Essays on Liberty an Human Rights

Essays on Liberty and Human Rights

By Karl Hausner

Human Rights Essays II

PART ONE

(Continued from Human Rights Essays I)

3.2.  The Moravian Compromise

Horst Glassl, from whose dissertation (Der Maehrische Ausgleich, Muenchen 1967) I
cite here, says:  "It cannot be said that the "Moravian Compromise" offered the final
solution to national problems in the Danubian monarchy in general of for
Czech-German relationships in particular.  Nevertheless, the  "Moravian Compromise"
of 1905 showed that it was possible for national discord to be replaced by a  
partnership  agreed to by treaty to ensure peace among neighboring nations.  
Although, this admirable experiment failed due to strong national contrasts and
because, seen historically, it came too late, nothing can change its fundamental
importance." (P.7)

The realization of the Moravian Compromise was made possible by four laws:  the law
on Public Order of the margravate Moravia, the State Parliament electoral regulations,
the Education Law and the law of regulating national languages.

Glassl describes the difficulties which arose due to the overlapping of the various
languages and also due to the preferences of political parties.  Social and economic
problems arose too, with the setting up of electoral districts, appointing the members
of committees, the organizations of school districts and with the appointment of
high-ranking officials and so forth.  Despite all these problems, the Compromise
showed that it was functioning after a few years.  It is due to this Compromise that in
Moravia (and in Silesia) the confrontation between Czechs and Germans never
developed as fanatically as it did in  Bohemia, where there had never been  a similar
Compromise.

3.3.  The Bukovina Compromise of 1910

The following description is based on the paper "Der Parlamentarismus und nationale
Ausgleich in der ehemals oesterreichischen Bukowina' by Rudolf Wagner, published
in Munich in 1984.

The starting point was Article 19 of the Austrian Constitution, as it was for the
Moravian Compromise.  Again and again, the Bukovina parliamentary debates referred
to the regulations of the Moravian Compromise.  With the latter, discussion was about
two languages in contrast to the former, where at least six languages had to be dealt
with:  Ukrainian, Romanian, German, Yiddish, Polish and Magyar.

According to a census of 1910, the religions were as manifold as the spoken
languages.

These statistics show the interesting fact that almost all of the Jews spoke German,
since Yiddish did not count as a spoken language in state statistics.  In addition, the
Jews were not conceded their own Curia in the electoral regulations.

Both, the Moravian and the Bukovina Compromise were not allowed to prove their
effectiveness for very  long.  Nevertheless, while they were valid, they were
successful.

After World War I, the question of tolerance and balance between the nations no
longer existed. The victory of the Allies was connected with the victory of the French
idea of what a nation was, which was readily accepted by the Romanian state.  After
1919 in the Bukovina, there was only one people, the Romanians.  During the period
between the wars, the rights of the minorities were reduced more and more.  The CSR
proved unable to convince their minorities to accept the new state.

Governments still rely on the Bukovina and Moravian Compromises when dealing with
ethnic conflicts.  Parts of the Compromise were adopted in the Cyprus Constitution.  
While the South Tyrol ethnic problems were being solved, the principles of both
Compromises were discussed again and again.

In conclusion, an anecdote:  we were on an excursion in Israel with students of the
University of Augsburg.  There we met Teddy Kollek, the Mayor of Jerusalem and
discussed with him the possibility of adopting the Bukovina Compromise - which he
knew very well - for the Palestine problem.  His answer was:  "But it needs the
Bukovina mentality, too.

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