A photo depicting historical events that preceded Bratislava becoming part of Czechoslovakia. (source: Courtesy of Bratislavské Rožky)
A hundred years ago, the city of Pressburg in Hungary, inhabited mostly by Germans and Hungarians, first became, unofficially, Wilsonovo for a short time and then, officially Bratislava. It was to be the administrative centre and de facto capital of the Slovak part of Czechoslovakia, recalls the exhibition Pressburg – Bratislava – 1919 organised by the Bratislavské Rožky civic association, dedicated to the history and promotion of Bratislava.
Bratislava almost became Wilson’s Town
At the time of the proclamation of the Czechoslovak Republic, it was not clear that the city, called Prešporok or Požúň in Slovak, Pozsony in Hungarian and Pressburg in German, could be part of the newly emerging state and that it would become the heart of its Slovak part.
