done at a time when interest elsewhere in the culture of Germany's Slav neighbors was nonexistent. These Jews - Friedrich Adler (1857-1938), Otto Pick, Rudolf Fuchs, Max Brod (1884-1968), Franz Werfel (1890-1945), among others - were mediators between two hostile cultures and builders of bridges of understanding. they oscillated incessantly between yearning for a concrete and closed identity, according to the "Völkisch" creed, and the opposing desire to break national boundaries. Their deep sympathy for the awakening national Czech culture did not prevent them from maintaining their deep engagement with German culture. Their representation of German identity as culture and not as ethnos helped them to combine their strong German identification with their sentiments for Czech nationalism and their adherence to Zionism. They, in fact, reinterpreted "Völkism" itself as a cultural category. In this way, German "Völkisch" categories shaped the way in which they represented and valued Jewish and Czech identities.  Like other attempts at cultural symbiosis, the effort ended with the rise of Hitlerism.  [[Franz Kafka]] (1883-1924) was the most famous of the Prague Circle.<ref>Scott Spector, ''Prague Territories: National Conflict and Cultural Innovation in Franz Kafka's Fin de Siecle'' (2000).</ref>

Beginning in 1895 a circle of Prague Jews ("Der Prager Kreis") established themselves as champions and translators into German of Czech literature, particularly poetry. This was done at a time when interest elsewhere in the culture of Germany's Slav neighbors was nonexistent. These Jews - Friedrich Adler (1857-1938), Otto Pick, Rudolf Fuchs, Max Brod (1884-1968), Franz Werfel (1890-1945), among others - were mediators between two hostile cultures and builders of bridges of understanding. they oscillated incessantly between yearning for a concrete and closed identity, according to the "Völkisch" creed, and the opposing desire to break national boundaries. Their deep sympathy for the awakening national Czech culture did not prevent them from maintaining their deep engagement with German culture. Their representation of German identity as culture and not as ethnos helped them to combine their strong German identification with their sentiments for Czech nationalism and their adherence to Zionism. They, in fact, reinterpreted "Völkism" itself as a cultural category. In this way, German "Völkisch" categories shaped the way in which they represented and valued Jewish and Czech identities.  Like other attempts at cultural symbiosis, the effort ended with the rise of Hitlerism.  [[Franz Kafka]] (1883-1924) was the most famous of the Prague Circle.<ref>Scott Spector, ''Prague Territories: National Conflict and Cultural Innovation in Franz Kafka's Fin de Siecle'' (2000).</ref>