Moravská Ostrava, education system, First Czechoslovak Republic, compulsory transfer of children to Czech schools, Germans, Jews

This study traces the development of Ostrava?s education system following the establishment of the independent Czechoslovak Republic, emphasizing the changes that affected both Czech-language and German-language schools as well as briefly mentioning Polish and Jewish schools in the city. The text offers a new perspective on the transfer of children to different schools after 1918, especially the decline in the numbers of children enrolled at German schools - a process that was not only caused by transfers to Czech schools (as almost all older studies have claimed), but also arose as a consequence of the demographic crisis brought about by the First World War; this crisis affected all parts of the primary education system during the first half of the 1920s, regardless of the language of instruction. The article also outlines the reorganization of German-language schools, compulsory transfers of children to Czech-language schools, changes in the school administration system within Ostrava, and the rapid establishment of a large number of Czech schools, which suffered from a lack of teachers, premises and equipment. The study focuses primarily on Moravská Ostrava, but in order to contextualize developments in this central part of the city, it also touchers on other municipalities which from 1924 onwards were incorporated into the newly created administrative unit of Greater Ostrava.