Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( Czech and , ) is the German name ( used in English in the first half of the 20th century ) to refer to those northern , southwest , and western areas of Czechoslovakia which were inhabited mostly by German speakers , specifically the border districts of Bohemia , Moravia , and those parts of Silesia located within Czechoslovakia . The name is derived from that of the Sudetes mountains – featuring in Ptolemy ' s 2nd - century Geography as " Sudeti montes " – which run along the northern Czech border as far as Silesia and contemporary Poland , although it encompassed areas well beyond those mountains . The word " Sudetenland " came into existence in the early 20th century , and only came to prominence after the First World War . The German - speaking inhabitants of the region were then called " Sudeten Germans " ( German : " Sudetendeutsche " ; Czech : " Sudetští Němci " ; Polish : " Niemcy Sudeccy " ) . Previously , they were known variously as German Bohemians ( " Deutschböhmen " ) and German Moravians ( " Deutschmährer " ) . The German minority in Slovakia , the Carpathian Germans , are not , however , included in any of these ethnic categories . Parts of the current Czech regions of Karlovy Vary , Liberec , Olomouc , Moravia - Silesia and Ústí nad Labem are situated within the former Sudetenland . History . The areas later known as Sudetenland never formed a single historical region , which makes it difficult to distinguish the history of the Sudetenland apart from that of Bohemia , until the advent of nationalism in the 19th century . Early origins . The Celtic and Boii tribes settled there and the region was first mentioned on the map of Ptolemaios in the 2nd century AD . The Germanic tribe of the Marcomanni dominated the entire core of the region in later centuries . Those tribes already built cities like Brno , but moved west during the Migration Period . In the 7th century AD Slavic people moved in and were united under Samo ' s realm . Later in the High Middle Ages Germans settled into the less populated border region . In the Middle Ages the regions situated on the mountainous border of the Duchy and the Kingdom of Bohemia had since the Migration Period been settled mainly by western Slavic Czechs . Along the Bohemian Forest in the west , the Czech lands bordered on the German Slavic tribes ( German Sorbs ) stem duchies of Bavaria and Franconia ; marches of the medieval German kingdom had also been established in the adjacent Austrian lands south of the Bohemian - Moravian Highlands and the northern Meissen region beyond the Ore Mountains . In the course of the " Ostsiedlung " ( settlement of the east ) German settlement from the 13th century onwards continued to move into the Upper Lusatia region and the duchies of Silesia north of the Sudetes mountain range . From as early as the second half of the 13th century onwards these Bohemian border regions were settled by ethnic Germans , who were invited by the Přemyslid Bohemian kings — especially by Ottokar II ( 1253 – 1278 ) and Wenceslaus II ( 1278 – 1305 ) . After the extinction of the Přemyslid dynasty in 1306 , the Bohemian nobility backed John of Luxembourg as king against his rival Duke Henry of Carinthia . In 1322 King John of Bohemia acquired ( for the third time ) the formerly Imperial Egerland region in the west and was able to vassalize most of the Piast Silesian duchies , acknowledged by King Casimir III of Poland by the 1335 Treaty of Trentschin . His son , Bohemian King Charles IV , was elected King of the Romans in 1346 and crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1355 . He added the Lusatias to the Lands of the Bohemian Crown , which then comprised large territories with a significant German population . In the hilly border regions German settlers established major manufactures of forest glass . The situation of the German population was aggravated by the Hussite Wars ( 1419 – 1434 ) , though there were also some Germans among the Hussite insurgents . By then Germans largely settled the hilly Bohemian border regions as well as the cities of the lowlands ; mainly people of Bavarian descent in the South Bohemian and South Moravian Region , in Brno , Jihlava , České Budějovice and the West Bohemian Plzeň Region ; Franconian people in Žatec ; Upper Saxons in adjacent North Bohemia , where the border with the Saxon Electorate was fixed by the 1459 Peace of Eger ; Germanic Silesians in the adjacent Sudetes region with the County of Kladsko , in the Moravian – Silesian Region , in Svitavy and Olomouc . The city of Prague had a German - speaking majority from the last third of the 17th century until 1860 , but after 1910 had the proportion of German speakers decreased to 6 . 7 % of the population . From the Luxembourgs , the rule over Bohemia passed through George of Podiebrad to the Jagiellon dynasty and finally to the House of Habsburg in 1526 . Both Czech and German Bohemians suffered heavily in the Thirty Years War . From the defeat of the Bohemian Revolt that collapsed at the 1620 Battle of White Mountain , the Habsburgs gradually integrated the Kingdom of Bohemia into their monarchy . During the subsequent Counter - Reformation , less populated areas were resettled with Catholic Germans from the Austrian lands . From 1627 the Habsburgs enforced the so - called " Verneuerte Landesordnung " ( " Renewed Land ' s Constitution " ) and one of its consequences was that German according to mother tongue gradually became the primary and official language while Czech declined to a secondary role in the Empire . Also in 1749 Austro - Hungarian Empire enforced German as the official language again . Emperor Joseph II in 1780 renounced the coronation ceremony as Bohemian king and unsuccessfully tried to push German through as sole official language in all Habsburg lands ( including Hungary ) . Nevertheless German cultural influence grew stronger during the Age of Enlightenment and Weimar Classicism . On the other hand , in the course of the Romanticism movement national tensions arose , both in the form of the Austroslavism ideology developed by Czech politicians like František Palacký and Pan - Germanist activist raising the German question . Conflicts between Czech and German nationalists emerged in the 19th century , for instance in the Revolutions of 1848 : while the German - speaking population of Bohemia and Moravia wanted to participate in the building of a German nation state , the Czech - speaking population insisted on keeping Bohemia out of such plans . The Bohemian Kingdom remained a part of the Austrian Empire and Austria - Hungary until its dismemberment after the First World War . Emergence of the term . In the wake of growing nationalism , the name " " Sudetendeutsche " " ( Sudeten Germans ) emerged by the early 20th century . It originally constituted part of a larger classification of three groupings of Germans within the Austro - Hungarian Empire , which also included " " Alpine Deutschen " " ( ) in what later became the Republic of Austria and " " Balkandeutsche " " ( ) in Hungary and the regions east of it . Of these three terms , only the term " " Sudetendeutsche " " survived , because of the ethnic and cultural conflicts within Bohemia . World War I and its aftermath . During World War I , what would later be known as the Sudetenland experienced a rate of war deaths higher than most other German speaking areas of Austria - Hungary and exceeded only by German South Moravia and Carinthia . Thirty - four of each 1 , 000 inhabitants were killed . After World War I , Austria - Hungary broke apart . Late in October 1918 , an independent Czechoslovak state , consisting of the lands of the Bohemian kingdom and areas belonging to the Kingdom of Hungary , was proclaimed . The German deputies of Bohemia , Moravia , and Silesia in the Imperial Council ( " Reichsrat " ) referred to the Fourteen Points of U . S . President Woodrow Wilson and the right proposed therein to self - determination , and attempted to negotiate the union of the German - speaking territories with the new Republic of German Austria , which itself aimed at joining Weimar Germany . However , the German - speaking parts of the former Lands of the Bohemian Crown remained in a newly created Czechoslovakia , a multiethnic state of several nations : Czechs , Germans , Slovaks , Hungarians , Poles and Ruthenians . On 20 September 1918 , the Prague government asked the United States ' s opinion for the Sudetenland . President Woodrow Wilson sent Ambassador Archibald Coolidge into Czechoslovakia . After Coolidge became witness of German Bohemian demonstrations , Coolidge suggested the possibility of ceding certain German - speaking parts of Bohemia to Germany ( Cheb ) and Austria ( South Moravia and South Bohemia ) . He also insisted that the German - inhabited regions of West and North Bohemia remain within Czechoslovakia . However , the American delegation at the Paris talks , with Allen Dulles as the American ' s chief diplomat who emphasized preserving the unity of the Czech lands , decided not to follow Coolidge ' s proposal . Four regional governmental units were established : The U . S . commission to the Paris Peace Conference issued a declaration which gave unanimous support for " unity of Czech lands " . In particular the declaration stated : Several German minorities according to their mother tongue in Moravia — including German - speaking populations in Brno , Jihlava , and Olomouc — also attempted to proclaim their union with German Austria , but failed . The Czechs thus rejected the aspirations of the German Bohemians and demanded the inclusion of the lands inhabited by ethnic Germans in their state , despite the presence of more than 90 % ( as of 1921 ) ethnic Germans ( which led to the presence of 23 . 4 % of Germans in all of Czechoslovakia ) , on the grounds they had always been part of lands of the Bohemian Crown . The Treaty of Saint - Germain in 1919 affirmed the inclusion of the German - speaking territories within Czechoslovakia . However , over the next two decades , some Germans in the Sudetenland continued to strive for a separation of the German - inhabited regions from Czechoslovakia . Within the Czechoslovak Republic ( 1918 – 1938 ) . According to the February 1921 census , 3 , 123 , 000 Germans according to mother tongue lived in Czechoslovakia — 23 . 4 % of the total population . The controversies between the Czechs and the German - speaking minority ( which constituted a majority in the Sudetenland areas ) lingered on throughout the 1920s , and intensified in the 1930s . During the Great Depression the mostly mountainous regions populated by the German minority , together with other peripheral regions of Czechoslovakia , were hurt by the economic depression more than the interior of the country . Unlike the less developed regions ( Ruthenia , Moravian Wallachia ) , the Sudetenland had a high concentration of vulnerable export - dependent industries ( such as glass works , textile industry , paper - making , and toy - making industry ) . Sixty percent of the bijouterie and glass - making industry were located in the Sudetenland , 69 % of employees in this sector were Germans speaking according to mother tongue , and 95 % of bijouterie and 78 % of other glassware was produced for export . The glass - making sector was affected by decreased spending power and also by protective measures in other countries and many German workers lost their work . The high unemployment made people more open to populist and extremist movements such as fascism , communism , and German irredentism . In these years , the parties of German nationalists and later the Nazi Sudeten German National Socialist Party ( SdP ) with its radical demands gained immense popularity among Germans in Czechoslovakia . After 1933 Czechoslovakia remained the only democracy in central and eastern Europe . Sudeten Crisis . The increasing aggressiveness of Hitler prompted the Czechoslovak military to build extensive Czechoslovak border fortifications starting in 1936 to defend the troubled border region . Immediately after the " Anschluss " of Austria into the Third Reich in March 1938 , Hitler made himself the advocate of ethnic Germans living in Czechoslovakia , triggering the " Sudeten Crisis " . The following month , Sudeten Nazis , led by Konrad Henlein , agitated for autonomy . On 24 April 1938 the SdP proclaimed the " " , which demanded in eight points the complete equality between the Sudetengermans and the Czech people . The government accepted these claims on June 30 , 1938 . In August , UK Prime Minister , Neville Chamberlain , sent Lord Runciman to Czechoslovakia in order to see if he could obtain a settlement between the Czechoslovak government and the Germans in the Sudetenland . Lord Runciman ' s first day included meetings with President Beneš and Prime Minister Milan Hodža as well as a direct meeting with the Sudeten Germans from Henlein ' s SdP . On the next day he met with Dr and Mme Beneš and later met non - Nazi Germans in his hotel . A full account of his report — including summaries of the conclusions of his meetings with the various parties — which he made in person to the Cabinet on his return to Britain is found in the Document CC 39 ( 38 ) . Lord Runciman expressed sadness that he could not bring about agreement with the various parties , but he agreed with Lord Halifax that the time gained was important . He reported on the situation of the Sudeten Germans , and he gave details of four plans which had been proposed to deal with the crisis , each of which had points which , he reported , made it unacceptable to the other parties to the negotiations . The four were : Transfer of the Sudetenland to the Reich ; hold a plebiscite on the transfer of the Sudetenland to the Reich , organize a Four Power Conference on the matter , create a federal Czechoslovakia . At the meeting , he said that he was very reluctant to offer his own solution ; he had not seen this as his task . The most that he said was that the great centres of opposition were in Eger and Asch , in the northwestern corner of Bohemia , which contained about 800 , 000 Germans and very few others . He did say that the transfer of these areas to Germany would almost certainly be a good thing ; however , he did add that the Czechoslovak army would certainly oppose this very strongly , and that Beneš had said that they would fight rather than accept it . British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Adolf Hitler in " Berchtesgaden " on 15 September and agreed to the cession of the Sudetenland ; three days later , French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier did the same . No Czechoslovak representative was invited to these discussions . Chamberlain met Hitler in Godesberg on September 22 to confirm the agreements . Hitler however , aiming to use the crisis as a pretext for war , now demanded not only the annexation of the Sudetenland but the immediate military occupation of the territories , giving the Czechoslovak army no time to adapt their defence measures to the new borders . To achieve a solution , Italian dictator Benito Mussolini suggested a conference of the major powers in Munich and on September 29 , Hitler , Daladier and Chamberlain met and agreed to Mussolini ' s proposal ( actually prepared by Hermann Göring ) and signed the Munich Agreement , accepting the immediate occupation of the Sudetenland . The Czechoslovak government , though not party to the talks , submitted to compulsion and promised to abide by the agreement on September 30 . The Sudetenland was relegated to Germany between October 1 and October 10 , 1938 . The Czech part of Czechoslovakia was subsequently invaded by Germany in March 1939 , with a portion being annexed and the remainder turned into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . The Slovak part declared its independence from Czechoslovakia , becoming the Slovak Republic ( Slovak State ) , a satellite state and ally of Nazi Germany . ( The Ruthenian part — Subcarpathian Rus — made also an attempt to declare its sovereignty as Carpatho - Ukraine but only with ephemeral success . This area was annexed by Hungary . ) Part of the borderland was also invaded and annexed by Poland . Sudetenland as part of Nazi Germany . The Sudetenland was initially put under military administration , with General Wilhelm Keitel as military governor . On 21 October 1938 , the annexed territories were divided , with the southern parts being incorporated into the neighbouring Reichsgaue " Niederdonau " , " Oberdonau " and " Bayerische Ostmark " . The northern and western parts were reorganized as the Reichsgau " Sudetenland " , with the city of Reichenberg ( present - day Liberec ) established as its capital . Konrad Henlein ( now openly a NSDAP member ) administered the district first as " Reichskommissar " ( until 1 May 1939 ) and then as " Reichsstatthalter " ( 1 May 1939 – 4 May 1945 ) . Sudetenland consisted of three political districts : Eger ( with Karlsbad as capital ) , Aussig ( Aussig ) and Troppau ( Troppau ) . Shortly after the annexation , the Jews living in the Sudetenland were widely persecuted . Only a few weeks afterwards , the Kristallnacht occurred . As elsewhere in Germany , many synagogues were set on fire and numerous leading Jews were sent to concentration camps . In later years , the Nazis transported up to 300 , 000 Czech and Slovak Jews to concentration camps . where many of them were killed or died . Jews and Czechs were not the only afflicted peoples ; German socialists , communists and pacifists were widely persecuted as well . Some of the German socialists fled the Sudetenland via Prague and London to other countries . The Gleichschaltung would permanently alter the community in the Sudetenland . Despite this , on 4 December 1938 there were elections in Reichsgau Sudetenland , in which 97 . 32 % of the adult population voted for NSDAP . About a half million Sudeten Germans joined the Nazi Party which was 17 . 34 % of the total German population in Sudetenland ( the average NSDAP membership participation in Nazi Germany was merely 7 . 85 % in 1944 ) . This means the Sudetenland was one of the most pro - Nazi regions of the Third Reich . Because of their knowledge of the Czech language , many Sudeten Germans were employed in the administration of the ethnic Czech Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia as well as in Nazi organizations ( Gestapo , etc . ) . The most notable was Karl Hermann Frank : the SS and Police general and Secretary of State in the Protectorate . Expulsions and resettlement after World War II . After the end of World War II , the Potsdam Conference in 1945 determined that Sudeten Germans would have to leave Czechoslovakia ( see Expulsion of Germans after World War II ) . As a consequence of the immense hostility against all Germans that had grown within Czechoslovakia due to Nazi behaviour , the overwhelming majority of Germans were expelled ( while the relevant Czechoslovak legislation provided for the remaining Germans who were able to prove their anti - Nazi affiliation ) . The number of expelled Germans in the early phase ( spring – summer 1945 ) is estimated to be around 500 , 000 people . Following the Beneš decrees and starting in 1946 , the majority of the Germans were expelled and in 1950 only 159 . 938 ( from 3 . 149 . 820 in 1930 ) still lived in the present day Czech Republic . The remaining Germans , proven anti - fascists and forced laborers , were allowed to stay in Czechoslovakia , but where later forcefully dispersed within the country ( Přesun v rámci rozptylu občanů německé národnosti ) . Some German refugees from Czechoslovakia are represented by the Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft . Many of the Germans who stayed in Czechoslovakia later immigrated to West Germany ( more than 100 , 000 ) . As the German population was transferred out of the country , the former Sudetenland was resettled , mostly by Czechs but also by other nationalities of Czechoslovakia : Slovaks , Greeks ( arriving in the wake of the Greek civil war 1946 – 49 ) , Volhynian Czechs , Gypsies and Hungarians ( though the Hungarians were forced into this and later returned home — see Hungarians in Slovakia : Population exchanges ) . Some areas — such as part of Czech Silesian - Moravian borderland , southwestern Bohemia ( Šumava National Park ) , western and northern parts of Bohemia — remained depopulated for several strategic reasons ( extensive mining and military interests ) or are now protected national parks and landscapes . Moreover , before the establishment of the Iron Curtain in 1952 – 55 , the so - called " forbidden zone " was established ( by means of engineer equipment ) up to 2 km from the border in which no civilians could reside . A wider region , or " border zone " existed , up to 12 km from the border , in which no " disloyal " or " suspect " civilians could reside or work . Thus , the entire Aš - Bulge fell within the border zone ; this status remained until the Velvet Revolution in 1989 . There remained areas with noticeable German minorities in the westernmost borderland around Cheb , where skilled forced labour of remaining ethnic German men remained necessary in mining and industry until 1955 ; in the Egerland , German minority organizations continue to exist . Also , the small town of Kravaře ( ) in the multiethnic Hlučín Region of Czech Silesia has an ethnic German majority ( 2006 ) , including an ethnic German mayor . In the 2001 census , approximately 40 , 000 people in the Czech Republic claimed German ethnicity . Suppression of the term . Use of the term " Sudetenland " was made illegal in Czechoslovakia in the postwar years .