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Cleansing the Czechoslovak Borderlands: Migration, Environment, and Health in the Former Sudetenland
In this innovative study of the aftermath of ethnic cleansing, Eagle Glassheim examines the transformation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland from the end of the Second World War, through the Cold War, and into the twenty-first century.
Prior to their expulsion in 1945, ethnic Germans had inhabited the Sudeten borderlands for hundreds of years, with deeply rooted local cultures and close, if sometimes tense, ties with Bohemia’s Czech majority. Cynically, if largely willingly, harnessed by Hitler in 1938 to his pursuit of a Greater Germany, the Sudetenland’s three million Germans became the focus of Czech authorities in their retributive efforts to remove an alien ethnic element from the body politic—and claim the spoils of this coal-rich, industrialized area. Yet, as Glassheim reveals, socialist efforts to create a modern utopia in the newly resettled “frontier” territories proved exceedingly difficult. Many borderland regions remained sparsely populated, peppered with dilapidated and abandoned houses, and hobbled by decaying infrastructure. In the more densely populated northern districts, coalmines, chemical works, and power plants scarred the land and spewed toxic gases into the air. What once was a diverse religious, cultural, economic, and linguistic “contact zone,” became, according to many observers, a scarred wasteland, both physically and psychologically.
Glassheim offers new perspectives on the struggles of reclaiming ethnically cleansed lands in light of utopian dreams and dystopian realities—brought on by the uprooting of cultures, the loss of communities, and the industrial degradation of a once-thriving region. To Glassheim, the lessons drawn from the Sudetenland speak to the deep social traumas and environmental pathologies wrought by both ethnic cleansing and state-sponsored modernization processes that accelerated across Europe as a result of the great wars of the twentieth century.
Prior to their expulsion in 1945, ethnic Germans had inhabited the Sudeten borderlands for hundreds of years, with deeply rooted local cultures and close, if sometimes tense, ties with Bohemia’s Czech majority. Cynically, if largely willingly, harnessed by Hitler in 1938 to his pursuit of a Greater Germany, the Sudetenland’s three million Germans became the focus of Czech authorities in their retributive efforts to remove an alien ethnic element from the body politic—and claim the spoils of this coal-rich, industrialized area. Yet, as Glassheim reveals, socialist efforts to create a modern utopia in the newly resettled “frontier” territories proved exceedingly difficult. Many borderland regions remained sparsely populated, peppered with dilapidated and abandoned houses, and hobbled by decaying infrastructure. In the more densely populated northern districts, coalmines, chemical works, and power plants scarred the land and spewed toxic gases into the air. What once was a diverse religious, cultural, economic, and linguistic “contact zone,” became, according to many observers, a scarred wasteland, both physically and psychologically.
Glassheim offers new perspectives on the struggles of reclaiming ethnically cleansed lands in light of utopian dreams and dystopian realities—brought on by the uprooting of cultures, the loss of communities, and the industrial degradation of a once-thriving region. To Glassheim, the lessons drawn from the Sudetenland speak to the deep social traumas and environmental pathologies wrought by both ethnic cleansing and state-sponsored modernization processes that accelerated across Europe as a result of the great wars of the twentieth century.
- GenresHistory
280 pages, Paperback
First published November 18, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 16, 2022
Zahraniční pohled je vždy zajímavý. Glassheim se určitě vyhnul přílišené náklonnosti jedné straně a někdy prostě jen stroze konstatuje. Což je samozřejmě pro český školní narativ katastrofální, ale nutné. Co tomu v mých očích ubírá je fakt, že to nemá pointu. Je to opravdu jen popis a upřímně si myslím, že i trochu špatně zvolený název knihy. Ale do souboru knih o Sudetech to jistě patří.
July 7, 2020
fascinating!
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November 19, 2017The Bohemian border regions, which were inhabited by both Germans and Czechs, produced bilingualism, mixed-marriage, and at times national indifference, yet the “Sudetenland” also gave rise to interethnic conflict, nationalist struggle, segregation, and ultimately expulsion of the German population. Using the expulsions to explore the postwar socialist state, Glassheim investigates the social and health engineering attempted by the postwar government, and delineates the economic, industrial, and environmental transformations undertaken by the regime. The book's innovative analysis of a rich array of sources provides a compelling picture of the causes and effects of modernization, industrialization, and migration. This book was awarded an honorable mention by the Czechoslovak Studies Association in its prize competition for books published in 2015-16.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews