ABSTRACT
Since the 19th century at the latest and continuing into the present the relationship between Germans and Czechs has been a sensitive, if not an explosive one. This chapter presents a case-study that is based on interviews with 12 three-generation families in two border communities, Bärenstein and Vejprty. Analysis of their responses reveals clearly the major importance of the Nazi period, and especially of the events of 1938. They are seen to fundamentally affect each group's sense of self, to play vital roles in their respective identity formation. Both for individuals and for the complementary groups, there are marked repressive distancing strategies at play. Focusing on the respective linguistic manoeuvres in detail highlights how the people avoided facing up to the legacy of their conflict-laden past. Up until the First World War, there were almost exclusively German-speaking people on both sides of today's German-Czech border.
