The goal of this thesis is to show the life and functioning of the Senate of the National Assembly of Czechoslovakia. The upper house of the Czechoslovak Parliament functioned between 1920 and 1939 after which it was officially dissolved during the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. In the concerned period, the chamber was gradually saw 444 lawmakers of seven different nationalities. The biggest number consisted of Czechs and Germans. The functioning of the Senate is analyzed from multiple angles. First the debate accompanying the establishment of a second chamber before the adoption of the new Constitution in 1920 is analyzed. Attention is also paid to the period debates and unrealized proposals for a Senate reform at the end the 1920's, linked to the proposed creation of the Economic Parliament. Also shown is the proportional representation electoral system used for elections to the Senate. The results were reflected in a large number of political parties with low electoral gains, which in turn hindered the creation of a stable political environment. The thesis considers the party, ethnic, social, intellectual and oratory activities of individual senators. The lives of some of the lawmakers who held seats in the upper chamber in the First Republic and were negatively affected by the German...

Abstract in English language This work depicts the life story story of a "self-made man" Jaroslav Salda, the creator and director of the Melantrich, the biggest printing company in Czechoslovak time of so called First Republic. It is doing so by compiling interviews with period witnesses, archival documents and literary sources. Each chapter is a part of the answer to the question: How is it possible that the illegitimate child without funds and university education had become the man with extensive expertise, the frequent guest of Ministers and the President and the powerful head of the media industry? This text as a whole, firmly tied to the history of the Czech nation and Melantrich, reflects the experience of the man who dedicated his life to building, because he considered the constructive, innovative, diligent and hard work the main means of fulfillment in life and the key to success. It shows a person which embodies the adage: Where there is a will, there is a way. Key words Jaroslav Salda, Melantrich, Czech National Socialist Party, Ceske slovo, Svobodne slovo, Hvezda, Vaclavske namesti, a time of so called First Republic, capitalism, business, director, print, newspapers, Publishing Company, resistance activity.

Am Ende des Ersten Weltkriegs lebte in Deutschösterreich und im Deutschen Reich mit dem Zerfall der Habsburgermonarchie und den Revolutionen im November 1918 die Erinnerung an die 48er-Revolution wieder auf. Die Revolutionserinnerung wurde insbesondere von den deutsch-österreichischen Sozialdemokraten zur Legitimierung der Forderung nach dem Anschluss an das Deutsche Reich herangezogen. Da die Vollziehung des Anschlusses jedoch am Einspruch der westlichen Siegermächte scheiterte, konnte im Deutschen Reich eine mit der Anschlussforderung eng verknüpfte Geschichtspolitik mit der 48er-Revolution von Sozialdemokraten und Demokraten wenig zur Legitimierung der Weimarer Republik beitragen (während die Anschlussforderung in Deutschösterreich gerade darauf zielte, die Eigenstaatlichkeit aufzuheben). Vielmehr wurde die Kritik am reichsdeutschen Rat der Volksbeauftragten, in Reaktion auf die deutschösterreichische Anschlusserklärung vom 12. November 1918 den Anschluss nicht vollzogen zu haben, zu einem politischen Allgemeinplatz. Träger der Geschichtspolitik mit der 48er-Revolution blieben in beiden Republiken ganz überwiegend die Arbeiterparteien, wobei im Reich Sozialdemokraten und Kommunisten dabei völlig entgegengesetzte Ziele verfolgten. Auch einen geschichtspolitischen Konsens zwischen reichsdeutschen Sozialdemokraten und Demokraten gab es nicht, wie sich schon in der Abstimmung über die Flaggenfrage am 3. Juli 1919 zeigte. / At the end of World War I, as the Habsburg Monarchy fell apart, the memory of the revolution of 1848 was revived in German-Austria and the German Empire by the new revolutions of November 1918. The revolution of 1848 was drawn on particularly by the German-Austrian social democrats to legitimize their demand to unite German-Austria with the German Empire (the so-called “Anschluss”). When the victorious Western powers prevented the realization of the Anschluss, the attempts by social democrats and democrats in the German Empire to use the memory of the revolution of 1848 to legitimize the new Weimar Republic had only little success because they were closely related to the demand for the Anschluss of Austria (whereas in Austria of course the demand for the “Anschluss” aimed at ending the existence of German-Austria as an independent state). Rather, it became common place in the Weimar Republic to criticize the “Rat der Volksbeauftragten” (the revolutionary government of 1918-1919) for not having realized the Anschluss in response to its declaration by the German-Austrian provisional national assembly on November 12, 1918. The workers’ parties were first and foremost those who continued to keep the memory of the revolution of 1848 in both republics alive. However, in doing so, social democrats and communists in the German Empire persued opposing political objectives. Moreover, there was neither a consensus between social democrats and democrats in the Weimar Republic in regards to the memory of the revolution of 1848. This lack of agreement was already apparent in the decision of the national assembly concerning the flag of the new republic on July 3, 1919.