Zprávy památkové péče 2018, 78(5):431-444 | DOI: 10.56112/zpp.2018.5.04

Historic noble settlements and the first land reform

Kristina Uhlíková

Ústav dějin umění AV ČR, v. v. i.

The nobility in the Czech lands, as elsewhere in Europe, had been the elite of society since the early Middle Ages. Their aristocratic residences always reflected this, despite their physical transformations over the centuries. Fortified and residential castles, country houses, and palaces were the significant landmarks of cities and landscapes as well as their political and social centers. Given the extensive land ownership of their owners, they also served as the agricultural centers for the surrounding regions. This significance finally began to decline only during the second half of the 19th century, but it was not very striking until the beginning of the 20th century, since the nobility at that time largely maintained its elite position in the politics and economy of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The creation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918 brought about the most radical changes. The new nation wished to discard with the old order in all aspects, blaming it for the outbreak of the terrible world war. The new government saw the personification of this order in the nobility. Aristocratic titles were abolished, and their use was even forbidden. At the same time, the state declared an extensive program of land reform in order to alleviate the strong social tensions. One owner was permitted to hold no more than 500 hectares of land. Since the chief landowners in the Czech lands were the nobles, they were affected the strongest by this new measure. It was an overwhelming encroachment, as they identified the lands they had inherited from their ancestors not only with their identity, but with their material security. Like the aristocracy itself, the castles, palaces, and noble manors quickly lost their previous significance. With the unexpected loss, the relationship of these noble owners to their traditional family homesteads and lands was perhaps even stronger than predicted, and many therefore strove to keep possession of them. The laws implementing the land reform covered many of these buildings, especially in the countryside; most of them, however, were subject to a variety of exceptions and under certain conditions remained in noble ownership. The government officials at the time rather saw the historic preservation of these historical properties as a burden. The first Czechoslovak Republic did not show much of a willingness to finance culture, so it largely had to rely on the private sphere, an attitude also shared by many other European countries at the time. The priority was rather to minimize national spending and create an economically strong state.
During its emergence, however, the new Republic proclaimed the protection of heritage properties as a state interest; if it was not willing to finance their maintenance, it had to find other solutions. One solution was involving the owners of the aristocratic properties in their management. Often, various forms of providing public access was a condition for exemption from the confiscation of property under the land reform. The nobles generally accepted the role of the state property manager without protest, since they had previously looked after their inherited properties as a public service.

Keywords: first land reform, Czech nobility, noble settlements, heritage care in interwar Czechoslovakia

Published: December 1, 2018  Show citation