Figure 1.--This is the Smiricích School in 1922. Smiricích is a Czech village about 120 kilometers east from Prague. It seems a typical Czech village school. The boys seemed dressed similarly to German children. |
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We have very limited information on Czechoslovakia at this time. The Czechs and Slovaks were two of the many restive minorities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After World War I Czechoslovakia was created, an independent state with both Czechs and Slovaks as well as other nationalities. Schools and the language of instruction was one of the difficulties that had to be confronted in this multi-national state. Here we do not yet have information on the Czech education system and language policies. Being formed out of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, we assume that there was a strong Austrian influence in the school system. The nationalities issue of course was used by Hitler in his efforts to obain the Sudentenland at the Munich Conference. The NAZIs claimed that the German minority was being abused. Of course the NAZIs did their best to stir up problems. We are unsure if the Germand indeed had legitimate complaints on how they were treated by the Czexhs who dominated Czechoslovakia. The Slovaks in eastern Czechoslovakia were also unhappy. This is a topic that needs to be addressed. The limited number of Czech images we have suggest that Czech boys dressed very similarly to German boys.
We have very limited information on Czechoslovakia at this time. The Czechs and Slovaks were two of the many restive minorities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After World War I Czechoslovakia was created, an independent state with both Czechs and Slovaks as well as other nationalities.
Schools and the language of instruction was one of the difficulties that had to be confronted in this multi-national state. This was just part of the larger language issue in a country with substantial minorities. Here we do not yet have information on the Czech education system and language policies. We do know that the new Czechoslovakian state faced a huge problem after World wat I. Most of the schools inherited from the Austro-Hungarian Empire were either German-language schools in the Czech areas and Hungarian-language schools in the Slovak areas. The new Czech Constitution guaranted the population the rights to school instruction in their own language and the eqyitable destribution of public funds.
Being formed out of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, we assume that there was a strong Austrian influence in the school system. We are unsure at this time as to changes made to the school system with the formation of Czechoslovakia.
The nationalities issue of course was used by Hitler in his efforts to obtain the Sudentenland at the Munich Conference. The NAZIs claimed that the German minority was being abused. Of course the NAZIs did their best to stir up problems. We are unsure if the Germand indeed had legitimate complaints on how they were treated by the Czechs who dominated Czechoslovakia. The Slovaks in eastern Czechoslovakia were also unhappy. This is a topic that needs to be addressed.
We do not have a lot of information about activities in Czech schools beyound the purely academic. We think such activiites were very limited. We do note boys doing various form of calesthetics, although we do not note sports competitions. This was the general pattern in German and Austrian schools which heavily influenced the Czech system. A reader writes, "An interesting photo of Czech boys doing calisthenic exercises in their school room using sticks or rods. The photograph was taken in the early 1920s according to the source. Most of the boys wear short trousers with long stockings, but at least two of the boys wear long trousers and one wears shorts with knee socks. Most of the stockings are black or dark brown (the common school color in the early 1920s), but one boy wears beige or light tan long stockings and strap shoes. The boy doing a deep-knee bend in the foreground has removed his shoes (you can see holes at the toes of his stockings) and appears to have outgrown his stockings which barely cover his knees when he is flexing his knees. He is obviously wearing supporters since the stockijngs don't wrinkle or fall down while he is exerting himself. The class seems to include both younger and older boys--from about 8 to 11 or 12 years of age. Czech school clothes in the 1920s were very much like those worn in Germany. I'm not sure what the function of the sticks is unless it is help the boys keep their balance while they are exercising. They raise the sticks above their heads in the erect position but hold them at chest level in the deep-knee bends. The school room seems to have curtained off to make a space for the exercises. Perhaps the girls used the space on the other side of the curtain if the school was coeducational."
We are not sure just how religion was handeled in Czechoslovakian schools. Public schools in many European countries are different than American schools in that there was not strict separation of church and state. The population in both the Czech and Slovak areas as well as the German areas was overwealmingly Catholic with small minority groups including various Protestant sects and Jews. A complication concerning religion is that many Czechoslovakians were socialists with a range of religious views afecting their attitude toward the schools. The Treaty of Peace guaranteed all citizens the right to freely exercize their religioncas long as it was consistent with public order and morals. The Socialists dominated the first election (1920). We are not sure such what this meant in terms of religion in the public schools. We think religious instruction was permitted. We are not sure, however, just hoe this was organized, especially for the non-Catholics. Hopefully readers will be able to provide details here. We do note First Communions that seem to be organized in a school.
The limited number of Czech images we have suggest that Czech boys dressed very similarly to German boys.
We have very limited information on individual Czech schools at this time. These individual school portraits provide a great deal of information about both fashion and education trends over time. We have not found many named schools, but we have found seberal sgool images that are dated. This is the Smiricích School pictured here in 1922 (figure 1). Smiricích is a Czech village about 120 kilometers east from Prague. It seems a typical Czech village school. The boys seemed dressed similarly to German children. We notice an unidentified Prague primary school in 1931. We note an unidentified secondary school in 1934.
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