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113-524: Czechs were allowed to run their own league in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , while Slovaks were granted their own independent Slovak State and created their own league. After the World War II the league was recreated. The league was dominated by clubs from Prague with Sparta Prague winning 19 titles, Dukla Prague 11 and Slavia Prague 9. The attendance record for the league

226-576: A German. Any more precise elaboration of the term "German national" is not possible given current relationships. The Nazis aimed for the protectorate to become fully Germanized . Marriages between Czechs and Germans became a problem for the Nazis. In 1939, the Nazis did not ban sexual relations between Germans and Czechs and no law prohibited Jews from marrying Czechs. The Nazis made German women who married any non-Germans lose their Reich citizenship whereas Czech women who married German men were accepted into

339-503: A consequence of the immense hostility against all Germans that had grown within Czechoslovakia because many of them had helped the Nazis, the overwhelming majority of Germans were expelled though the relevant Czechoslovak legislation had provided for Germans to remain if they could 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. After

452-673: A few weeks later, the Kristallnacht occurred. As elsewhere in Germany, many synagogues were set on fire and numerous leading Jews were sent to concentration camps . Jews and Czechs were not the only afflicted peoples since 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

565-760: A formal name change) under the Ninth-of-May Constitution following the 1948 coup . ČSSR; from 1969, after the Prague Spring , consisted of the Czech Socialist Republic (ČSR) and Slovak Socialist Republic (SSR). Oblast of the Ukrainian SSR . Oblast of Ukraine . Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( / s uː ˈ d eɪ t ən l æ n d / soo- DAY -tən-land , German: [zuˈdeːtn̩ˌlant] ; Czech and Slovak : Sudety )

678-578: A former foreign minister and a former ambassador to Great Britain, he was well known in London for his avuncular, but dignified manner, which were the personality traits associated with the popular image of a British resident. Hitler believed that emulating the Raj would make this violation of the Munich Agreement more acceptable to Britain, and as that proved not to be the case the German media launched

791-705: A larger classification of three groupings of Germans within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which also included " Alpine Deutschen " ( Alpine Germans ) in what later became the Republic of Austria and " Balkandeutsche " ( Balkan Germans ) 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. During World War I , what later became known as

904-537: A lengthy campaign denouncing British "hypocrisy". The German authorities intentionally allowed the protectorate "all the trappings of independence" in order to encourage the Czech inhabitants to collaborate with them . However, despite the protectorate having its own postage stamps and presidential guard , real power lay with the Nazi authorities. The population of the protectorate was mobilized for labor that would aid

1017-749: A major contribution to the German war economy . Since the Protectorate was just out of the reach of Allied bombers based in Britain, the Czech economy was able to work almost undisturbed until the end of the war. The Protectorate administration became deeply involved in the Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia . The state's existence came to an end with the surrender of Germany to the Allies in May 1945. After

1130-416: A more radical policy in the protectorate. On 29 September 1941, Hitler appointed SS hardliner Reinhard Heydrich as Deputy Reichsprotektor ( Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor ). At the same time, he relieved Neurath of his day-to-day duties. For all intents and purposes, Heydrich replaced Neurath as Reichsprotektor . Under Heydrich's authority Prime Minister Alois Eliáš was arrested (and later executed),

1243-400: A number of Czech teachers quietly inserted "anti- Reich " ideas into their lessons while refusing to greet their students with " Sieg Heil! ". Especially under Frank, the teachers suffered harshly. In the first six months of 1944, about 1,000 Czech teachers were either executed or imprisoned. By 1945, about 5,000 Czech teachers were imprisoned in the concentration camps, where a fifth died. By

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1356-845: A separation of the German-inhabited regions from Czechoslovakia. According to Elizabeth Wiskemann , despite the initial resistance to the Czechoslovak rule, the Sudeten German population was not entirely opposed to annexation by Czechoslovakia. Sudeten economy and industry relied on the rest of Bohemia, and local industrialists were afraid of "Reich German competition and therefore of the talk of handing them over". Many Sudeten Germans also opposed joining Austria, arguing that being incorporated into Austria would turn Sudeten lands into "economically helpless Austrian enclaves". Because of this, Sudetenland becoming part of Czechoslovakia

1469-422: Is a member of the German nation, provided that this profession is confirmed by certain facts, such as language, upbringing, culture, etc. Persons of alien blood, particularly Jews, are never Germans. . . . Because professing to be a member of the German nation is of vital significance, even someone who is partly or completely of another race—Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Hungarian, or Polish, for example—can be considered

1582-412: Is also the fact that a relatively restrained policy in Czech lands was partly driven by the need to keep the population nourished and complacent so that it can carry out the vital work of arms production in the factories. By 1939, the country was already serving as a major hub of military production for Germany, manufacturing aircraft, tanks, artillery, and other armaments. The Czechs demonstrated against

1695-408: Is not the league's top goalscorers all in all, only players who at some point played for Slavia Prague. Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was a partially- annexed territory of Nazi Germany that was established on 16 March 1939 after the German occupation of the Czech lands . The protectorate's population was mostly ethnic Czech . After

1808-528: Is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans . These German speakers had predominated in the border districts of Bohemia , Moravia , and Czech Silesia since the Middle Ages . Since the 9th century the Sudetenland had been an integral part of the Czech state (first within the Duchy of Bohemia and later

1921-786: 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

2034-711: The Duchy and the Kingdom of Bohemia (Crown of Saint Václav) 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

2147-470: The Kingdom of Bohemia ) both geographically and politically. The word "Sudetenland" did not come into being until the early part of the 20th century and did not come to prominence until almost two decades into the century, after World War I , when Austria-Hungary was dismembered and the Sudeten Germans found themselves living in the new country of Czechoslovakia . The Sudeten crisis of 1938

2260-614: 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

2373-703: The Munich Agreement of September 1938, the Third Reich had annexed the German-majority Sudetenland to Germany from Czechoslovakia in October 1938. Following the establishment of the independent Slovak Republic on 14 March 1939, and the German occupation of the Czech rump state the next day, German leader Adolf Hitler established the protectorate on 16 March 1939, issuing a proclamation from Prague Castle . The creation of

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2486-615: The Paris Peace Conference issued a declaration, which gave unanimous support for "unity of Czech lands". In particular the declaration stated: The Commission was... unanimous in its recommendation that the separation of all areas inhabited by the German-Bohemians would not only expose Czechoslovakia to great dangers but equally create great difficulties for the Germans themselves. The only practicable solution

2599-706: 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 vassalized most of the Piast Silesian duchies, as acknowledged by King Casimir III of Poland by

2712-628: The Slovak Republic (Slovak State), a satellite state allied to Germany. (The Ruthenian part, Subcarpathian Rus, made also an attempt to declare its sovereignty as Carpatho-Ukraine but only with ephemeral success since the area was soon annexed by Hungary .) Although "Henlein and the SdP had become accessories in Hitler's escalating campaign to annex the Sudetenland to the German Reich" by

2825-465: The cession of the Sudetenland. Three days later, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier did the same. No Czechoslovak representative was invited to the discussions. Germany was now able to walk into the Sudetenland without firing a shot. Chamberlain met Hitler in Godesberg on 22 September 1938 to confirm the agreements. Hitler, aiming to use the crisis as a pretext for war, now demanded not only

2938-466: The intelligentsia " while Heydrich referred to the teachers as "the training core of the opposition Czech government [in exile in London]". To keep their jobs, teachers were required to demonstrate fluency in German and were supposed to greet their students with the fascist salute while saying " Sieg Heil! " ("Hail Victory!"). School inspectors made surprise visits to the classrooms and all chairpersons of

3051-583: The resistance movement . For the Czechs of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, German occupation represented a period of oppression . The number of Czech victims of political persecution and murders in concentration camps totalled between 36,000 and 55,000. After Heydrich assumed control of the Protectorate, he instituted martial law and stepped up arrests and executions of resistance fighters. Heydrich allegedly referred to Czechs as "laughing beasts", reflecting Czech subversion and Nazi racial beliefs about

3164-627: 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

3277-483: The 2021 census, 24,632 people in the Czech Republic claimed German ethnicity, out of which 15,504 in combination with another ethnicity. ČSR; boundaries and government established by the 1920 constitution . Annexed by Nazi Germany . ČSR; included the autonomous regions of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Annexed by Hungary (1939–1945). ČSR; declared a "people's democracy" (without

3390-569: The Beneš decrees, nearly all Germans were expelled starting in 1946 and in 1950 only 159,938 (from 3,149,820 in 1930) still lived in the Czech Republic. The remaining Germans, who were proven antifascists and skilled laborers, were allowed to stay in Czechoslovakia but were later forcefully dispersed within the country. Some German refugees from Czechoslovakia are represented by the Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft . Many of

3503-646: The Cabinet on his return to the United Kingdom, 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 that had been gained was important. He reported on the situation of the Sudeten Germans and gave details of four plans that had been proposed to deal with the crisis, each of which had points that, he reported, made it unacceptable to

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3616-573: The Czech Republic today descend from migrants from Slovakia who moved there within post-war Czechoslovakia . The Theresienstadt concentration camp was located in the Protectorate, near the border to the Reichsgau Sudetenland . It was designed to concentrate the Jewish population from the Protectorate and gradually move them to extermination camps, and it also held Western European and German Jews. While not an extermination camp itself,

3729-604: The Czech government was reorganized, and all Czech cultural organizations were closed. The Gestapo arrested and murdered people. The deportation of Jews to concentration camps was organized, and the fortress town of Terezín was made into a ghetto way-station for Jewish families. On 4 June 1942, Heydrich died after being wounded by Czechoslovak Commandos in Operation Anthropoid . Directives issued by Heydrich's successor, SS- Oberstgruppenführer Kurt Daluege , and martial law brought forth mass arrests, executions and

3842-551: The Czech population were suitable for Germanization. Generalplan Ost assumed that around 50% of Czechs would be fit for Germanization. The Czech intellectual elite were to be removed from Czech territories and from Europe completely. The authors of Generalplan Ost believed it would be best if they emigrated overseas, as even in Siberia , they were considered a threat to German rule. Just like Jews, Poles, Serbs, and several other nations, Czechs were considered to be Untermenschen by

3955-657: The Czechoslovak military to start to build extensive border fortifications in 1936 to defend the troubled border region. Immediately after the Anschluss of Austria into the German Reich in March 1938, Hitler made himself the advocate of ethnic Germans living in Czechoslovakia, which triggered the Sudeten Crisis. The following month, Sudeten Nazis, led by Konrad Henlein , agitated for autonomy. On 24 April 1938,

4068-558: The Czechs and the German-speaking minority 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 was. Unlike the less developed regions ( Carpathian Ruthenia , Moravian Wallachia ),

4181-583: The Empire. In 1749, the Austrian 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 . Contrastingly, in

4294-604: The German Volk . Czech families aiming to improve their lives in the protectorate encouraged their Czech daughters to marry German men as it was one way to save a family business. Hitler had approved a plan designed by Konstantin von Neurath and Karl Hermann Frank , which projected the Germanization of the "racially valuable" half of the Czech population after the end of the war. This consisted mainly of industrial workers and farmers. The undesirable half contained

4407-788: 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

4520-419: The German war effort, and special offices were organized to supervise the management of industries important to that effort. The Germans drafted Czechs to work in coal mines, in the iron and steel industry, and in armaments production. Consumer-goods production, much diminished, was largely directed toward supplying the German armed forces. The protectorate's population was subjected to rationing . The Czech crown

4633-429: The Germans in the Sudetenland. 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

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4746-471: The Germans who stayed in Czechoslovakia later emigrated 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), Carpathian Ruthenians , Romani people and Jews who had survived

4859-647: The Germans' right to self-determination and uniting all German-speaking areas with either Germany or Austria, with the exception of northern Bohemia. However, the American delegation at the Paris talks decided not to follow Coolidge's proposal. Allen Dulles was the American's chief diplomat in the Czechoslovak Commission and emphasized preserving the unity of the Czech lands. Four regional governmental units were established: The U.S. commission to

4972-599: The Holocaust , and Hungarians (though the Hungarians were forced into that 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

5085-448: 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 US 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 . The German-speaking parts of

5198-441: The Luxembourgs, 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 . Bohemia lost 70% of its population. 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

5311-410: The Nazi state. The Czechs however, were not subjected to a similar degree of random and organized acts of brutality that their Polish counterparts experienced. This is attributed to the view within the Nazi hierarchy that a large swath of the populace was "capable of Aryanization ", such capacity for Aryanization was supported by the position that part of the Czech population had German ancestry. There

5424-416: The Nazis violated the Munich Agreement, when, with Nazi German support, the Slovak parliament declared the independence of the Slovak Republic , Adolf Hitler invited Czechoslovak President Emil Hácha to Berlin and the latter accepted his request for the German occupation of the Czech rump state and its reorganization as a German protectorate. Hitler's wish to occupy Czechoslovakia was largely caused by

5537-645: The Protectorate and its direct incorporation into the German Reich. Hitler stated as late as 1943 that the issue was still to be decisively settled. Like in other occupied countries, the German military in Bohemia and Moravia was commanded by a Wehrmachtbefehlshaber . Through the year, the headquarter received several different names because of the complex structure of the Reichsprotektorat : Wehrmachtbevollmächtigter beim Reichsprotektor in Böhmen und Mähren , Wehrmachtbefehlshaber beim Reichsprotektor in Böhmen und Mähren and Wehrmachtbefehlshaber beim deutschen Staatsminister in Böhmen und Mähren . The commander also held

5650-404: The Protectorate was established. This step divided the remaining parts of Bohemia and Moravia up between its four surrounding Gaue : The resulting government overlap led to the usual authority conflicts typical of the Nazi era. Seeking to extend their own powerbase and to facilitate the area's Germanization the Gauleiters of the surrounding districts continually agitated for the liquidation of

5763-400: The Protectorate. Kurt Daluege , Chief of the Ordnungspolizei (Order Police) or Orpo, in the Interior Ministry, who was also officially a deputy Reich Protector. Wilhelm Frick , former Minister of the Interior (1933–1943) and Minister without Portfolio (1943–1945). Next to the Reich Protector there was also a political office of State Secretary (from 1943 known as the State Minister to

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5876-543: The Reich Protector) who handled most of the internal security. From 1939 to 1945 this person was Karl Hermann Frank the senior SS and Police Leader in the Protectorate. A command of the Allgemeine-SS was also established, known as the SS-Oberabschnitt Böhmen-Mähren . The command was an active unit of the General-SS, technically the only such unit to exist outside of Germany, since most other Allgemeine-SS units in occupied or conquered countries were largely paper commands. The Czech State President (Státní Prezident) under

5989-401: The SdP proclaimed the Karlsbader Programm , which demanded in eight points the complete equality between the Sudeten Germans and the Czech people. The government accepted those claims on 30 June 1938. In August, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sent Lord Runciman on a mission to Czechoslovakia to see if he could obtain a settlement between the Czechoslovak government and

6102-423: The Sudetenland experienced a rate of war deaths that was 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. Austria-Hungary broke apart at the end of World War I. In late October 1918, an independent Czechoslovak state, consisting of the lands of the Bohemian kingdom and areas belonging to

6215-437: 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 glassmaking industry were located in the Sudetenland, and 69% of employees in the sector were German-speaking according to mother tongue, and 95% of bijouterie and 78% of other glassware was produced for export. The glass-making sector

6328-439: The Sudetenland to Germany or face war. To achieve a solution, the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini , suggested a conference of the major powers in Munich , and on 29 September, Hitler, Daladier and Chamberlain met and agreed to Mussolini's proposal (actually prepared by Hermann Göring ) and signed the Munich Agreement . They accepted the immediate occupation of the Sudetenland. The Czechoslovak government, though not party to

6441-455: The ambitious armaments targets as Germany lacked many of the necessary raw materials, which had to be imported. The British historian Richard Overy wrote the huge demands of the Four Year Plan "...could not be fully met by a policy of import substitution and industrial rationalization".. In November 1937 at the Hossbach conference, Hitler announced that to stay ahead in the arms race with the other powers that Germany had to seize Czechoslovakia in

6554-425: The annexation of the Sudetenland but also the immediate military occupation of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia, thus giving the Czechoslovak army no time to adapt its defence measures to the new borders. Hitler, in a speech at the Sportpalast in Berlin, claimed that the Sudetenland was "the last territorial demand I have to make in Europe" and gave Czechoslovakia a deadline of 28 September 1938 at 2:00 p.m. to cede

6667-404: The annexed territories were divided, with the southern parts being incorporated into the neighbouring Reichsgaue of Niederdonau , Oberdonau and Bayerische Ostmark . The northern and the western parts were reorganised as the Reichsgau Sudetenland , with the city of Reichenberg (present-day Liberec ) established as its capital. Konrad Henlein (now openly a NSDAP member) administered

6780-451: The area near the Slovak border into German enclaves. Further integration of the protectorate into the Reich was carried out by the employment of German apprentices, by transferring German evacuee children into schools located in the protectorate, and by authorizing marriages between Germans and "assimilable" Czechs. Germanizable Czechs were allowed to join the Reich Labour Service and to be admitted to German universities. In common with

6893-421: 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 the proportion of German speakers had decreased to 6.7% of the population. From

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7006-401: The border zone, a status that remained until the Velvet Revolution in 1989. There remained areas with noticeable German minorities in the westernmost borderland around Cheb , where skilled ethnic German miners and workers continued in mining and industry, until 1955, as sanctioned under the Yalta Conference protocols; in the Egerland , German minority organizations continue to exist. In

7119-402: 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 World War I. In the wake of growing nationalism, the name " Sudetendeutsche " (Sudeten Germans) emerged by the early 20th century. It originally constituted part of

7232-401: The community in the Sudetenland. However, on 4 December 1938, there were elections in Reichsgau Sudetenland in which 97.32% of the adult population voted for the NSDAP . About a half million Sudeten Germans joined the Nazi Party , 17.34% of the total German population in the Sudetenland (the average NSDAP membership participation in Germany was merely 7.85% in 1944). That means the Sudetenland

7345-435: 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

7458-415: The district first as Reichskommissar (until 1 May 1939) and then as Reichsstatthalter (1 May 1939 – 4 May 1945). The Sudetenland consisted of three administrative districts ( Regierungsbezirke ): Eger (with Karlsbad as capital), Aussig ( Aussig ) and Troppau ( Troppau ). Before the occupation, Jews in the area had become targeted during the Holocaust in the Sudetenland . Only

7571-468: The end of the occupation, about 40% of all Czech teachers had been fired with the figure reaching 60% in Prague. For administrative purposes the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was divided into two Länder: Böhmen ( Bohemia ) and Mähren ( Moravia ). Each of these was further subdivided into Oberlandratsbezirke , each comprising a number of Bezirke . For party administrative purposes the Nazi Party extended its Gau system to Bohemia and Moravia when

7684-417: The era a period of decreasing living standards as the crowns bought less and less. Even members of the volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) living in the protectorate complained their living standards had been higher under Czechoslovakia, which was quite a surprise to most of them, who expected their living standards to rise under German rule. German rule was moderate by Nazi standards during the first months of

7797-411: The establishment of the Iron Curtain in 1952 to 1955, the so-called "forbidden zone" was established by means of engineer equipment up to 2 km (1.2 mi) from the border in which no civilians could reside. A wider region, or "border zone", existed up to 12 km (7 miles) from the border in which no "disloyal" or "suspect" civilians could reside or work. Thus, the entire Aš-Bulge fell within

7910-422: The exam boards had to be ethnic Germans. Some teachers and students were Gestapo informers, which spread a climate of mistrust and paranoia across the school system as both teachers and students never knew whom to trust. One teacher recalled: "The Gestapo even had informers and agents amongst the children. Uncertainty and mistrust destroyed any feeling of comradeship among the children". Despite these pressures,

8023-446: The exclusive control of the German government. The former foreign minister of Czechoslovakia František Chvalkovský became a Minister without Portfolio and permanent representative of the Czech administration in Berlin. The most prominent Czech politicians in the Protectorate included: The area of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia contained about 7,380,000 inhabitants in 1940. 225,000 (3.3%) of these were of German origin, while

8136-502: The foreign exchange crisis as Germany had exhausted its foreign exchange reserves by early 1939, and Germany urgently needed to seize the gold of the Czechoslovak central bank to continue the Four Year Plan. The British historian Victor Rothwell wrote that the Czechoslovak reserves of gold and hard currency seized in March 1939 were "invaluable in staving off Germany's foreign exchange crisis". On 16 March when Hitler proclaimed

8249-520: The former Lands of the Bohemian Crown remained in a newly-created Czechoslovakia , a multi-ethnic state of several nations: Czechs , Germans , Slovaks , Hungarians , Poles and Ruthenians . On 20 September 1918, the Prague government asked for the opinion of the United States on the Sudetenland. Wilson sent Ambassador Archibald Coolidge into Czechoslovakia. Coolidge insisted on respecting

8362-425: The former Sudetenland. The areas later known as the Sudetenland never formed a single historical region , which makes it difficult to distinguish the history of the Sudetenland separately from that of Bohemia until the advent of nationalism in the 19th century. 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

8475-517: The government-in-exile in London reported: "The original, observable chaos and later fear of Gestapo informants and uncertainty has changed to courage and hope. The nation is coming together, not only in the National Solidarity Movement, which the majority did only to avoid losing our national existence, but individuals are coming together and one begins to feel if the nation has a backbone again". This local Czech Fascist party

8588-553: The harsh and unhygienic conditions still resulted in the death of 33,000 of the 140,000 Jews brought to the camp while a further 88,000 were sent to extermination camps, and only 19,000 survived. After the establishment of the Protectorate all political parties were outlawed, with the exception of the National Partnership ( Národní souručenství ). Membership of the Národní souručenství was closed to women and Jews. In

8701-464: The inferiority of Czechs. The Jewish population of Bohemia and Moravia (118,000 according to the 1930 census) was virtually annihilated, with over 75,000 murdered. Of the 92,199 people classified as Jews by German authorities in the Protectorate as of 1939, 78,154 were murdered in the Holocaust, or 85 percent. Many Jews emigrated after 1939; 8,000 survived at the Terezín concentration camp , which

8814-514: The intelligentsia, whom the Nazis viewed as ungermanizable and potential dangerous instigators of Czech nationalism. Some 9,000 Volksdeutsche from Bukovina , Dobruja , South Tyrol , Bessarabia, Sudetenland and the Altreich were settled in the protectorate during the war. The goal was to create a German settlement belt from Prague to Sudetenland, and to turn the surroundings of Olomouc (Olmütz), České Budějovice (Budweis), Brno (Brünn) and

8927-578: The liberation of Czechoslovakia in May 1945, the use of the term Sudety (Sudetenland) in official communications was banned and replaced by the term pohraniční území (border territory). The Berlin Declaration of 5 June 1945 disabled German annexation of Sudetenland legally. In the summer of 1945, the Potsdam Conference decided that Sudeten Germans would have to leave Czechoslovakia (see flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–50) ). As

9040-513: The mainstream wing of Henlein's party was "not striving for annexation to Germany, but for genuine autonomy", and the majority of negotiators who conducted talks with Hodža and Beneš belonged to the pro-autonomy wing and were unaware of Henlein's agreements with Hitler. Part of the borderland had an ethnic Polish majority and was invaded and annexed by Poland in 1938. The Sudetenland was initially put under military administration, with General Wilhelm Keitel as military governor. On 14 April 1939,

9153-497: The new Reich Protector. Because of his contacts with the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile Eliáš was sentenced to death, and the execution was carried out on 19 June 1942 shortly after Heydrich's own death . From 19 January 1942 the government was led by Jaroslav Krejčí , and from January to May 1945 by Richard Bienert , the former police chief of Prague . When the dissolution of the Protectorate

9266-401: The obliteration of the villages of Lidice and Ležáky . In 1943 the German war-effort was accelerated. Under the authority of Karl Hermann Frank , German minister of state for Bohemia and Moravia, within the protectorate, all non-war-related industry was prohibited. Most of the Czech population obeyed quietly until the final months preceding the end of the war, when thousands became involved in

9379-411: The occupation on 28 October 1939, the 21st anniversary of Czechoslovak independence. The death on 15 November 1939 of a medical student, Jan Opletal , who had been wounded in the October violence, precipitated widespread student demonstrations, and the Germans retaliated. Politicians were arrested en masse , as were an estimated 1,800 students and teachers. On 17 November, all universities and colleges in

9492-441: The occupation. The Czech government and political system, reorganized by Hácha, continued in formal existence. The Gestapo directed its activities mainly against Czech politicians and the intelligentsia . In 1940, in a secret plan on Germanization of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, it was declared that those considered to be racially Mongoloid and the Czech intelligentsia were not to be Germanized, and that about half of

9605-419: The other "submerged" nations of Eastern Europe, the Czech intelligentsia had an immense prestige as the bearers and protectors of the national culture, who would keep the Czech language and culture alive when the Czech nation was "submerged". No segment of the Czech intelligentsia faced more pressure to conform to the occupation policy than school teachers. Frank called the teachers "the most dangerous wing of

9718-493: The other parties to the negotiations. The four plans included, first, the transfer of the Sudetenland to the Reich, second, holding a plebiscite on the transfer of the Sudetenland to the Reich, third, organising a Four-Power Conference on the matter and, fourth, creating a federal Czechoslovakia. At the meeting, he said that he was very reluctant to offer his own solution and had not seen that as his task. The most that Halifax said

9831-577: The period of German rule from 1939 to 1945 was Emil Hácha (1872–1945), who had been the President of the Second Czechoslovak Republic since November 1938. Rudolf Beran (1887–1954) continued to hold the office of Minister President (Předseda vlády) after the German take-over. He was replaced by Alois Eliáš on 27 April 1939, who was himself also sacked on 2 October 1941 not long after the appointment of Reinhard Heydrich as

9944-483: The position of the Befehlshaber im Wehrkreis Böhmen und Mähren . Informational notes Citations Bibliography Further reading ČSR; boundaries and government established by the 1920 constitution . Annexed by Nazi Germany . ČSR; included the autonomous regions of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Annexed by Hungary (1939–1945). ČSR; declared a "people's democracy" (without

10057-405: 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. Over the next two decades, some Germans in the Sudetenland continued to strive for

10170-409: The protectorate violated the Munich Agreement. The protectorate remained nominally autonomous and had a dual system of government, with German law applying to ethnic Germans while other residents had the legal status of Protectorate subjects and were governed by a puppet Czech administration. During World War II (1939–1945), the well-trained Czech workforce and developed industry were forced to make

10283-535: The protectorate were closed, nine student leaders were executed, and 1,200 were sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp within Nazi Germany; further arrests and executions of Czech students and professors took place later during the occupation. ( See also Czech resistance to Nazi occupation ) During World War II , Hitler decided that Neurath was not treating the Czechs harshly enough and adopted

10396-675: The protectorate, he declared: "For a thousand years the provinces of Bohemia and Moravia formed part of the Lebensraum of the German people." There was no real precedent for this action in German history. The model for the protectorate were the Princely states in India under the Raj . In just in the same way that Indian maharajahs in the Princely states were allowed a nominal independence, but

10509-540: The real power rested with the British resident stationed to monitor the maharajah, Hitler emulated this practice with the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia as the German media quite explicitly compared the relationship between the Reich Protector, Baron Konstantin von Neurath and President Emil Hácha to that of a British resident and an Indian maharajah. Neurath seems to be chosen as Reich Protector in because as

10622-608: The region today is inhabited almost exclusively by Czech speakers. The word Sudetenland is a German compound of Land , meaning "country", and Sudeten , the name of the Sudeten Mountains , which run along the northern Czech border and Lower Silesia (now in Poland ). The Sudetenland encompassed areas well beyond those mountains, however. Parts of the now-Czech regions of Karlovy Vary , Liberec , Olomouc , Moravia-Silesia , South Moravia and Ústí nad Labem are within

10735-412: The rest were mainly ethnic Czechs as well as some Slovaks , particularly near the border with Slovakia . Ethnic Germans were offered Reich citizenship, while Jews and Czechs were from the outset second-class citizens ("Protectorate subjects", German : Protektoratsangehörige ). In March 1939, Karl Frank defined a "German national" as: Whoever professes himself to be a member of the German nation

10848-445: The spring of 1939, about 2,130,000 men joined the group, amounting to between 98%-99% of the Czech male population. However, much of the registration for the Národní souručenství was done in the style of a census (a traditional outlet for nationalist feeling in the Czech lands), and the messages advocating joining the Národní souručenství emphasized that the group existed to affirm the Czech character of Bohemia-Moravia. One spy for

10961-512: 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

11074-529: The summer of 1938, the supporters of the SdP supported autonomy within Czechoslovakia rather than annexation into Germany. Contemporary reports of The Times found that there was a "large number of Sudetenlanders who actively opposed annexation", and that the pro-German policy was challenged by the moderates within the SdP as well; according to Wickham Steed , over 50% of Henlein's supporters favoured greater autonomy within Czechoslovakia rather than joining Germany. Sudeten German historian Emil Franzel argues that

11187-424: The talks, submitted to compulsion and promised to abide by the agreement on 30 September. The Sudetenland was assigned to Germany between 1 and 10 October 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 and became

11300-401: The very near-future. Czechoslovakia was the world's 7th largest manufacturer of arms, making Czechoslovakia into an important player in the global arms trade. After Czechoslovakia accepted the terms of the Munich Agreement of 30 September 1938, Nazi Germany incorporated the ethnic German majority Sudetenland regions along the German border directly into Nazi Germany . Five months later,

11413-489: The war, some Protectorate officials were charged with collaborationism, but according to the prevailing belief in Czech society, the Protectorate was not entirely rejected as a collaborationist entity. The Four-Year Plan that Hitler launched in September 1936 to have the German economy ready for a "total war" by 1940 was faltering by 1937 owing to a shortage of foreign exchange to pay for the vast economic demands imposed by

11526-640: Was affected by decreased spending power and by protective measures in other countries, and many German workers lost their work. The high unemployment, as well as the imposition of Czech in schools and all public spaces, made people more open to populist and extremist movements such as fascism , communism and German irredentism . In those years, parties of German nationalists and later the Sudeten German Party (SdP), with its radical demands gained immense popularity, among Germans in Czechoslovakia . The increasing aggressiveness of Hitler prompted

11639-474: Was devalued to the Reichsmark at the rate of 10 crowns to 1 Reichsmark , through actual rate should have been 6 crowns for 1 Reichsmark , a policy that allowed the Germans to buy everything on the cheap in the protectorate. Inflation was a major problem throughout the existence of the protectorate, which was made worse by the refusal of the German authorities to raise wages to keep up with inflation, making

11752-620: Was led by a ruling Presidium until 1942, after which a Vůdce (Leader) for the party was appointed. Ultimate authority within the Protectorate was held by the Reich Protector ( Reichsprotektor ), the area's senior Nazi administrator, whose task it was to represent the interests of the German state. The office and title were held by a variety of persons during the Protectorate's existence. In succession these were: Konstantin von Neurath , former Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany (1932–1938) and Minister without Portfolio (1938–1945). He

11865-506: Was one of the most pro-Nazi regions of Nazi Germany. 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 one was Karl Hermann Frank , the SS and police general and Secretary of State in the Protectorate. Nazi Germany occupied Sudetenland from 1938–1945. Shortly after

11978-614: Was placed on leave in September 1941 after Hitler's dissatisfaction with his "soft policies", although he still held the title of Reichsprotektor until his official resignation in August 1943. Reinhard Heydrich , chief of the SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt ( Reich Security Main Office ) or RSHA. He was officially only a deputy to Neurath, but in reality was granted supreme authority over the entire state apparatus of

12091-704: Was proclaimed after the Liberation of Prague , a radio call was issued for Bienert's arrest. This resulted in his conviction to a three-year prison term in 1947, during which he died in 1949. Aside from the Office of the Minister President, the local Czech government in the Protectorate consisted of the Ministries of Education, Finance, Justice, Trade, the Interior, Agriculture, and Public Labour. The area's foreign policy and military defence were under

12204-478: Was provoked by the Pan-Germanist demands of Nazi Germany that the Sudetenland be annexed to Germany, which happened after the later Munich Agreement . Part of the borderland was invaded and annexed by Poland . Afterwards, the formerly unrecognized Sudetenland became an administrative division of Germany. When Czechoslovakia was reconstituted after World War II , the Sudeten Germans were expelled and

12317-691: Was set on 4 September 1965, when 50,105 spectators attended a match between rivals Sparta and Slavia in Prague. The Czechoslovak First League was succeeded in 1993 by the Czech First League in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Superliga in Slovakia. Josef Bican was the all-time top goalscorer of the league with 447 goals in 279 matches, of which 417 goals were scored for Slavia Prague and 30 goals for FC Vítkovice . The list below

12430-631: Was that the great centres of opposition were in Eger and Asch , in the northwestern corner of Bohemia, where about 800,000 Germans and very few others lived. Halifax said that the transfer of these areas to Germany would almost certainly be a good thing adding that the Czechoslovak army would certainly oppose that very strongly and that Beneš had said that it would fight, rather than accept it. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met Adolf Hitler in Berchtesgaden on 15 September and agreed to

12543-457: Was the preferable choice of "a good deal of cautious middle-class" amongst Sudeten Germans. Silesian-Sudeten Germans were particularly pro-Czechoslovak, as they strongly preferred Czechoslovak rule to the prospect of becoming a part of Poland. According to the February 1921 census, 3,123,000 native German speakers lived in Czechoslovakia, 23.4% of the total population. The controversies between

12656-538: Was to incorporate these Germans into Czechoslovakia. 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. 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

12769-594: Was used for propaganda purposes as a showpiece. Several thousand Jews managed to live in freedom or in hiding throughout the occupation. The extermination of the Romani population was so thorough that the Bohemian Romani language became totally extinct. Romani internees were sent to the Lety and Hodonín concentration camps before being transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau for gassing. The vast majority of Romani in

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