Historica Olomucensia

Czech-German Relations During the First Czechoslovak Republic Through the Eyes of the Spanish Embassy in Prague

Czechoslovakia, as the successor state of Austria-Hungary, inherited numerous problems. One of the most difficult was undoubtedly the question of the coexistence of minorities in a common state; in particular, the German minority had a considerable impact on the cohesion of the state. As a result, the newly established foreign embassies in Prague monitored the relations between Czechs and Germans closely throughout the entire period of the First Republic. The development of Czech-German relations was also monitored by the Spanish embassy, and this topic became one of the most commented on in the reports sent by diplomats to Madrid. The present study therefore provides an insight into the functioning of the Spanish embassy in Prague during this period. It focuses not only on the frequency of such reports, but also analyses what topics diplomats paid attention to. The study also takes into account the effects of both the changes in the political regime in Spain between the founding of Czechoslovakia and the outbreak of the Civil War and the high turnover.

Keywords: German minority; Spanish embassy in Prague; diplomacy; national unrest; minorities