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111-696: The Bohemian-Moravian Highlands are an extensive and long range of hills and low mountains over 150 kilometres (93 mi) long, which runs in a northeasterly direction across the central part of the Czech Republic from Bohemia to Moravia . This range roughly coincides with modern Vysočina Region . The highlands form a big region of rolling hills and low mountains with heights between about 500 and 800 metres, whose lowlands are relatively densely settled. Its gentle hills are dotted with small farmsteads and also occasionally with holiday apartments and houses. The softly, rounded summits offer panoramic views of

222-663: 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 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

333-466: A Central European country to be canonized by Pope John Paul II before the " Velvet Revolution " later that year. After the Velvet Divorce in 1993, the territory of Bohemia remained in the Czech Republic. The new Constitution of the Czech Republic provided for higher administrative units to be established, providing for the possibility of Bohemia as an administrative unit, but did not specify

444-512: A German army in 1004, ending the rule of Bolesław I of Poland . The first to use the title of "King of Bohemia" were the Přemyslid dukes Vratislav II (1085) and Vladislaus II (1158), but their heirs would return to the title of duke . The title of king became hereditary under Ottokar I (1198). His grandson Ottokar II (king from 1253 to 1278) conquered a short-lived empire that contained modern Austria and Slovenia . The mid-13th century had

555-576: 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

666-469: 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 the ambitious armaments targets as Germany lacked many of the necessary raw materials, which had to be imported. The British historian Richard Overy wrote

777-538: A liberal democratic republic, but serious issues emerged regarding the Czech majority's relationship with the native German and Hungarian minorities. Following the Munich Agreement in 1938, the border regions of Bohemia historically inhabited predominantly by ethnic Germans (the Sudetenland ) were annexed to Nazi Germany . The remnants of Bohemia and Moravia were then annexed by Germany in 1939, while

888-688: A lightly inhabited "desert" into which Suebic peoples arrived, speaking Germanic languages, and became dominant over remaining Celtic groups. To the south, over the Danube, the Romans extended their empire, and to the southeast, in present-day Hungary, were Dacian peoples. In the area of modern Bohemia, the Marcomanni and other Suebic groups were led by their king, Marobodus , after they had suffered defeat to Roman forces in Germany. He took advantage of

999-416: 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),

1110-447: A new nation named and led by them with a united "slavic" ethnic consciousness. Bohemia was made a part of the early Slavic state of Great Moravia , under the rule of Svatopluk I (r. 870–894). After Svatopluk's death Great Moravia was weakened by years of internal conflict and constant warfare, ultimately collapsing and fragmenting because of the continual incursions of the invading nomadic Magyars . Bohemia's initial incorporation into

1221-400: 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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1332-465: A rebirth as romantic nationalism developed among the Czechs. In 1861, a new elected Bohemian Diet was established. The renewal of the old Bohemian Crown ( Kingdom of Bohemia , Margraviate of Moravia , and Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia ) became the official political program of both Czech liberal politicians and the majority of Bohemian aristocracy ("state rights program"), while parties representing

1443-501: A threat to German rule. Just like Jews, Poles, Serbs, and several other nations, Czechs were considered to be Untermenschen by 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

1554-520: A tripartite monarchy (Austria-Hungary-Bohemia) failed in 1871. The "state-rights program" remained the official platform of all Czech political parties (except for social democrats) until 1918. Under the state-rights program, appealing to the stability of Bohemia's borders over many centuries, the Czech emancipation movement claimed the right to the whole of the Bohemian lands over the Germans' right to

1665-655: A wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohemian kings , including Moravia and Czech Silesia , in which case the smaller region is referred to as Bohemia proper as a means of distinction. Bohemia was a duchy of Great Moravia , later an independent principality, a kingdom in the Holy Roman Empire , and subsequently a part of the Habsburg monarchy and

1776-489: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Bohemia Bohemia ( / b oʊ ˈ h iː m i ə / boh- HEE -mee-ə ; Czech : Čechy [ˈtʃɛxɪ] ; German : Böhmen [ˈbøːmən] ; Upper Sorbian : Čěska [ˈtʃɪska] ; Silesian : Czechy ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic . Bohemia can also refer to

1887-422: 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

1998-560: Is named after the Boii , a large Celtic nation known to the Romans for their migrations and settlement in northern Italy and other places. Another part of the nation moved west with the Helvetii into southern France, which was one of the events leading to the interventions of Julius Caesar's Gaulish campaign of 58 BC. The emigration of the Helvetii and Boii left southern Germany and Bohemia

2109-634: The Austrian Empire . After World War I and the establishment of an independent Czechoslovak state , the whole of Bohemia became a part of Czechoslovakia , defying claims of the German-speaking inhabitants that regions with German-speaking majority should be included in the Republic of German-Austria . Between 1938 and 1945, these border regions were annexed to Nazi Germany as the Sudetenland . The remainder of Czech territory became

2220-415: The Bohemian crown controlled such diverse lands as Moravia , Silesia , Upper Lusatia and Lower Lusatia , Brandenburg, an area around Nuremberg called New Bohemia, Luxembourg , and several small towns scattered around Germany. From the 13th century on, settlements of Germans developed throughout Bohemia, making Bohemia a bilingual country. The German settlers particularly brought mining technology to

2331-624: The Potsdam Agreement . The Bohemian Germans' property was confiscated by the Czech authorities, and according to contemporary estimates, amounted to a third of the Czechoslovak national income. Germans who were valued for their skills were allowed to stay to pass on their knowledge to the Czech migrants. The expulsion severely depopulated the area and from then on, locales were referred to in only their Czech equivalents regardless of their previous demographic makeup. The resettlement of

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2442-706: The Second Czechoslovak Republic and was subsequently occupied as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia until the end of World War II, after which Bohemia became part of the restored Czechoslovakia. In 1969, the Czech lands (including Bohemia) were given autonomy within Czechoslovakia as the Czech Socialist Republic . In 1990, the name was changed to the Czech Republic , which became a separate state in 1993 with

2553-405: The breakup of Czechoslovakia . Until 1948, Bohemia was an administrative unit of Czechoslovakia as one of its "lands" ( země ). Since then, administrative reforms have replaced self-governing lands with a modified system of "regions" ( kraje ), which do not follow the borders of the historical Czech lands (or the regions from the 1960 and 2000 reforms). However, the three lands are mentioned in

2664-466: 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

2775-404: The rector of Charles University and a prominent reformer and religious thinker, influenced the rise of modern Czech. During the ecumenical Council of Constance in 1415, Jan Hus was sentenced to be burnt at the stake as a heretic . The verdict was passed despite the fact that Hus was granted formal protection by Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg prior to the journey. Hus was invited to attend

2886-591: 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

2997-562: The Bohemian aristocracy, started a campaign for restoration of the kingdom's historic rights, whereby Czech was to regain its historical role and replace German as the language of administration. The enlightened absolutism of Joseph II and Leopold II , who introduced minor language concessions, showed promise for the Czech movement, but many of these reforms were later rescinded. During the Revolution of 1848 , many Czech nationalists called for autonomy for Bohemia from Habsburg Austria, but

3108-621: The Bohemians could defeat the Bohemians." Despite an apparent victory for the Catholics, the Bohemian Utraquists were still strong enough to negotiate freedom of religion in 1436. That happened in the so-called Compacts of Basel , declaring peace and freedom between Catholics and Utraquists. It lasted for only a short period of time, as Pope Pius II declared the compacts to be invalid in 1462. In 1458, George of Poděbrady

3219-573: 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,

3330-604: 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

3441-494: The Czech intelligentsia were not to be Germanized, and that about half of 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

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3552-515: 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 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

3663-604: 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

3774-610: The German minority and small part of the aristocracy proclaimed their loyalty to the centralist Constitution (so-called "Verfassungstreue"). After the defeat of Austria in the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, Hungarian politicians achieved the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 , ostensibly creating equality between the Austrian and Hungarian halves of the empire. An attempt by the Czechs to create

3885-404: 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 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

3996-620: The Hussite armies, he used innovative tactics and weapons, such as howitzers, pistols, and fortified wagons, which were revolutionary for the time, and established Žižka as a great general who never lost a battle. After Žižka's death, Prokop the Great took over the command for the army, and under his lead the Hussites were victorious for another ten years, to the sheer terror of Europe. The Hussite cause gradually splintered into two main factions,

4107-774: The Ilag IV camp for interned civilians from western Allied countries in the region. There were also 17 subcamps of the Flossenbürg concentration camp , in which both men and women, mostly Polish , Soviet and Jewish, but also French, Yugoslav, Czech, Romani and of several other ethnicities, were imprisoned and subjected to forced labor , and 16 subcamps of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp , in which men and women, mostly Polish and Jewish, but also Czechs, Russians, and other people, were similarly imprisoned and subjected to forced labor. Any open opposition to German occupation

4218-750: The Kingdom of the Marcomanni, concerning a queen named Fritigil , is from the fourth century, and she was thought to have lived in or near Pannonia. The Suebian Langobardi , who moved over many generations from the Baltic Sea , via the Elbe and Pannonia to Italy, recorded in a tribal history a time spent in "Bainaib". After the Migration Period , Bohemia was partially repopulated around the sixth century, and eventually Slavic tribes arrived from

4329-641: The Moravian Empire resulted in the extensive Christianization of the population . A native monarchy arose to the throne, and Bohemia came under the rule of the Přemyslid dynasty , which would rule the Czech lands for the next several hundred years. The Přemyslids secured their frontiers after the collapse of the Moravian state by entering into a state of semivassalage to the Frankish rulers . The alliance

4440-803: The Pope. After the death of King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia in the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria became the new king of Bohemia, and the country became a constituent state of the Habsburg monarchy . From 1599 to 1711, Moravia (a Land of the Bohemian Crown ) was frequently subjected to raids by the Ottoman Empire and its vassals (especially the Tatars and Transylvania ). Overall, hundreds of thousands were enslaved whilst tens of thousands were killed. Bohemia enjoyed religious freedom between 1436 and 1620 and became one of

4551-881: 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

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4662-462: 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

4773-716: 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

4884-812: 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

4995-455: 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 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

5106-809: The Slovak lands became the separate Slovak Republic , a puppet state of Nazi Germany. From 1939 to 1945, Bohemia (without the Sudetenland), together with Moravia, formed the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . During World War II , the Germans operated the Theresienstadt Ghetto for Jews, the Dulag Luft Ost, Stalag IV-C and Stalag 359 prisoner-of-war camps for French , British, Belgian, Serbian, Dutch, Slovak, Soviet, Romanian, Italian and other Allied POWs, and

5217-664: The Winter Queen or Queen of Hearts, was the daughter of King James I of England and VI of Scotland . After Frederick's defeat in the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, 27 Bohemian estates leaders together with Jan Jesenius , rector of the Charles University of Prague, were executed on the Prague's Old Town Square on 21 June 1621, and the rest were exiled from the country; their lands were then given to Catholic loyalists (mostly of Bavarian and Saxon origin). That ended

5328-574: 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

5439-600: The area where King Marobod 's kingdom was centered, within the Hercynian forest . Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII in his 10th-century work De Administrando Imperio also mentioned the region as Boiki (see White Serbia ). The Czech name "Čechy" is derived from the name of the Slavic ethnic group , the Czechs , who settled in the area during the sixth or seventh century AD. Bohemia, like neighboring Bavaria ,

5550-412: The beginning of substantial German immigration, as the court sought to replace losses from the brief Mongol invasion of Europe in 1241. Germans settled primarily along the northern, western, and southern borders of Bohemia, although many lived in towns throughout the kingdom. The House of Luxembourg accepted the invitation to the Bohemian throne with the marriage to the Přemyslid heiress, Elizabeth and

5661-600: The cease-fire agreement, did not support Bohemian German self-defense, while the Czechoslovak army, having status of an Entente army, could freely operate. The absorption of the German-speaking areas in Czechoslovakia was hence a fait accompli . As a result, the totality of Bohemia (as the largest and most populous land) became the core of the newly formed country of Czechoslovakia , which combined Bohemia, Moravia , Czech Silesia , Upper Hungary (present-day Slovakia ) and Carpathian Ruthenia into one state. Under its first president, Tomáš Masaryk , Czechoslovakia became

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5772-415: The communists and their Soviet protectors in many of the state's institutions. Gottwald and the communists responded with a coup d'état and installed a pro-Soviet authoritarian state. In 1949, Bohemia ceased to be an administrative unit of Czechoslovakia, as the country was divided into administrative regions that did not follow the historical borders. In 1989, Agnes of Bohemia became the first saint from

5883-411: The council to defend himself and the Czech positions in the religious court, but with the emperor's approval, he was executed on 6 July 1415. The execution of Hus, as well as five consecutive papal crusades against followers of Hus, forced the Bohemians to defend themselves in the Hussite Wars . The uprising against imperial forces was led by a former mercenary, Jan Žižka of Trocnov. As the leader of

5994-441: The crowning subsequent of John I of Bohemia (in the Czech Republic known as Jan Lucemburský ) in 1310. His son, Charles IV , became King of Bohemia in 1346. He founded Charles University in Prague , Central Europe's first university, two years later. His reign brought Bohemia to its peak both politically and in total area, resulting in his being the first king of Bohemia to also be elected as Holy Roman Emperor . Under his rule,

6105-481: The early Middle Ages , two new Suebic groupings appeared to the west of Bohemia in southern Germany, the Alemanni (in the Helvetian desert), and the Bavarians ( Baiuvarii ). Many Suebic tribes from the Bohemian region took part in such movements westwards, even settling as far away as Spain and Portugal. With them were also tribes who had pushed from the east, such as the Vandals , and Alans . Other groups pushed southwards towards Pannonia . The last known mention of

6216-427: The early 9th century, but became dominant only much later, in the 10th or 11th century. The 9th century was crucial for the future of Bohemia. The manorial system sharply declined, as it did in Bavaria. The influence of the central Fraganeo-Czechs grew, as a result of the important cultic center in their territory. They were Slavic-speaking, thus contributed to the transformation of diverse neighboring populations into

6327-401: The east, and their language began to replace the older Germanic, Celtic, and Sarmatian ones. These are precursors of today's Czechs, but the exact amount of Slavic immigration is a subject of debate. The Slavic influx was divided into two or three waves. The first wave came from the southeast and east, when the Germanic Lombards left Bohemia ( circa 568 AD). Soon after, from the 630s to 660s,

6438-468: 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

6549-401: 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 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

6660-422: 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,

6771-446: 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

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6882-505: 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 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

6993-521: The form they would take. A constitutional act in 1997 rejected the restoration of self-governing historical Czech lands, and decided for the regional system that has been in use since 2000. Petr Pithart , former Czech prime minister and president of the Senate at the time, remained one of the main advocates of the land system, claiming that the primary reason for its refusal was the fear of possible Moravian separatism. Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

7104-416: The formerly German-settled areas allowed many poorer people to acquire property, thus "equalizing" Czechoslovak society. The Communist Party won the most votes in free elections, but not a simple majority . Klement Gottwald , the communist leader, became prime minister of a coalition government. In February 1948, the non-communist members of the government resigned in protest against arbitrary measures by

7215-483: 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, 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

7326-434: 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

7437-430: 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

7548-437: 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 the very near-future. Czechoslovakia was the world's 7th largest manufacturer of arms, making Czechoslovakia into an important player in

7659-410: 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

7770-459: 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

7881-525: The lands, amounting to a third of Bohemia, where they formed the majority. After World War I , the German Bohemians demanded that the regions with German-speaking majority be included in a German state . Czech political leaders however claimed the entire Bohemian lands, including majority German-speaking areas, for Czechoslovakia. By the end of October, bilingual towns had been occupied by Czech forces. By end of November, many purely German-speaking towns had been occupied. German or Austrian troops, bound by

7992-519: 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 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

8103-509: 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 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

8214-596: The moderate Utraquists and the more fanatic Taborites . The Utraquists began to lay the groundwork for an agreement with the Catholic Church and found the more radical views of the Taborites distasteful. Additionally, with general war-weariness and yearning for order, the Utraquists were able to eventually defeat the Taborites in the Battle of Lipany in 1434. Sigismund said after the battle that "only

8325-495: The most liberal countries of the Christian world during that period. In 1609, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II , who made Prague again the capital of the empire at the time, himself a Roman Catholic, was moved by the Bohemian nobility to publish Maiestas Rudolphina , which confirmed the older Confessio Bohemica of 1575. After Emperor Matthias II and then King of Bohemia Ferdinand II (later Holy Roman Emperor) began oppressing

8436-463: The mountainous regions of the Sudetes . In the mining town of Sankt Joachimsthal (now Jáchymov ), famous coins called Joachimsthalers were coined, which gave their name to the thaler and the dollar . Meanwhile, Prague German intermediated between Upper German and East Central German , influencing the foundations of modern standard German. At the same time and place, the teachings of Jan Hus ,

8547-523: The natural defenses provided by its mountains and forests. They were able to maintain a strong alliance with neighboring tribes, including (at different times) the Lugii , Quadi , Hermunduri , Semnones , and Buri , which was sometimes partly controlled by the Roman Empire and sometimes in conflict with it; for example, in the second century, they fought Marcus Aurelius . In late classical times and

8658-497: 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

8769-826: The north by Saxony and Lusatia (in Germany and Poland , respectively), in the northeast by Silesia (in Poland), and in the east by Moravia (also part of the Czech Republic). Bohemia's borders were mostly marked by mountain ranges such as the Bohemian Forest , the Ore Mountains , and the Giant Mountains ; the Bohemian-Moravian border roughly follows the Elbe - Danube watershed . In

8880-401: 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

8991-466: 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

9102-419: 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

9213-495: 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

9324-483: 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

9435-588: The preamble of the Constitution of the Czech Republic : "We, citizens of the Czech Republic in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia..." Bohemia had an area of 52,065 km (20,102 sq mi), and today is home to about 6.9 million of the Czech Republic's 10.9 million inhabitants. Bohemia was bordered in the south by Upper and Lower Austria (both in Austria ), in the west by Bavaria (in Germany ), and in

9546-492: The pro-reformation movement in Bohemia and also ended the role of Prague as ruling city of the Holy Roman Empire. In the so-called "renewed constitution" of 1627, German was established as a second official language in the Czech lands. Czech formally remained the first language in the kingdom, but both German and Latin were widely spoken among the ruling classes, although German became increasingly dominant, and Czech

9657-474: 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 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,

9768-535: 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

9879-672: 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 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

9990-500: The region. In May 1945, Allied American , Polish, Czechoslovak , Soviet and Romanian troops captured the region, which was then restored to Czechoslovakia. After the war ended in 1945, after initial plans to cede lands to Germany or to create German-speaking cantons had been abandoned, the vast majority of the Bohemian Germans were expelled by the order of the re-established Czechoslovak central government, based on

10101-412: 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

10212-409: The revolutionaries were defeated. At the same time, German-speaking towns elected representatives for the first German Parliament at Frankfurt . Towns between Karlsbad and Reichenberg chose leftist representatives, while Eger , Rumburg , and Troppau elected conservative representatives. The old Bohemian Diet, one of the last remnants of the independence, was dissolved, although Czech experienced

10323-660: The rights of Protestants in Bohemia, the resulting Bohemian Revolt led to outbreak of the Thirty Years' War in 1618. Elector Frederick V of the Electorate of the Palatinate , a Calvinist Protestant, was elected by the Bohemian nobility to replace Ferdinand on the Bohemian throne and was known as the Winter King. Frederick's wife, the popular Elizabeth Stuart and subsequently, Elizabeth of Bohemia, known as

10434-686: The second century BC, the Romans were competing for dominance in northern Italy with various peoples, including the Gauls -Celtic tribe Boii . The Romans defeated the Boii at the Battle of Placentia (194 BC) and the Battle of Mutina (193 BC) . Afterward, many of the Boii retreated north across the Alps. Much later Roman authors refer to the area they had once occupied (the "desert of the Boii" as Pliny and Strabo called it ) as Boiohaemum . The earliest mention

10545-497: 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

10656-565: The surrounding countryside, valleys and castles to hikers and holidaymakers, as well as a variety of sporting facilities. Geomorphological division of the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, including highest peaks: [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] 49°28′N 16°00′E  /  49.467°N 16.000°E  / 49.467; 16.000 This Czech location article

10767-606: The territory was taken by Samo 's tribal confederation. His death marked the end of the old "Slavonic" confederation, the second attempt to establish such a Slavonic union after Carantania in Carinthia . Other sources ( Descriptio civitatum et regionum ad septentrionalem plagam Danubii , Bavaria, 800–850) divide the population of Bohemia into the Merehani, Marharaii, Beheimare (Bohemani), and Fraganeo. (The suffix -ani or -ni means "people of-"). Christianity first appeared in

10878-591: 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 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

10989-652: Was brutally suppressed by the Nazi authorities, and many Czech patriots were executed as a result. In 1942, the Czechoslovak resistance carried out the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich , and in reprisal German forces murdered the population of a whole village, Lidice . In the spring of 1945, death marches of prisoners of several subcamps of the Flossenbürg, Gross-Rosen and Buchenwald concentration camps in Saxony and Silesia, and Allied POWs from camps in Austria reached

11100-528: Was by Tacitus ' Germania 28 (written at the end of the first century AD), and later mentions of the same name are in Strabo and Velleius Paterculus . The name appears to consist of the tribal name Boio- plus the Proto-Germanic noun * haimaz "home" (whence Gothic haims , German Heim , Heimat , English home ), indicating a Proto-Germanic *Bajahaimaz . Boiohaemum was apparently isolated to

11211-526: Was elected to ascend to the Bohemian throne. He is remembered for his attempt to set up a pan-European "Christian League", which would form all the states of Europe into a community based on religion. In the process of negotiating, he appointed Zdeněk Lev of Rožmitál to tour the European courts and to conduct the talks. However, the negotiations were not completed because George's position was substantially damaged over time by his deteriorating relationship with

11322-548: Was facilitated by Bohemia's conversion to Christianity, in the 9th century. Continuing close relations were developed with the East Frankish Kingdom , which devolved from the Carolingian Empire , into East Francia , eventually becoming the Holy Roman Empire . After a decisive victory of the Holy Roman Empire and Bohemia over invading Magyars in the 955 Battle of Lechfeld , Boleslaus I of Bohemia

11433-482: Was granted the Moravia by German emperor Otto the Great . Bohemia would remain a largely autonomous state under the Holy Roman Empire for several decades. The jurisdiction of the Holy Roman Empire was definitively reasserted when Jaromír of Bohemia was granted fief of the Kingdom of Bohemia by Emperor King Henry II of the Holy Roman Empire, with the promise that he hold it as a vassal once he reoccupied Prague with

11544-467: Was largely directed toward supplying the German armed forces. The protectorate's population was subjected to rationing . The Czech crown 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

11655-620: 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

11766-424: Was moderate by Nazi standards during the first months of 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

11877-614: 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

11988-648: 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

12099-807: Was spoken in much of the countryside. The formal independence of Bohemia was further jeopardized when the Bohemian Diet approved administrative reform in 1749. It included the indivisibility of the Habsburg Empire and the centralization of rule, which essentially meant the merging of the Royal Bohemian Chancellery with the Austrian Chancellery. At the end of the 18th century, the Czech National Revival movement, in cooperation with part of

12210-504: Was supported by the position that part of the Czech population had German ancestry. There 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

12321-594: 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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