How did the Counter-Reformation affect the social and administrative use of Czech?

The Counter-Reformation, following the defeat of the Protestants at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, led to a significant decline in the social and administrative use of the Czech language.12

As the Habsburgs replaced the largely Protestant Bohemian nobility with newcomers who had little knowledge of Czech, the language lost its status in public and official life. The 1627 Renewed Land Ordinance officially authorized the use of the German language alongside traditional Czech, and the subsequent growth of a German-speaking nobility further established German as the primary language for transacting public affairs.32

During this period, the literary traditions of the previous two centuries were proscribed, and the Czech language was largely suppressed within the homeland for two centuries. Despite this decline, the Czech literary language was preserved through the Kralice Bible, which served as a vital repository of the language until it was resuscitated during the 19th-century National Revival. While the Baroque period introduced new impulses to popular poetry, the administrative and social dominance of German persisted until the rise of Czech nationalism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.123