Pittsburgh Agreement

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The Pittsburgh Agreement ( Czech and Slovak Pittsburská dohoda ), German also Pittsburgh Treaty , was an agreement concluded on May 31, 1918 between Czech and Slovak exile groups in which they laid the foundations for the common state to be founded. From the Czech side, under the leadership of the future Czechoslovak President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk , the Slovak representatives were guaranteed autonomy and equality in the future state.

Masaryk came to the United States in 1918 , on the one hand to take over the American government for the establishment of the Czechoslovak state, but on the other hand to involve the associations of Czech and especially Slovak emigrants in the project and to reach agreement on the foundations of the common statehood. The negotiations in Pittsburgh included the Slovak League ( Slovenská Liga ), the Czech National Association ( České národní sdruženi ; management: Karel Kramář ) and representatives of Czech and Slovak Catholic associations. Many Catholics had not wanted to join the secular to anti-clerical oriented Czech-Slovak National Council under Masaryk.

The Pittsburgh Agreement stated that the common state should consist of the old Bohemian Lands and Slovakia . The latter thus entered the light of history for the first time as an administrative unit. Slovakia should have an autonomous administration, its own parliament and its own judicial system. Slovak should become the school and official language . In addition, it was determined that Czechoslovakia should be a democratic republic.

At the time, the signatories of the agreement were convinced that only joint action would ensure national independence for their peoples. The Slovaks feared that they would not be able to break free from the Hungarian state association without help . For the Czechs the problem was the large German minority in Bohemia and Moravia. By including the Slovaks, the Slav majority in the new state would be significantly larger. In addition to the actually widespread belief at the time that Czechs and Slovaks were fraternal peoples, it was above all the fear of Germans and Hungarians that favored the conclusion of the Pittsburgh Agreement. Different opinions about future coexistence in a state have been put on hold for the time being.

The Pittsburgh Treaty paved the way for the Czechoslovak Declaration of Independence ( Washington Declaration ) signed by Masaryk, Milan Rastislav Štefánik and Edvard Beneš on October 18, 1918, then led to the proclamation of Czechoslovakia on October 28 in Prague and the declaration of Martin on October 30 with which the Slovaks demanded their right to autonomy in the new state.

Signed the Pittsburgh Treaty

Albert Mamatey , Ján Janček , Ján Pankuch , Jozef Murgaš , Ján Kubašek , Ondrej Schustek , TG Masaryk, Karel Pergler , Hynek Dostál , Vojta Beneš (brother of Edvard Beneš ), Jan Straka , Ivan Bielok , Oldřich Zláš. , Michal Bosák . , Michal Bosák u. a.
(Only Masaryk played an important political role in the following period.)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Martin Votruba: Pittsburgh Agreement . In: Slovak Studies Program . University of Pittsburgh. Retrieved June 20, 2010.

literature

  • Jiří Pešek: The founding of Czechoslovakia in 1918 . In: near and far. Germans, Czechs and Slovaks . Leipzig 2004, ISBN 3-361-00573-6 , p. 22–30 (book accompanying the exhibition of the same name in the Zeitgeschichtliches Forum Leipzig).

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