Slovakia – Bratislava

(Paddy was walking across European countries which were already unravelling and we know that they were going to unravel even further in the 20th century.  I have found the relationships between all the countries puzzling so have included this video for my own benefit in the hope of clarification,)

“I was wandering across a field when a man in uniform began shouting from the dyke-road overhead. Where the devil did I think I was going? It was the Austrian frontier post. ‘You were walking straight into Czechoslovakia!’ the official said reproachfully as he stamped my passport. I left the eagles and the red-white-red road barrier behind. The next frontier, after a stretch of no man’s land, was closed by a barrier of red, white and blue. Another rubber-stamp was smacked down by a broad-faced Czechoslovak official with the Lion of Bohemia on his cap. ‘My fourth country,’ I thought exultantly. In a little while I got to an enormous bridge. Its great frame, the masts and trees and old buildings congregated at the further bridgehead and the steep ascending city above them had been visible for miles. It was the old city of Pressburg, re-baptized with the Slav name of Bratislava.”  Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts

I have used this piece as an introduction because a) it helped me to remember the old historical versions of Central Europe, of the Habsburg Empire,  b) how tough it must have been for the citizens of the individual countries to adjust to new national arrangements after 1918, and c) how resilient the citizens of Czechia and Slovakia have had to be to readjust continuously to their politicians will! 

Certainly  Paddy’s friend, Hans, found it difficult to adjust:

“His family lived in Prague and, like many Austrians at the break-up of the Empire, they had found themselves citizens of the new-born Republic, tied there beyond uprooting by old commitments; in this case, by a family bank. Hans helped to run the branch of an associate establishment in Bratislava – or Pressburg, as he still firmly called it, just as ex-Hungarians stubbornly clung to Pozony1 – and felt rather cut off from life. Vienna was his true home….‘Come and stay on your way to Hungary and cheer me up,’ he had said. ‘I get so bored there.’ To my uncritical eye Bratislava didn’t seem too bad.”

Paddy was there in 1934.  Five years later the Slovaks’ leader, Tiso, declared Slovakia separate from Czechia and Nazi troops marched in. It proved difficult to find images of the period other than this collection.

It was difficult to find images of 1934 and Slovakia’s entry and participation in the Second World War, but this provides an interesting link.M

My own experience in Bratislava

The Bratislava’s citizens with whom I conversed generally seemed to me to be much happier and readier to chat and charm than the Hungarians I came across, an opinion shared by a very Italian archaeologist who was so kind in carrying my suitcase up the hill by St. Martins.   But perhaps they have reason to be – or maybe the Hungarians’ history is a huge burden, leading to a scepticism of the intentions of all incomers – or a simple need to take them for all they can!