Sudetenland

Sudetenland A term in use particularly after 1938 for the north-west frontier region of the Czech lands (Bohemia) which had become an area of German settlement over the course of centuries. In response to the rise of nationalism among both its German and Czech population, mutual antagonism arose, whipped up by the spread of cultural and linguistic associations. In 1919, it became part of Czechoslovakia under the terms of the Paris Peace Conference. This incited vociferous German protests, and led to sporadic violence between Germans and Czechs. In the June 1919 local elections, over 90 per cent of the German vote went to German ethnic parties. Many among the German-speaking population were mollified by the new country's liberal treatment of national minorities, and the relative financial prosperity of the new state, in marked contrast with the economic and political helter-skelter of Weimar Germany or Austria. However, the effects of the Great Depression, which hit its industries particularly hard, and the growth of the German Nazi movement both encouraged a revival of German nationalism. In May 1935, the Fascist Sudeten German Party (SDP) led by Konrad Henlein gained 63 per cent of the Sudeten German vote. The SdP subsequently exaggerated its demands so as to make them unacceptable to the Czech population, and this provided the background for Hitler's annexation of the area and the Munich Agreement.

After Germany's defeat in 1945, Czechoslovakia took possession of the area again. On 21 June 1945, the new government issued the Benes Decrees, according to which all Sudeten Germans were expropriated as collaborators. This document, whose implication of a collective guilt of all Sudenten Germans was never accepted by the latter, formed a crucial pillar of Czech identity. It surfaced to the political agenda in 2001, when it was used by the Czech Prime Minister, Zeman, to whip up nationalist fervour ahead of the 2002 general elections. In return, the Benes decrees were similarly invoked for populist purposes by Jörg Haider of Austria.