lutions that shocked all Europe around 1848 touched Prague too, but they were fiercely suppressed. In the following years the Czech national movement began its rise, until it gained the majority in the town council in 1861. Prague had a German-speaking majority in 1848, but by 1880 the number of German speakers had decreased to 14% (42,000), and by 1910 to 6.7% (37,000), due to a massive increase of the city's overall population caused by the influx of Czechs from the rest of Bohemia and Moravia and also due to the rise of the social status of the Czech language, ethnic mixing and assimilation.
20th century
The First Republic
World War I ended with the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the creation of Czechoslovakia. Prague was chosen as its capital and Prague Castle as the seat of president (Tomas Masaryk). At this time Prague was a true European capital with highly developed industry. By 1930, the population had risen to 850,000.
Second World War
Hitler ordered the German Army to enter Prague on 15 March 1939 and from Prague Castle proclaimed Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate. For most of its history Prague had been a multi-ethnic city with important Czech, German and (mostly Czech- and/or German-speaking) Jewish populations. From 1939, when the country was occupied by Nazi Germany, and during World War II, most Jews were deported and killed by the Germans.
In 1942, Prague was witness to the assassination of one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany – Reinhard Heydrich during Operation Anthropoid, accomplished by Czech national heroes Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubis. Hitler ordered bloody reprisals. At the end of the war Prague suffered several bombing raids by the USAAF. Over 1,000 people were injured, 701 people were killed, and hundreds of buildings, factories and historical landmarks were destroyed (however, the damage was small compared to the total destruction of many other cities in
