War: The First World War

The Central Powers who actually fought, Germany and Austro-Hungary, both had German speaking governments. Bulgaria, which was on their side for the first year, had just finished the Second Balkan War, when it had fought all of its neighbors.

All sides, but especially the German-speaking powers and Russia, used extensive propaganda to enflame their populaces. They lied about the identity of the enemy, often implying that whole countries of people were worthless or evil. We can easily imagine that most people in the target country are unaware. Anyone who was aware, and patriotic, would have made sure the other citizens were made aware of the worst bits.

It would take some detachment to note that the propaganda of the local government was very similar to the propaganda of the enemy's. Russia and Germany's propaganda had many similarities.

Concerning the alliance between Austro-Hungary and Germany: "[T]here was also among the German-speaking inhabitants of Austria a sense of relief that the alliance meant an end to the fatal division between Prussia and Austria which had resulted from the war of 1866"1

The German government was indeed convinced of the ultimate likelihood of even the inevitability of war: there was much talk in court and army circles about the forthcoming struggle between Teuton and Slav, and in December 1912 the Kaiser had given instructions for a propaganda campaign designed to prepare public opinion for war.2

Many of the officers spoke several of the [Austro-Hungarian] Monarchy's ten languages, following the example of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Inspector-General of the Army, who, in spite of being reputed a bad linguist, spoke seven of them3

[T]here had been, less than ten years before the outbreak of war, a bitter dispute between the Germans and Hungarians about the retention of Germans as the language of command of the army. (Instruction of recruits was carried on in the language of any national group which formed more than 20 per cent of any regiment, but German remained the language of command in spite of the Hungarian claim for the use of Magyar.4

At the end of the war, Czechoslovakia declared its independence. Czech and Slovak are two very closely related west Slav langauges, and are mutually intelligible.