Before Czechoslovakia came into being, its territories were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. To make it even more complicated, Czech territories were part of Austria and Slovak and Carpathian Ruthenia were parts of Hungary. Even though Austria and Hungary formally created one country together, they were partially independent. For example, they had different laws of citizenship and domicile rights. For that, it might make a huge difference, where exactly your relatives were born.

In 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed. Several independent states came into being, one of them was the Czechoslovak Republic. It was larger than Czech Republic is now, because it also included Slovakia (which is now an independent state) and the Carpathian Ruthenia (which is now a part of Ukraine). The Czechoslovak citizenship was identified mainly by residence in the territory or inherited after parents.

In 1938, a substantial part of Czechoslovakia was annexed to Germany and its inhabitants gained German citizenship. In the same year, the Carpathian Ruthenia became a part of Hungary and one year later Slovakia became independent. Czechoslovakia continued further as the "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia" under the rules of Germany. It was once again very important from which part of Czechoslovakia your ancestors originated.

At the end of war, several important presidential decrees were issued, one of them depriving most of the German population in Czechoslovakia of Czechoslovak citizenship. Because German minority was quite big (it counted almost 3 million), the decree has a great impact until today. Being deprived of Czechoslovak citizenship under the decree actually precludes the application for Czech citizenship by descent.

After the war, the Czechoslovak Republic was once again re-established. As result of international agreements concluded at the end of war, this time lacking the territory of the Carpathian Ruthenia, which passed to Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union).

After 1948, during the communist era, citizenship laws changed several times. The changes reflected the mood in the society at that time. In the times of hard persecution, the rules were stricter, citizens could be deprived of their citizenship easily and it was more difficult to become a Czechoslovak citizen as a child of a Czechoslovak parent born abroad. In more benevolent times, the laws became more generous. On the other hand, the laws also abolished some of the principles that would be hardly acceptable in today's society, such as the loss of citizenship once a women marries or citizenship status differentiation of children born in and outside of marriage.

In 1991, the Czechoslovak Republic split up to the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. From that time on each country has its own citizenship and citizenship rules.

In 2019, a law was passed in the Czech Republic which enabled to reclaim Czech citizenship by descent if you or your ancestors once were Czechoslovak citizens but were deprived of Czechoslovak citizenship for various reasons.

As you can see, the history of Czechoslovak citizenship is anything but easy. If you wish us to look into your case and assess whether you are eligible for Czech citizenship by descent or not, let us know. We will be happy to start the journey into your Czechoslovak history!