3-066-051 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Assault on German students by Slavs at Kuchelbad, near Prague, 1881. 'Much indignation has been aroused in Germany, but more especially in the German part of Austria, by the outrageous behaviour of some of the young Bohemians, or "Czechs" as they call themselves, towards German students at the University of Prague. Upon the occasion of a festival to celebrate the twentieth year of the students' club named "Austria", the German members, who numbered scarcely forty, were savagely attacked by several hundred Slavs, including some rabble of the lower classes, and were forced to barricade the verandah of the tavern, and defend themselves as best they could...The Germans were pelted with bottles, glasses, stones, and other missiles, from which they attempted in vain to shelter themselves by holding up stools and chairs, being unable to get inside the house...some were...kicked, and beaten...[but] the gendarmes interfered for their protection...In the city streets, it is said, gross insults were offered to respectable Germans, and two young ladies, daughters of University professors, met ruffians who actually spat in their faces'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.