Besprechungen: Atlas republiky československé

Summary

This is an academic review of the Atlas of the Czechoslovak Republic (1936), published by the Czech Academy under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The atlas comprises 66 double-page map sheets covering physical geography, population, agriculture, industry, transport, and culture. The review praises its detailed treatment of climate, geology, vegetation, and economic statistics, particularly in agriculture and mining. However, it criticizes the nationality map for 1930, which uses shades of pink and red to represent Czech population shares, including areas with less than 6% Czechs, thereby visually submerging compact minority settlements (especially Germans) as mere "islands" on a Czech background, creating a misleading impression of ethnic distribution. The review also notes the absence of historical maps showing the Sudetenlands' long affiliation with the Holy Roman Empire and Slovakia's with Hungary, and the inadequate treatment of Germanic settlement history. Despite these flaws, the atlas is deemed an indispensable reference for the geography of Czechoslovakia.