Vyhubení Slovanů pobaltských Němci I.

This first volume presents Helmold of Bosau’s chronicle about the efforts of Germanic nobility to conquer and control the territories of the Baltic Slavic tribes under the pretext of Christianisation, a process that ultimately led to the destruction of these Slavs through physical extermination or forced Germanisation concealed as religious conversion. The Czech translation is by Karel Vrátný and honours the work’s first Czech translator, Karel Papáček. In a text written in 1925, Papáček describes how the Polabian and Baltic Slavs fought, unsuccessfully, for their homeland, language, ancient faith and freedom against a determined enemy, while noting that Helmold’s plain and vivid account often unintentionally contains serious accusations against his own countrymen and a strong defence of the Slavs. Papáček’s interpretation was shaped by the conflicts between Czech and German nationalism of his time, culminating in the Nazi attempt to destroy the Czech nation both ethnically and culturally. He argues that German nationalist theories essentially reworked the idea of German superiority over neighbouring Slavic peoples, whether they were not yet Christian or were Christian but outside the jurisdiction of the German part of the Catholic Church. The disputes surrounding the Slavic apostles Cyril and Methodius serve as an example, as they faced throughout their lives the hostility of many German church representatives who intended to control and Germanise Bohemia and Moravia under the guise of spreading Christianity.