ABSTRACT
The special Czech-German relationship has become yet again extremely topical since the end of the memorable year of 1989. In the last two months of that year, the relationship underwent a profound change that demands a fresh interpretation. The much feared "German Problem" has been recognized as a common European problem concerning all of Germany's neighbors. The first breakthrough in the discussion of the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and the taboo subject of the expulsion of German Czechs occurred in the spring of 1968 on the pages of the literary journal Host do domu. "Germany can be as large as she wants to, as long as she stays democratic." When President Vaclav Havel uttered these very words in East Berlin on January 2, 1990, in front of the Brandenburg Gate, he destroyed in one swoop several petrified stereotypes that had blocked any reasonable improvement in Czech-German relations ever since the end of World War II.
