Prague has always been a city of three nations, Czechs, Germans and Jews, the book shows
The Jewish city reveals the sinful corners of the past
The discussion was led by the authors of new books on Jewish Prague
This was exactly what was stated at the debate published by NLN, organized on the occasion of this year’s Book World fair in Prague. The fair takes place from 11 to 14 May at the Prague Exhibition Grounds and focuses on the topic of Genius loci in literature, The City in the Leading Role.
The debate concerns the question of how the genius loci of Prague manifested itself in the historical coexistence of several nations, how the phenomenon of urban space can be used for historical research and why Jewish history also includes important general history of Prague. The discussion was led by the authors of new books on Jewish Prague, Martina Niedhammerová and Ines Koeltzschová, together with the historian Kateřina Čapková, as the project leader “Prague Shared and Divided” by Zuzana Schreiberová.
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There was a strong German minority in Prague
The project Shared and Divided Prague follows on from the book by Ines Koeltzschová with the similar title Prague Divided and Shared. “The project is dedicated to cultural Prague in the past. For example, we organize lectures for schools on refugees from Nazism. I know that students are often shocked that there was a strong German minority in Prague, for example. They do not realize that the German minority co-created a certain environment here in the 1930s, “Zuzana Schreiberová said at the debate.
Koeltzsch’s book, which deals with interwar Prague, was created on the basis of research from the then official statistics, communal politics, the intellectual public and popular culture. On the data, he observes how the people of Prague dealt with their own group ideas about other discussions, where individual ethnic groups clashed and where, on the contrary, barriers fell.
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“It always bothered me that Jews and non-Jews presented themselves as sharply separated strata. I have found that in historical sources I often find metaphors describing Prague society as sharply divided, these were words like the ghetto, the Chinese wall. On the other hand, there is also an idealization of mutual coexistence, which occurs in words such as bridges and symbiosis. No one explained this discrepancy, “said Koeltzsch.
Understanding and coexistence have always worked
According to her, the statistics of interwar Prague on the representation of Jews and Germans in the Prague population always include a certain demographic subtext, consisting in how the given statistics interpreted society. On the other hand, data from the communal politics of the time and from cultural and intellectual life show that, despite heightened nationalism, mutual understanding appeared in the daily functioning of the city and that in some areas of public life ethnicity did not play a role at all.
“In 1930, demonstrations against the then German film took place in Prague, which showed that society was already sharply divided. On the other hand, ethnicity didn’t matter at all when we looked at who went to the cinema. All the groups met on Wenceslas Square and chose entertainment according to their social affiliation and finances, by no means according to ethnicity. The demonstration was organized by only one group, “the writer describes one of the phenomena of interwar Prague.
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The fact that Prague has historically functioned as a multilingual and multicultural center is also pointed out by the accompanying educational project Prague Shared and Divided, which currently runs in schools and directly on the streets of Prague.
Not only the Old Town, but also the periphery
“One of our programs is guided walks around Prague and guided screenings of period films. We follow the places where all groups, Czech, German and Jewish, met. For example, we took a walk called Prague Cafés, which maps the common life of Czech, German and Jewish intellectuals. Another topic was the promenade of Wenceslas Square.
It worked similarly to today’s multiplex: there were cinemas with huge halls, which all ethnic groups went to without distinction and met here, “says project organizer Schreiberová. According to her, in the interwar period more than half of the Jewish population in Prague lived elsewhere than in traditional Jewish quarters.
Wenceslas Square played an important role
“More than 35,000 Jews already lived in Prague. Those who came more often settled on the periphery, which with the development of the city ceased to be periphery, such as Vinohrady or Smíchov. Nevertheless, the stereotype that the Jews lived in the center and that they were therefore all rich remained. Wenceslas Square played an important role as the center of the Czech nation and as the center of entertainment culture.
There were luxurious biographies, but there was also a cultural space for the poorer. That is why this square was so important, “says Koeltzschová.” In the first half of the 19th century, Prague was a multilingual city, spoken not only in Czech and German but also in Yiddish, Hebrew and Latin. city in Europe.
The publication of the book series began in November 2015
In the book, I record several real places in Prague where individual ethnic groups met and intertwined: it is a non-existent Jerusalem island on the Vltava at the present level of Karlín (it is an island that was later connected to the mainland, ed. Note). , about Žofín, about the Temple in Dušní Street (now the Spanish Synagogue) or for example the Portheimka Villa in Smíchov, “adds Martina Niedhammerová, author of a book about Prague’s Jewish elites in the 19th century, entitled Just for Money.
The publication of the book series Jews-History-Memory began in November 2015 with Michael L. Miller’s book Moravian Jews during the Emancipation, followed by Michal Frankl and Miloslav Szabó on the founding of Czechoslovakia and related anti-Semitism (Building a state without anti-Semitism?), Followed by the books about Jewish Prague. The next book should address the neglected topic of village Jewish research in the broader Central European context.
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