Czech words in German

Austria and Czech Republic are very close. But the languages in each country are completely different. Around 30 000 Czechs are living in Austria. The number was much higher in the past. The obvious reason of the influence on the German language is that in the late 19th century 

400 000 of the 6 million Viennese inhabitants were Czechs.

There are many Czech words in German language that Austrians use on a daily basis and they don’t even know that the words come from the Czech language.

Here are some examples of the  words:

Peitsche - bič

Buchtel - buchta

Heisl - záchod

Hatschek - háček

Haubitze - houfnice

Kolatsche – koláč

Pilsner, Pilsener, Pils - světlé pivo

Pistole - pistole

Polka - polka

Powidel, Powidl - povidla

Roboter - robot

Slibowitz, Sliwowitz - slivovice

Zwetschke – švestka

Kren - křen

The following are particullary used from the old generation :

Auf Lepschi gehen – leňošit

Strizzi – strýc

Schetzkojedno – všechno jedno

Pomali – pomalu

Feschak – fešák

The ,,exchange´´ of the words and phrases works in reverse as well.

Here is a short list of words that originate from the German language and are used by Czech people only with some tiny differences:

Biflovat-Büffeln 
cimra-das Zimmer 
cejch-das Zeichen 
filc-der Filz 
flaška-die Flasche 
haxna- die Haxen 
knedlík-der Knödel 
trefit-treffen
štos-der Stoß
špička-die Spitze 
ruksak-der Rucksack
sáček-der Sack
kýbl-der Kübel

The origin of the Czech people in Vienna

Hey guys!

Have you ever heard the expression „Ziegelbehm“ before? No? Because it’s actually a big part of the Austrian history.

In the late 19^th century Vienna needed people to work on the Ringstraße boulevard and most of those people came from the Czech Republic. They were quite important for the Austrian economy because they helped to build a big part of the magnificent buildings you can now admire all over Vienna. But those people had to live quite a rough life, which was mostly caused by the conditions they had to live under (there were often too many people living in houses not even having toilets or anything close to a bathroom).

They were discriminated by people and assimilated really quickly even though 
400 000 out of the 1,6 million Viennese inhabitants were Czechs.