02.19.07

The Real Bohemians

Posted in General at 1:07 pm by MamaSaid

 

I went online yesterday to enter my most recent blog entry, but I decided to put it on hold because I was so moved about what I read about Bohemian Grove. Although I like to feel I am well-informed, I was unaware that this disturbing group even existed until yesterday. As a person of Bohemian ancestry, I thought I was aware of all the ways our heritage had been exploited to describe groups that are completely unlike it.

The actual meaning of the term “Bohemian” is an inhabitant or native of the former province of western Czechoslovakia, often referred to as “gypsies”. Bohemia was a waterfront area of Czechoslovakia, originally bordered by Austria, Bavaria, Saxony and Lusatia. However, the nationality was all but forgotten in the mid 1800’s when the word “bohemian” was was used by French authors such as Honore de Balzac and George Sand to describe a the carefree artists of the day, comparing them with gypsies. The Dictionnaire de l’Academie Francaise of 1932 described the new meaning to be, “One who lives a vagabond, unregimented life without assured resources, who does not worry about tomorrow.” Henry Murger’s book Scenes de la Vie de Boheme made the term popular and Murger tried to distance himself and these new bohemians from the natives that actually deserved the term by stating, “The Bohemians of whom it is a question in this book have no connection with the Bohemians whom melodramatists have rendered synonymous with robbers and assassins. Neither are they recruited from among the dancing-bear leaders, sword swallowers, gilt watch-guard venders, street lottery keepers, and a thousand other vague and mysterious professionals whose main business is to have no business at all, and who are always ready to turn their hands to anything except good.”

Amidst the continued racial slurs and inaccuracies about Bohemians and gypsies, it is interesting to note that Anne Frank, made famous for her diary entries made while hiding from Nazi oppression, was actually a Bohemian Jew. Another famous Bohemian is Good King Wenceslas, who was a real, charitable king and patron saint of the Czech republic - not just the subject of a Christmas carol. Further, in 1355, Charles I, Luxembourg king of Bohemia, became Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. In 1348, he founded the University of Prague and increased the importance of Prague, which remains a principal center of artistic and intellectual activity in central Europe today.

Inaccuracies about this nationality are perpetuated today with the continued use of the word “bohemian” to describe groups such as the Bohemian Grove. By birth I am a Bohemian, proud of my heritage and have no other name to call myself. The United States makes media representations that it supports equality and discourages racial epithets. What would you call this inaccurate use of my nationality? I sincerely doubt that anyone of Bohemian heritage belongs to this group that consists of white males with overtones of Nazism.

After all, the Bohemians were killed in vast numbers during the Holocaust, though Bohemia was alleged to be a protectorate of Germany. Just a decade ago the President of the Czech Republic dedicated a memorial at Lety which was actually located a few meters away from a Czech pig farm. The pig farm was allowed to remain in business, although it covers the actual death camp site and many of the graves, despite the fact that all former WWII death camps are to be preserved as national memorials. Just last week, a Prague newspaper reported that this farm has still not been shut down, even though appeals have been made to the UN and many of those imprisoned and killed at Lety were children.

So what is Bohemia today? Bohemia was broken down into smaller districts in 1949 and no longer exists. What has happened to the people, the nation and what is the possible connection to the Bohemian Grove? I will write more about this in my next blog.

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2 Comments »

  1. Zoe Washburne said,

    February 20, 2007 at 11:04 pm

    Thank you Mama, for your illuminating profile on the “real” Bohemians. It is always disturbing when groups hijack other groups symbols and beliefs for their own agendas. I’m touched you were inspired by my strange little blog. I too had never heard of this “Bohemian Grove” and am still looking into the facts and/or fictions of this strange story. I will be updating my findings as they reveal themselves to me. Cheers!

  2. Tho. Jefferson Jones said,

    May 15, 2007 at 12:10 pm

    Thank you! As a ‘Czech’ (BOHUNK!) American I know quite abit about this ‘Cold War’ non-sense of RACE RE-ASSIGNMENT! Imagine being labeled ‘Hindu’ by the ‘British’! Our particular CZECH anscestory is such as when I look at ‘Germans’ I sometimes want to puke! ‘Aryan?’ “OK Cochise…anything you say!”

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