Indent war

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The Czech and Slovak media described the discussion about naming Czechoslovakia after the end of communist rule as a war of dashes ( Czech : pomlčková válka , Slovak : pomlčková vojna ) . Reinforced by the "dispute about the big or small S / s", he represented the process of the division of Czechoslovakia after 1989 and ended on January 1, 1993 with the establishment of two new states - the Czech Republic and Slovakia . The dispute concerned both the official name (the long form) and the short form of the country name. In this dispute, the long-suppressed problematic of Czech centralism and the Slovak striving for self-determination manifested itself.

background

After the collapse of the system in 1989, the official name of the state remained unchanged for the time being: Československá socialistická republika , abbreviated ČSSR . Proposals, including by President Václav Havel to simply delete the word socialist , were thwarted by the demand of Slovak representatives to make the dual state clear with a hyphen , i.e. not Czechoslovakia , but Czecho-Slovakia , as it was occasionally used as early as 1918–1920 and then also after the Munich Agreement from autumn 1938 to March 1939, when Slovakia and Carpathian Russia gained autonomy within Czechoslovakia.

Tried solutions

Different spellings

Names like Republika Česko-Slovensko , Federace Česko-Slovensko , Federace České a Slovenské republiky , Česká a Slovenská federativní republika etc. have been proposed. However, the horizontal line, a proposal by then President Václav Havel , caused heated discussions in parliament and in the press. While this solution was supported by the Slovak parliament and the bar grammatically as a bonding dash (Czech as Slovak "spojovník") as understood in similar geographic names, this line was rejected in the Czech Republic because it is (incorrectly) an indent (Czech as Slovak "pomlčka") saw what in Czech as separation can be interpreted underlined; some Czech MPs even saw it as an “insult to the Czech nation”. The discussion about this was often reduced to the question of whether the two nations should be united or separated - that is, to the question of self-determination and separatism . The Slovaks underlined that both federal parts should be connected, while the Czechs hired among other historical comparisons: a dash in the name already existed 1938/1939, shortly before Slovakia under Hitler's protection have their own state - the Slovak state - founded and the remaining Bohemian lands were occupied by the National Socialist German Reich.

Constitutional amendment

Finally, Constitutional Law 81/1990 of March 29, 1990 introduced the name Československá federativní republika , and at the same time it was decided that the Slovak name Česko-slovenská federatívna republika should be regulated immediately in a law to be passed.

At this point, however, another problem emerged - the "big S dispute". According to both Czech and Slovak spelling, only the first letter of a multi-part proper name is capitalized, all others (including adjectives derived from proper names) are then lowercase. In the context of equality, however, the Slovak MPs demanded a capital S for Slovak, which contradicted both spellings and met with resistance from most Czech MPs. Therefore, a compromise was found: On April 20, 1990, Constitutional Law 101/1990 was adopted (entered into force on April 23, 1990), according to which the state with the equal variants Česká a Slovenská Federativní Republika (Czech) and Česká a Slovenská Federatívna Republika (Slovak) should be called. This designation did not conform to spelling (lowercase s, f and r would be correct); however, because of the capital S, a certain uniformity was maintained and the problem was eliminated. In the official regulation of (Slovak) spelling, this name is explicitly used as an exception to this day.

The short form of the country name, which has been used since 1990, differed in the two languages: It was Czechoslovakia (Československo) in the Czech Republic and Czecho-Slovakia (Česko-Slovensko) in Slovakia - but here retrospectively for the entire period after 1918, even if the spelling itself was correct under Slovak law.

Consequences

Despite various disputes (a hunger strike for the hyphen has become known, suggestions have emerged that also wanted to include Moravia in the name), it is remarkable that the majority of the press acted conciliatory and sometimes violent criticism of the politicians' “petty careers” practiced. Voices came up that pointed to parallels such as Belgium and pointed out the existence of other nationalities, but above all criticized the burgeoning nationalism and narrow-mindedness in politics.

Remarks

  1. ↑ In Czech both s and r in lower case; German Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
  2. ↑ Republic of Czechoslovakia , Federation Czechoslovakia , Federation of the Czech and Slovak Republic , Czech and Slovak Federative Republic
  3. ↑ a b In Czech and Slovak both f and r in lower case; German Czechoslovak Federal Republic or Czecho-Slovak Federal Republic
  4. ↑ Both S and R are not capitalized in accordance with the spelling; German Czech and Slovak Federal Republic .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e www.tyden.cz , Dina Podzimková, Pomlčková válka: když spojovník rozděluje [War of dashes: when a hyphen divides] (Czech)
  2. ^ Joint parliamentary debate on March 29, 1990, in Eric Stein : Czecho / Slovakia. Ethnic Conflict, Constitutional Fissure, Negotiated Breakup. The University Of Michigan Press, Michigan, USA 1997
  3. ↑ www.zakonypreludi.sk ( Memento of August 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (Law 81/1990, Slovak version)
  4. ↑ www.psp.cz (shorthand minutes of the parliamentary debate of March 29, 1990, see proposal by MP Miloš Zeman)
  5. ↑ www.zakonypreludi.sk ( Memento of October 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (Act 101/1990, Slovak version)