Since ancient times, a ‘foreigner’ meant not only anyone who came from outside one’s town or village (and was thus a potential enemy), but also any person without legal status. Foreigners were without legal rights until they paid a surety. This matter was handled by courts of law and there were various regulations setting fees for running a business or renting a house (foreigners were not allowed to acquire or inherit ownership of them).
The Bohemia lands were long open to foreigners, relatively speaking, with lively trade and cultural exchanges. First were the Celts, then Germanic tribes and later the Slavs, but a large portion of the populace consisted of German-speaking people. The Germans were mainly courtiers, or worked entrepreneurs and merchants. Relations with the Germans were neutral at first, cooling off later and ending up with animosity ‘against all things German’, though that was still far removed from the strident nationalism of the 19th century.
Worse relations existed between the Czechs and Germans, on one side, and the Jews on the other. They lived outside of society, which often (having got permission from the King for a handsome price) carried out pogroms against them.
Plague and disease in the mid-14th century affected migration, and fewer foreigners came to Bohemia. During the Hussite Wars, most of towns had a majority Czech citizenry. Only the main centres in Moravia remained largely German: Brno (Brünn), Jihlava (Iglau) and Olomouc (Olmütz). The Czech language gradually permeated from rural society to the higher social strata. A fundamental change in how language and ethnicity was viewed came with the Hussite Wars, in which most Czech-speakers identified with the Hussites, while (most) Germans supported Sigismund and the Pope. This was exacerbated by the foreign (often German) crusades summoned by Sigismund against the “upstart Hussites”.
Since ancient times, a ‘foreigner’ meant not only anyone who came from outside one’s town or village (and was thus a potential enemy), but also any person without legal status. Foreigners were without legal rights until they paid a surety. This matter was handled by courts of law and there were various regulations setting fees for running a business or renting a house (foreigners were not allowed to acquire or inherit ownership of them).
The Bohemia lands were long open to foreigners, relatively speaking, with lively trade and cultural exchanges. First were the Celts, then Germanic tribes and later the Slavs, but a large portion of the populace consisted of German-speaking people. The Germans were mainly courtiers, or worked entrepreneurs and merchants. Relations with the Germans were neutral at first, cooling off later and ending up with animosity ‘against all things German’, though that was still far removed from the strident nationalism of the 19th century.
Worse relations existed between the Czechs and Germans, on one side, and the Jews on the other. They lived outside of society, which often (having got permission from the King for a handsome price) carried out pogroms against them.
Plague and disease in the mid-14th century affected migration, and fewer foreigners came to Bohemia. During the Hussite Wars, most of towns had a majority Czech citizenry. Only the main centres in Moravia remained largely German: Brno (Brünn), Jihlava (Iglau) and Olomouc (Olmütz). The Czech language gradually permeated from rural society to the higher social strata. A fundamental change in how language and ethnicity was viewed came with the Hussite Wars, in which most Czech-speakers identified with the Hussites, while (most) Germans supported Sigismund and the Pope. This was exacerbated by the foreign (often German) crusades summoned by Sigismund against the “upstart Hussites”.