Die Ereignisse vom Oktober 1938 auf Seiten der tschechoslowakischen Bahnhofschroniken || Incidents of October 1938 on Pages of Czechoslovak Railway Station Chronicles

The following study attempts to analyse an aspect of Czechoslovakian-German relations during the so called “Second Republic” (October 1938 — March 1939) that has until now stayed out of researchers’ interests, namely the entries in the so-called station chronicles. This almost unknown source provides us a specific point of view on the atmosphere of the given period because of its combination of institutional and personal characteristics. The most focused part are the weeks in autumn 1938, when Czechoslovakia was forced to withdraw large parts of its area to Germany which led to massive and simultaneously chaotic changes that the railway transport had to react on. Extraordinary efforts were requested in both personal and freight traffic. The aim of the study is to consider these entries as lieu de mémoire and to find answers on following questions: Is it possible to read about the feelings of the people in these entries, or are they written strictly objectively? How are the Germans described, as enemies with no hope for future, or as colleagues suffering under the same circumstances? For the purpose of the study, chronicles both from border and inland regions have been used to detect eventual differences that might be compared as well