Constructing the National Territory of the Bohemian Lands: Schools as Outposts in the Nationalist Struggle (1880–1938)

Abstract

Between 1880 and 1938, schools in the Bohemian Lands became battlegrounds of nationhood and instruments of spatial control far beyond the classroom. This article explores how Czech and German nationalist associations turned education into a tool for asserting their cultural presence and redrawing territorial boundaries, particularly in linguistically mixed and contested regions. It traces the evolving role of the schoolhouse not only as a site of instruction but as a symbol of national sovereignty and a vehicle for geopolitical imagining. By examining the interplay between private activism, state policy, and cross-border networks, this study highlights how education contributed to the symbolic and material making of borders in East Central Europe.

DOI: 10.14712/23363231.2026.2