(Ed's Note:  Bohemia, Czech Čechy, historic region (20,368 sq mi/52,753 sq km) and former kingdom, in west and central Czech Republic. Bohemia is bounded by Austria in the southeast, by Germany in the west and northwest, by Poland in the north and northeast, and by Moravia in the east. Its natural boundaries are the Bohemian Forest, the Erzgebirge (“ore mountains”) chain, the Sudetes, and the Bohemian-Moravian heights.  The latter half of this pages discusses Josef and Mary's ancestry, again highlighting the general confusion most Americans have with middle Europe in the 19th Century.  And in closing, a brief history of the Sudetenland and the role this area played in the commencement and conclusion of WW II.)

Bohemia
Austro-Hungarian Empire

Bohemia, today known as the Czech Republic, last century - post World War I, 1918 to 1993 - as Czechoslovakia and prior to World War I as Bohemia, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Early History

    The Romans called the area Boiohaemia after the Boii tribe, probably Celtic, which was displaced (1st–5th Centuries, A.D.) by Slavic settlers, the Czechs. Subjugated by the Avars, the Czechs freed themselves under the leadership of Samo (d. c.658). The legendary Queen Libussa and her husband, the peasant Přemysl, founded the first Bohemian dynasty in the 9th Century. Christianity was introduced by saints Cyril and Methodius while Bohemia was part of the great Moravian empire, from which it withdrew at the end of the century to become an independent principality. St. Wenceslaus, the first great Bohemian ruler (920–29), successfully defended his land from Germanic invasion; but his brother, Boleslav I (929–67), was forced to acknowledge (950) the rule of Otto I, and Bohemia became a part of the Holy Roman Empire. The Bohemian principality retained autonomy in internal affairs, however. Later Přemyslide rulers acquired Moravia and most of Silesia.

    German influence in Bohemia increased with the growth of the towns and the rise of trade between East and West. Silver, mined chiefly at Kutná Hora, greatly added to the wealth and prestige of the dukes who, by the 12th Century, began to take part in the imperial elections. In 1198, Ottocar I was crowned King of Bohemia, which became an independent kingdom within the empire. The conquests and acquisitions of Ottocar II (1253–78) brought Bohemia to the height of its power and its greatest extent (from the Oder to the Adriatic), but his defeat by Rudolf I of Hapsburg cost Bohemia all his conquests.

Golden Age and Hussite Wars

    After the Přemyslide line became extinct (1306), John of Luxemburg was elected king in 1310. The reign of his son, Charles IV (1346–78), who was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1355, was the golden age of Bohemia, and Prague became the seat of the empire. His Golden Bull (1356) permanently established the Kings of Bohemia as electors of the Holy Roman Emperor. In the reigns of his successors, Emperors Wenceslaus and Sigismund, religious, political, and social tensions exploded in the movement, both religious and nationalist, of the Hussites against the Holy Roman Empire. The Hussite Wars led to the defeat (1434) of the radical Taborites at the hands of the moderate Utraquists, who were supported by the great nobles. In 1436, by the so-called Compactata, the Utraquists returned to communion with the Roman Catholic Church and established Utraquism as the national religion.  Meanwhile the crown had passed to Albert II, a Hapsburg, and then to Ladislaus V of Hungary (in Bohemia, Ladislaus I). George of Podebrad actually ruled for Ladislaus and was elected to succeed him as king in 1458. On his death (1471) the crown reverted to the Kings of Hungary—Uladislaus II (Ladislaus II), Matthias Corvinus, and Louis II. The nobles profited from the disorders of the period and in 1487 secured vast privileges, reducing the peasantry to virtual serfdom.

Hapsburg Rule

    The accession (1526) of Archduke Ferdinand (later Emperor Ferdinand I) began the long Hapsburg domination of Bohemia. Ferdinand began the gradual process by which Bohemia was deprived of self-rule. He also introduced the Jesuits in order to secure the return of Bohemia to Roman Catholicism. The religious situation remained explosive. The conservative wing of the Utraquists had become almost indistinguishable from the Roman Church, and there had arisen a frankly Protestant movement, the Bohemian Brethren (see Moravian Church). The Brethren and their close allies, the Lutherans, won equality with the Utraquists by inducing Emperor Maximilian II to declare (1567) that the Compactata no longer were the law of the land. Rudolf II was forced to grant freedom of religion by the so-called Letter of Majesty (Majestätsbrief) of 1609. When in 1618 Emperor Matthias disregarded the Majestätsbrief, members of the Bohemian diet revolted and dramatized their position by throwing two imperial councilors out of the windows of Hradcin Castle on May 23, 1618.

    The so-called Defenestration of Prague precipitated the Thirty Years War, which came to involve most of Europe. Matthias's son (later Emperor Ferdinand II) was declared deposed, and Frederick the Winter King was elected King of Bohemia. Frederick and the Protestants were crushed in the battle of the White Mountain (1620) by Ferdinand II. The Protestants were suppressed, and in 1627 Bohemia was demoted from a constituent Hapsburg kingdom to an imperial crown land; its diet was reduced to a consultative body.

    The Thirty Years War laid Bohemia waste; after the Peace of Westphalia (1648), forcible Germanization, oppressive taxation, and absentee landownership reduced the Czechs, except a few favored magnates, to misery. The suppression (1749) of the separate chancellery at Prague by Maria Theresa and the introduction of German as the sole official language completed the process. Joseph II freed the serfs and permitted freedom of worship, but he incurred the hatred of the Czechs by his rigorous policy of Germanization. Leopold II tried to conciliate the Czechs; he was the last ruler to be crowned King of Bohemia (1791). During the later 18th Century the foundations of industrialization were laid in Bohemia, but the German population fared better than the mostly peasant Czechs.

Bohemia 1895, Pilsen is located in the central west portion of the country.

Czech Nationalism and Nationhood

    The 19th century brought a rebirth of Czech nationalism. Under the leadership of Palacký a Slavic congress assembled at Prague in the Revolution of 1848, but by 1849, although the Czech peasantry had been emancipated, absolute Austrian domination had been forcibly restored. The establishment (1867) of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy thoroughly disappointed the Czech aspirations for wide political autonomy within a federalized Austria. Instead, the Czech lands were relegated to a mere province of the empire. Concessions were made (1879) by the Austrian minister Taaffe; Czechs entered the imperial bureaucracy and parliament at Vienna. However, many Czechs continued to advocate complete separation from the Hapsburg empire.

    Full independence was reached only at the end of World War I under the guidance of T. G. Masaryk. In 1918, Bohemia became the core of the new state of Czechoslovakia. After the Munich Pact of 1938, Czechoslovakia was stripped of the so-called Sudeten area, which was annexed to Germany. This perimeter area was heavily populated with Germans.  In 1939, Bohemia was invaded by German troops and proclaimed part of the German protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

    After World War II the pre-1938 boundaries were restored, and most of the German-speaking population was expelled. In 1948, Bohemia's status as a province was abolished, and it was divided into nine administrative regions. The administrative reorganization of 1960 redivided it into five regions and the city of Prague. In 1969, Bohemia, along with Moravia and Czech Silesia, was incorporated into the Czech Socialist Republic, renamed the Czech Republic in 1990. The Czech Republic became an independent state when Czechoslovakia was dissolved on Jan. 1, 1993.

More on the Sudetenland
Sudetenland is a term for the German settlement area of the Bohemian Lands (Bohemia, Moravia, Austrian Silesia), and was used only sporadically before 1918. The German ethnic group in Bohemian lands was approximately 3.5 million citizens strong at the beginning of the 20th Century.  Until 1918, the Bohemian lands were part of the Austrian Monarchy. After 1918, the Sudetenland was part of Czechoslovakia. After the "Münchner Abkommen" (The Munich Agreement), 1938, Sudetenland was the official term (1938-1945) for the Reichsgau Sudetenland. After the end of WWII Sudetenland was again reintegrated into Czechoslovakia and its German ethnic group was expelled.
The second map highlights the city of Sirb, the city where John was born in 1889 and the city of the Paha family departure America.  All of the farm villages detailed in the Paha tree page in this chapter are in very close proximity within a few miles) of Sirb.

    

Who Are the German-Bohemians?

    German-Bohemians  have either lived or have ancestry in the outer rim of the Czech Republic. Once this region was part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, when people moved and settled freely in Central Europe. When the nation of Czechoslovakia was created in 1919 out of the former Austrian crown colonies of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia, the German-speaking outer rim came to be known as the Sudetenland, named for the terrain that separates Germany from Bohemia.  After World War II three and one half million of these Germans from Sudetenland were forcibly expelled from their homeland and "resettled" throughout Germany. These, too, are German-Bohemians, however, they prefer to me known as Sudeten-Germans.  Beginning in the early 1850's, and increasingly throughout the balance of the 19th century, there was a large chain migration to Minnesota and Wisconsin. Motivated by a string of immigrant letters, hundreds of immigrants joined their families and brought with them elements of the culture, crafts, traditions, music and values that characterize the descendents of these German-Bohemian immigrants to this day.

What about Josef and Maria?

     My intention at this point in this discussion is to bring to question the ancestry of Josef Paha and Maria Gill.  Living in Bohemia for their entire lives, one wonders whether his bloodlines are Czech, Austrian or German.  Speaking the German language is no indicator because German was probably the primary language of the area.  But significant to determining his ancestry is their home towns, Sadl and Mirschikau.  This area in the early 20th Century is called the Sudetenland and is heavily populated by German-Bohemians.  Germans migrated to these borderlands over a period of time, and in reviewing the Paha family tree in this chapter, you will see that the Paha and Gill families farmed this locale for over 100 years.  Another good indicator that his ancestry was German could be the fact that they moved in the German Catholic parish of St. George upon arriving in Chicago.  Again, this is not sure-proof, well over 95% of the Bohemian population was Roman Catholic.  But there were Bohemian Catholic parishes in Chicago.

    Next, reviewing census and naturalization documents, some other questions are raised. Looking at Josef's census data for 1900 through 1930, the following is detailed:  in 1900, Josef lists himself and his parents as born in Germany.  Since this detail is listed for wife Mary and children, I suspect the census taker took the liberty to annotate these entries because of the difficulty in understanding a heavily accented German speaking immigrant and the entries are probably false.  The 1910 census is similar in annotation of the family members except the place of birth is listed as Austria (Polish).  Obviously there is some confusion here with the census taker, as no place exists within the Austro-Hungarian Empire at that time.  By 1920, wife Mary has passed on.  Joseph is renting a house around 39th and Princeton, and has boarders.  By now, he probably has a better handle on the English language.  He lists his birthplace as Bohemia, his father's birthplace as Austria and mother's as Bohemia.  All spoke German.  I think that this maybe the most truthful in the source data so far reviewed.  But these are places of birth, and not necessarily heritage.  By 1930, he's back living with his son John, and his birthplace is detailed as Austria, the same as John's.  One last source data is Josef's naturalization paper's which detail him as a subject of the Emperor of Austria in 1902.

    I think the real test of German heritage for Joseph and Maria is a list detailing the German Bohemians expelled from Czechoslovakia at the close of WWII.  I located this list surfing the web, and the web site is genealogical in content - both the Gill and Paha surnames are included in the population expelled.  My intent at this point is not to pursue this issue further, but for future researchers, locating displaced relatives in Germany and Austria might be a challenge.

    Go figure!

HISTORY OF THE SUDETENLAND a Different Viewpoint

The Sudetenland encompasses an area of 27,000 sq. kilometers (10,400 sq. miles) in Bohemia, Moravia and Sudeten Silesia (the latter, being part of Silesia which in 1763, after the Seven Years War between Maria Theresia of Austria and Frederick the Great of Prussia, had remained part of Austria.)

Sudeten refers to a mountain range some 200 miles long and approximately 20 - 40 miles wide, covering north of Bohemia and Moravia as well as part of Sudeten Silesia. The term "Sudeten Germans" has been in use since the beginning of the 20th century to describe the 3-1/2 million Germans in the three provinces which used to be known as the lands of the Bohemian Crown. The Sudeten Germans are ethnically related to the Bavarians, Franconians, Saxons and Silesians, thus containing elements of the major German tribes.

Before the Czechs, a Slav tribe, invaded the central regions of Bohemia and Moravia, these lands had been inhabited by Celtic Germanic tribes called the Boii, the Marcomanni and the Quadi. In the 12th and 13th centuries Bohemian dukes invited German farmers, miners, craftsmen, merchants and artists to settle in these lands in order to develop them, particularly the mountainous frontier regions.

For more than 700 years Germans and Czechs lived together peacefully. It is true that from time to time there were tensions and conflicts, e.g., the Hussite wars in the 15th century, but they were fought for religious and social reasons, rather than on racial grounds. It should be mentioned, however, that some regions within the Sudetenland were inhabited exclusively by German-speaking folks who had no contact whatsoever with Czechs, such as the southern part of Moravia; they were indistinguishable in every respect from the neighboring Austrians.

Bohemia and Moravia had for centuries been part of the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation", and Emperors such as Charles IV and Rudolf II had their seat in Prague, the capital of Bohemia. Charles IV founded the first German university in Prague in 1348.  In 1526 the lands of the Bohemian Crown, including the regions in which the Sudeten Germans lived, came under the rule of the Habsburgs.  They thus became part of the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" until 1806, and of the German Confederation from 1815 to 1866. In 1848 the Sudeten Germans were among those who elected members of the first German parliament which met in the Church of St. Paul in Frankfurt.  Until 1918 the Sudeten Germans were part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The end of WW I in 1918 resulted in the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian multi-national empire. The 6.7 million Czechs demanded a state of their own in which the highly industrialized Sudetenland was to be incorporated.

Denial of Right for Self-Determination in 1919

Even before the proclamation of the CSR on October 18, 1918, the Sudeten Germans invoked the right of self-determination and demanded that their homeland be united with Austria, which in turn expressed the wish to be united with the German Reich.

On March 4, 1919, Czech soldiers fired on Sudeten Germans who were demonstrating peacefully for their right to self-determination. The 54 people killed were the first martyrs of the Sudeten German fight for self-determination. The world remained silent.

The peace conference at St. Germain in 1919 ruled against the union of the Sudeten German region with Austria as well as the union of Austria with Germany.

Thus, against their wishes, the Sudeten Germans were forced into Czechoslovakia, a country which they rejected and in whose foundation and constitution they played virtually no part, a country which disregarded their rights as a people and which discriminated against them as individual citizens. The population of the CSR in 1921 consisted of:


Czechization Measures against the Sudeten Germans

The Czechs broke their promise to make their newly-established country multinational, modeled after Switzerland. Instead, they set out on a policy of Czechization, conducted as follows: 

As a result of this policy, one out of every three Sudeten Germans was unemployed during the depression, and they had to live on the extremely meager social welfare benefits.

The policies on finance and exchange control, in particular on borrowing on customs tariffs, on investment, transport, nationalization of enterprises, on the promotion of cultural institutions and on student grants, were all designed to further the aims of Czechization, thus creating a unitary Czech nation which was in fact a multinational country.

The Treaty of Munich in 1938

The anti-German policy of the CSR government increased the tensions between the Sudeten Germans and the state in which they had been  annexed against their will to a point where the situation became unbearable. This, combined with the pressure exerted by Hitler and the German Reich, led to the Sudeten crises which reached its climax in the fall of 1938 when Britain and France proposed that the Sudeten region should be ceded to German in accordance with the recommendations made by Lord Runciman, the arbitrator in the Czech-German conflict. Czechoslovakia accepted this proposal on September 21, 1938.  The subsequent Munich Agreement, signed a week later, merely spelled out the details of the annexation of the Sudetenland to Germany. To the Sudeten Germans this meant the realization of their demands made in 1918/19.

 

After WWII

In the late summer of 1945 Czechia was the location of the most brutal attacks against German civilians. These crimes were primarily perpetrated by Czech nationalist and communist milicians, who were tolerated by the Soviets, who had replaced the American allied forces after June of the same year. In Aussig an der Elbe milicians publicly shot thousands of German men in the city square, afterwards throwing their corpses in the Elbe river, which became saturated with blood and decomposing human remains. In the capital of Prague the Czech mob itself took revenge on the historically large German minority in the city. Reports were sent by perplexed Soviet soldiers of the mob burning ethnic German school children alive in the central squares of the city.

In Czech-German relations, the topic has been effectively closed by the Czech-German declaration of 1997. One principle of declaration is that parties will not burden their relations with political and legal issues which stem from the past.

However, some expelled Sudeten Germans or their descendants are demanding return of their former property, which was confiscated after the war. Several such cases have been taken to Czech courts. As confiscated estates usually have new inhabitants, some of whom have lived there for more than 50 years, attempts to return to a pre-war state may cause fear. The topic comes to life occasionally in Czech politics. Like in Poland, worries and restrictions concerning land purchases exist in the Czech Republic. According to a survey by the Allensbach Institut in November 2005, 38 % of Czechs believe Germans want to regain territory they lost or will demand compensation.

The remaining tiny German minority in the Czech Republic is granted some rights on paper, however the actual use of the language in dealings with officials is usually not possible. There is no bilingual education system in Western and Northern Bohemia, where the German minority is most concentrated. The Czech authorities have enacted a unique hurdle in their minority act. While the erection of bilingual signs is technically permitted if a minority constitutes 10% of the population, the minority is also forced to sign a petition in favour of the signs in which 40% of the adult minority population must participate. According to the 2001 census there remain 13 municipalities and settlements in the Czech Republic with more than 10% Germans.

Many representatives of expelees organizations support the erection of bilingual signs in all formerly German speaking territory as a visible sign of the bilingual linguistic and cultural heritage of the region.

In 2005 Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek announced an initiative to publicize and formerly recognize the deeds of Sudeten German Anti-Nazis. Although the move was received positively by most Sudeten Germans and the German minority, there has been criticism that the initiative is limited to Anti-Nazis who actively fought for the Czechoslovak state, but not Anti-Nazis in general. The German minority in particular also expected some financial compensation for their mistreatment after the War.