Prager Tagblatt
- The First German Ministers
- The Last Negotiations
- Germans and Czechs since the Upheaval
The Prager Tagblatt of 13 October 1926 gave its front page to the entry of the first German ministers into a Czechoslovak cabinet. An editorial said that the appointment of Professors Franz Spina and Robert Mayr-Harting should have been a matter of course, but after eight 'unnatural' years it carried almost the weight of a historic event. A report from the Chamber followed the closing lines of the appointment decree. It described how the Bund der Landwirte's decision to join the government was already known by the morning and how the German Christian Socials reached the same decision before noon. A truncated subheading added that the Slovaks were still waiting for someone's return. A historical essay traced German–Czech relations since the upheaval that ended the Monarchy. It argued that the Czechs had been far better prepared for the new state and that Germans who claimed their share were answered with force.
Translation
The First German Ministers
Prof. Spina and Prof. Mayr-Harting, the first German ministers of Czechoslovakia.
The First German Ministers.
Prague, October 12. After eight years of Czechoslovak statehood, the Prague parliament will for the first time see German politicians on the ministers' bench. What ought really to be a matter of course appears, given the unnatural circumstances under which we have lived all this time, almost with the weight of a historic event. So what has so long been described and striven for as one of the preconditions of a normal domestic political life has at last been achieved: the [?] of the [?] in the government [?]
The Last Negotiations
Peroutka as Minister for Industry, Trad…, Kallay as Minister. Topolčanky, October 12, 1926. Švehla m. p.
* * *
The Last Negot… The Slovaks Await the Ret…
Prague, October 12. Today brought the formation of the cabinet to maturity more quickly than had been supposed only a short while before. In the Chamber building there was an air of expectant tension from the morning on. The decision of the Bund der Landwirte was already known: it had declared itself in favour of sending representatives into the government and had put forward Prof. Spina as its candidate. There remained the decision of the German Christian Socials, which was taken in the course of the morning and produced the same result, with Prof. Mayr-Harting as
Germans and Czechs since the Upheaval
…different premises. Their relationship was determined by how each stood towards Austria. In Czech politics the tendency prevailed that during the World War had been a party at war with Austria. The Germans had every reason to be dissatisfied with Vienna; nevertheless their position towards the Monarchy was by nature a different one. The fall of the Monarchy put power into the hands of the Czechs. The Germans, who came forward to claim their share, were answered with arguments of force. Through decades of striving the Czechs were incomparably better prepared for the new state than the Germans. The house was furnished, and the German tenant was not … about [?] wishes
Context
How the autumn 1926 coalition change brought German parties into the cabinet
The two news items on this page record the day, 12 October 1926, on which the Bund der Landwirte and the German Christian Socials each resolved to send a minister into Antonín Švehla's new government. The Neue Deutsche Biographie entry on Mayr-Harting places this step after the national coalition of Czech and Slovak parties had broken apart over agrarian tariffs and the state payment of priests' salaries. The government that followed crossed the national divide. Known as the Lords' coalition, it brought Spina's party into the cabinet alongside Czechoslovak agrarians, clericals, entrepreneurs and national democrats. Mayr-Harting took the justice ministry in Švehla's third cabinet, which lasted from 12 October 1926 to 1 February 1929, and Spina became minister of public works. It was the first time since the founding of the republic that Germans had entered a government. The editorial argues that the step only looked historic because of eight 'unnatural' years. That view is the Prager Tagblatt's own judgement.
Two Prague professors who had argued early for working with the state
The paper introduces both men simply as 'Prof.', and both were in fact university men. Mayr-Harting had accepted a call to the German University in Prague in 1909 and held his chair there until 1938. As early as December 1918 he argued for German participation in the newly created Czechoslovak state. At that time German-Bohemian politicians were still pressing for the Sudeten German areas to be attached to the Republic of Austria. From the founding of Czechoslovakia, Spina too argued for German cooperation with the state, a position known as activism. Their two parties, the Bund der Landwirte and the German Christian Social People's Party, carried this line into the cabinet. Mayr-Harting was one of the few German-speaking politicians to sit in a Czechoslovak government.
What the two ministers did in office and how their course ended in 1938
Mayr-Harting served as minister of justice until December 1929 and worked for German to be used as a language in the courts. The English-language Wikipedia record dates his term from 12 October 1926 to 7 December 1929, and the starting date matches the date reported in this issue. Spina began at public works, became minister of health in 1929 and minister without portfolio from 1935, so he stayed in government far longer than his colleague. After Austria's annexation to the German Reich, Spina resigned as a Czechoslovak minister on 23 March 1938 and gave up his parliamentary seat. He was the only deputy of his party who did not go over to the Sudeten German Party (SdP). In Spina's case, the German participation in government that the editorial welcomed in 1926 lasted more than eleven years, until the crisis of 1938.
The constituent assembly of 1919 and the essay's 'German tenant'
The historical essay argues that the Czechs came to the republic far better prepared and that Germans who claimed their share were 'answered with arguments of force'. Mayr-Harting's biography shows the institutional side of this exclusion. In December 1918 German-Bohemian politicians were still working for the attachment of the Sudeten German areas to the Republic of Austria. The constituent Revolutionary National Assembly was made up only of Czechs and Slovaks. In June 1919 Mayr-Harting proposed admitting Germans to it afterwards in line with the results of the 1919 municipal elections, but the proposal found no response on either the German or the Czech side. The new state's constitution was therefore drafted without German deputies. The essay's image of a furnished house whose German tenant was not consulted reflects this sequence. The phrase about force is the author's own characterisation.
The Slovak People's Party and its entry into government in January 1927
The second report's subheading is cut off. It says that the Slovaks were waiting for someone's return, but the name is lost. The Slovak People's Party, led by Andrej Hlinka until his death in 1938, was a Catholic party that supported parliamentary democracy, defended its Slovak Catholic voters and sought Slovak autonomy within Czechoslovakia. It had won a breakthrough victory in the 1925 election. The party's priest-politician Jozef Tiso became Czechoslovak minister of health and physical education on 27 January 1927 and held the post until 8 October 1929. His appointment came about three and a half months after this issue went to press.
Original
Die ersten deutschen Minister.
Prof. Spina und Prof. Mayr-Harting, die ersten deutschen Minister der Tschechoslowakei. Die ersten deutschen Minister. Prag, 12. Oktober. Nach acht Jahren tschechoslowakischer Staatlichkeit wird das Prager Parlament zum ersten Male deutsche Politiker auf der Ministerbank sehen; was eigentlich eine Selbstverständlichkeit wäre, tritt angesichts der unnatürlichen Umstände, unter denen wir all die Zeit hindurch lebten, beinahe mit dem Gewicht eines geschichtlichen Ereignisses in Erscheinung. Es ist also endlich erreicht, was so lange als eine der Vorbedingungen normalen innerpolitischen Lebens bezeichnet und angestrebt wurde: die [?] der [?] an der Regierung [?]
Die letzten Verhandlungen.
Peroutka zum Minister für Industrie, Hand Kallay zum Minister. Topolčanky, 12. Oktober 1926. Švehla m. p. * * * Die letzten Verh Die Slowaken warten die Rück Prag, 12. Oktober. Der heutige Tag hat die Kabinettsbildung rascher zur Reife gebracht, als man dies noch kurze Zeit vorher vermutet hatte. Im Kammergebäude herrschte schon vom Morgen an erwartungsvolle Spannung. Man kannte bereits den Beschluß des Bundes der Landwirte, der sich für die Entsendung von Vertretern in die Regierung ausgesprochen und Prof. Spina als Kandidaten präsentiert hat. Es erübrigte noch die Beschlußfassung der deutschen Christlichsozialen, die im Laufe des Vormittags erfolgte und das gleiche Resultat zeitigte, wobei Prof. Mayr-Harting als
Deutsche und Tschechen seit dem Umsturz
verschiedenen Voraussetzungen. Ihr Verhältnis war dadurch bestimmt, wie sie zu Oesterreich standen. In der tschechischen Politik obsiegte jene Richtung, die im Weltkrieg Oesterreich gegenüber Kriegspartei war. Die Deutschen hatten alle Ursache, mit Wien nicht zufrieden zu sein, dennoch war ihre Stellung der Monarchie gegenüber eine naturgegeben verschiedene. Der Untergang der Monarchie gab den Tschechen die Macht in die Hand. Den Deutschen, die sich um ihren Anteil meldeten, wurde mit Argumenten der Gewalt geantwortet. Die Tschechen waren durch ein jahrzehntelanges Streben auf das neue Staatsgebilde unvergleichlich besser vorbereitet als die Deutschen. Das Haus wurde eingerichtet und der deutsche Mieter nach [?] Wünschen nicht