Czech National Revival

Following the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, Czech lands experienced Germanisation politics spearheaded by the Habsburg emperors.

[citation needed] The Habsburgs started rampant anti-Reformation and re-Catholicization efforts which made some Czech elites flee the country.

During the two following centuries, Czech language had been more or less eradicated from state administration, literature, schools, Charles University, and among the upper classes.

This work was published by the Matice česká,[3] an institution created by František Palacký in 1831 as a branch of the National Museum.

Possibly as a consequence of the domination of urban society by the German-speaking population at the start of the century, Czech writers of the period often looked to the countryside for inspiration.

In a similar fashion to how the Brothers Grimm recorded German folklore, Karel Jaromír Erben wrote Prostonárodní české písně a říkadla (Czech Folk Songs and Nursery Rhymes) which brought together various folktales.

[4] The countryside was looked to as the true Bohemia, where Czech folklore and traditions had survived away from the foreign influences of the cities.