Sudetenland

Sudetenland was the name used before 1918 and in 1938-45 for the region inhabited by Sudeten Germans (German: Sudetendeutsche). The Böhmer Wald or Sudeten mountains are directly adjacent to the Bavarian Wald mountains and are situated in Bohemia. Actually, the name of Sudentenland were used for German-speaking enclaves inside Czech speaking Bohemia, so plaese refer to the history of the latter for the times before 1850.

In some time during Middle age, groups of German speaking farmers and craftsmen settled down in mountain areas of Bohemia.

The Habsburg imperial rulers inherited the land of Bohemia andMoravia. Since the fact, that after 1620, German was common language of upper classes in Bohemia, nobody cared about the language used by lower classes.

After the destruction of the Holy Roman Empire by 1806, Bohemia including the Sudeten or Bohemian mountains became a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

However, in the enlightment time, Czech people woke up again their language and by the 1867 they were perfectly aware of the fact that they consist two third majority in Bohemia and Moravia provinces.

Czech national movement wanted to have Bohemia, Moravia and Austrian Silesia province united with the equal rights for both languages German and Czech. Sudeten German movement tried to stop such a development, or in case, cut-off the German speaking districts to form Sudentenland with official German language.

The rift over national rights in Bohemia stoped working of elected bodies inside Bohemia and Austria. One of the way out, that Austrian governemnt followed, was to make a war against an external enemy, that caused directly WWI.

By the Versailles Treaty the land of Bohemia became part of the new state of Czechoslovakia.

Adolf Hitler forced the Munich Agreement which ceded the Sudetenland to Germany in 1939 and it was annexed to the Reich.

The Munich-based Verband der Sudetendeutschen (Sudeten-German Federation) is a minor association that represents the people's rights.