Abstract
Th e text examines the attitudes of both ethnic groups to the Habsburg Mon-archy, starting from their very Early Modern origins when divisions within the society were not yet language -based. It was not until the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries that modern Nationalism sparked the National Revival in the Czechs and a full -fl edged desire for a national state in the geographical extent of the Holy Roman Empire in the Germans.
Both ethnic groups were set apart in 1848. František Palacký made it clear in his pro -Austrian Letter to Frank-furt that the Czechs are not the Germans and, thus, quite unimpressed by the prospect of sealing their fate with a German national state.
Despite occasional fl uctuations, Czech political elite never quite steered away from its generally pro -Austrian course until the end of the 19th century. Th e split -up between Czechs and Germans was complete during the Great War which both reinforced the 'German' character of Cisleithania and brought the Austrian monarchy into a position subordinate to the German Empire; this was a state of aff airs in which the Slavic nations, the Czechs included, found their co -existence with Austria no longer acceptable.