Julius and Eduard Grégr were German brothers who were led the Young Czech Party that emerged in Bohemia in the late 19th century. For forty years, the Young Czechs fought on behalf of national interests within a limited constitutional framework of the Habsburg monarchy.

Julius Grégr

Julius Grégr was born on December 1, 1831 and died on October 4, 1896. He was a Czech politician and journalists who married two times and had six children with each woman. Julius ran the Narodni listy, a Czech daily and a Young Czech party asset, with Josef Barak and Karel Tuma. Throughout his career he endured fines and imprisonment for criticizing the Schmerling and Auesperg governments.

Eduard Grégr

Eduard Grégr (also Groeger) was born on March 4, 1827 and died on April 1, 1907. He was a Czech physician, politician and journalist.

Medical career

Eduard began his career as a medical doctor and writer of popular science articles during the 1850. After graduating from medical school in 1854, he also served as a research assistant to Purkyne who wrote about anthropology and biology. Eduard viewed science and medicine as the best tool to work towards a more just and rational ordering of society.

Political career

In January 1861, Eduard joined Julius on the editorial board of the Narodni listy and took a more active managerial role during the times that Julius was imprisoned in 1862.

During the 1880s and 1890s he continued to be one of the leading pamphleteers of the Young Czech party. He stopped practicing medicine and conducting scientific experiments in 1862 so that he could focus on a full-time political career. He became the Young Czech party's principal party speechmaker. Unlike his brother Julius, Eduard's temperament was characterized as very calm, warm and generous.

Development of the Young Czech Party

Both Julius and Eduard were involved in the leadership of the Young Czech Party, which exerted influence in Bohemian politics in the later 19th century. Beginning in the early years of Dualism, the Young Czechs were ambitious and arrived on the scene with a striking political agenda of national demands.

In the 1860s the Old Czech were the dominant party in Bohemian politics. They were criticized for abstaining from the election for the Bohemian Diet in protest against the centralist theories of the February Patent. Tensions rose when the Young Czechs supported the rebel cause during the Polish Revolution of 1863 and the Old Czechs condemned it. Julius and Eduard Grégr attacked the Old Czechs for sacrificing liberal nationalist goals in favor of the aims of the Bohemian feudal nobles during the accepted boycott of the Diet in Prague and the imperial Parliament in Vienna. Protests became widespread as the national discontent with the Old Czechs grew. This gave the Young Czechs a strong base of support to expand their political control.

Height of Political Influence

In September 1874, seven newly elected Young Czech deputies defied the Old Czech boycott and took their seats in the Diet. A few months later, the founding congress of the Young Czech Party proclaimed its independence and issued a wide-ranging agenda that differed substantially from its predescor.

After eight years (1871-79) of boycotting the Reichsrat in protest against the collapse of a negotiated agreement with Emperor Franz Joseph, the Young Czech chose to compromise. Their reentry into legislative politics marked the end of German Reichsrat majority. The Young Czechs held 85 to 87 of the 425 seats in the Reichsrat by 1900.

The supporters of the Young Czechs came from petty tradespeople, lawyers, progressive intellectuals, teachers and university students, some leaders in the Sokol gymnastic organization and middling farmers hurt by Hungarian and North American competition. Their followers believed in the liberal approach to the nationalist program prescribed by the Young Czechs rather than the more conservative approach of the Old Czechs.

In 1891, the end of the Old Czech predominance in Czech politics helped to disrupt the conservative “iron ring” parliamentary coalition with whose help Count Taaffe had governed since 1879, and marks the beginning of the modern era of Czech political parties.

Decline of the Young Czech Party

The Young Czechs began to dissolve in the 1890s. Problems with the Young Czech reign: the party’s inability to win legislation adequate to satisfy rising Czech expectations and needs; government suppression of the labor and radical youth movements, with resultant curtailment of civil liberties; bitter disputes among party leaders and factions; opportunistic tactics that discouraged progressives and induced them to quit the party.

From 1901 on, the party faced stern competition at the polls from newly founded parties that exploited weaknesses in the Young Czech social and economic programs and organizational structure. The Russian Revolution of 1905 stimulated strikes and other mass movements in the Czech Lands. In the parliamentary election of 1907 Young Czechs lost heavily to the Social Democrats and Agranians.

In February 1918, the party formally merged with a new coalition, the Czech State Right Democratic Party, which later, under the Republic, became the party of Czechoslovak National Democracy headed by Kramar.

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