Monday, March 28, 2016

What do Czech people think of Bavarians?

 Recently I am studying on Bavaria-Czech relations, and I know that Benes Decrees have soured their relations terribly, and that the ice age was only broken when Seehofer visited Prague in December 2010 without precondition on talking about Benes Decrees. 

But on top of the highly political "fight" going on, I am wondering if there are complaints from the Czechs to the Bavarian side? How is the general dynamic like between two groups of people? Any positive or negative interaction? 

That is because I also read interview from Prime Minister Tillich on both Bavaria and Czech Republic, and how he mentioned that the complaints from Czech Republic was often about Bavaria. I am curious at what kind of dissatisfaction they have for their neighbours. 

I don't think they really differentiate Bavarians from Germans, generally, unless of course they are German students or have a lot of dealings with them.
They see Germans as disciplined, thrifty, clever, hardworking and well-organized. These threads run through the best of Czech society and the educated, white collar class of Czechs tend to exemplify the same positive traits.
I have never heard anyone in the Czech Republic slag off Bavarians and the only negative thing I've ever heard is that Germans are a bit too procedure oriented.
I had a student who married a Bavarian and moved there; she told me that there was a bit of discrimination against her and that everybody thought that all Czechs were 'sluts' but over time she made friends and assimilated. (Note, she was a very high-level German speaker.)

The Beneš decrees seldom come up.
When they do, Czechs tend to react the same way as all or most nationalities react when faced with a dark spot on their past:
  • some deny it;
  • some feel guilty about it;
  • some feel that it should be atoned for
  • some shrug it off and chalk it up to history and one more bad thing that happened in the war
  • some are defensive about it.
Most don't really think about it.
Occasionally a politician will try to win populist points using it, but I'm pretty sure the majority of well-educated Czechs despise that kind of thing.
Ask an American about his country's history with Native Americans; or a Brit about certain actions taken by the British Empire in the colonies; or a Russian about Stalin's programs; and so on... you will get a similar mix of reactions.

Czechs are no different than most nationalities in this respect.
Note: I don't live at the German-Czech border.
Any border problems I would imagine probably stem from the high amount of sexual tourists that have traditionally  come over the border from Germany.
Of course respectable people don't approve of that.
But most Czechs do not have any negative notions about  Germans or Bavarians.

No comments:

Post a Comment