Palacký´s Letter to Frankfurt – Prague, František Palacký Monument

Fact of the Czech figure „The Birth of a Political Nation”

Part of the „Revolutions of 1848″ topic

Should we search for a figure to have crafted the narrative of the Czech nation, it would be the historian František Palacký (1798-1876). Known to every Czech from the 1,000-crown banknote, Palacký earned the unofficial title „Father of the Nation” through his historical works. His modernist monument from 1912 bears the inscription: „To its awakener and leader – the revived nation.”

Palacký played a crucial political role during the revolutionary year of 1848. In April, the German Pre–parliament convened in Frankfurt am Main and decided to establish a committee of 50 men to prepare for future democratic elections. Palacký, whose liberal inclinations were unquestionable, was among those invited. However, on one fundamental issue, Palacký differed in views from both Viennese and German democrats.

While they sought to integrate the lands of the German Confederation into a unified Germany, Palacký feared the Czech nation would become a minor, insignificant minority. In his response to the Frankfurt Parliament, titled On the Relation of Bohemia and Austria to the German Empire, Palacký argued that the small Slavic nations of Central and Southeastern Europe had no future other than remaining within a reformed, multi-ethnic Habsburg Austria. Through this letter, Palacký also sent a signal of loyalty to the Viennese court, which could improve the Czechs’ position in the future.