ANGAŽOVÁNÍ BÝVALÝCH ŠLECHTICŮ V AKCIOVÝCH SPOLEČNOSTECH V MEZIVÁLEČNÉM ČESKOSLOVENSKU: NÁSTIN MOŽNÉHO VÝZKUMU A JEHO VÝSLEDKŮ
INVOLVEMENT OF FORMER NOBLEMEN IN SHAREHOLDING COMPANIES IN THE INTERWAR CZECHOSLOVAKIA: AN OUTLINE OF A RESEARCH POSSIBILITIES AND OUTCOMES

Summary/Abstract: A newly established Czechoslovak Republic developed as a democratic state with a pro-Czech national orientation. Since the beginning, the Republic had to deal with the fact that its economic power was in the hands of the former Austrian-Hungarian aristocracy, i. e. a social class that could assume a negative or a hostile attitude toward a Czech national, democratic republican regime. The new Czecho-slovak state doctrine manifested itself also in the implementation of the land reform that was evidently anti-aristocratically oriented, enforcing the anti-republican thinking in the formerly noble circles. Several examples in the study, however, show that members of aristocracy actively participated in the shareholding companies in the interwar Czechoslovakia together with people that can be supposed to be of a republican and pro-Czechoslovak orientation. The expressive ways in the political and propagandist sphere cannot, therefore, be identified with behaviour in the real economic life. Although the motivation of participation of former aristocrats in the shareholding companies may have been purely economic in the beginning, during the long time involvement it could have contributed to their assimilation with the republican regime. The reasons, circumstances and consequences of participation of the former aristocrats in the shareholding companies of the interwar Czechoslovakia are worth of further research.

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