Sudeten Germans, name coinedby F. Jesser in 1902 for the German-speaking population in Bohemia and Moravia (including Moravian Silesia, later also called “Sudeten Silesia”) within Austria-Hungary; replaced the collective term “Germans in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia” used in the 19th century. The term Sudeten nationalized at first slowly and then in connection with one that the German minority by the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Paris suburb treaties had become collectively citizens of the newly formed Czechoslovak Republic (Czechoslovakia)) (1919: 3, 3 million, 1935: around 3.1 million). Since the term now stood for a “national minority,” it gained increasing political significance.

History: The settlement of the area, generally known as »Sudetenland« since the 1930s, began with the German settlement in the east in the 12th-14th centuries. Century takes place: The Baiern settled in the south and west, the Upper Saxons in the north, the Silesians in the east. The share of the Sudeten Germans in the economic and cultural development of the Bohemian-Moravian region was significant until the 20th century. The Sudeten Germans had a common affiliation with Austria (there also German Bohemia, German Moravia or Austrian Silesians called) and the close coexistence with the Czechs (in the »Sudetenland« 1919: around 200,000, 1930: around 700,000, 1939: around 320,000) as well as the cultural influence of Prague shaped a lot in common. Although the majority of the Sudeten Germans tolerated the new state in the 1920s, the Prague government did not succeed in integrating them, especially since the Sudeten Germans felt they were disadvantaged in various areas. B. Language regulation, school system, fewer government contracts to the Sudeten German industry. They only developed a politically effective sense of community under the impression of the global economic crisis in the 1930s. From 1933 the (later) Sudeten German Party claimed to represent the Sudeten Germans politically. A. Hitler instrumentalized the nationality problems in 1938 in order to force the separation of the area from the ČSR during the Sudeten crisis(Munich Agreement; 78% of which later became Reichsgau Sudetenland). In violation of international law, almost all of the Sudeten Germans were expelled from the Czechoslovak Republic and in some cases brutally on the basis of the presidential decrees (Beneš decrees) and the Potsdam Agreement between May 1945 and November 1946 (including the Aussig massacre, July 31, 1945, » Brno Death March “). With regard to the victims of displacement, often given as around 250,000 for the Sudeten Germans, different, mostly minor and highly relativized statements are made in recent research.

Despite the expulsion, officially known as “transfer” or “deportation”, or “Odzun” in Czech, the Sudeten Germans were fundamentally ready for reconciliation (Charter of German expellees, 1950; expellees). The German-Czechoslovak Neighborhood Treaty of February 27, 1992 and the German-Czech Declaration of January 21, 1997 do not provide a clear answer to the question of reimbursement and property, since each government remains committed to its legal system and respects that the other side is another Represents legal opinion. On the basis of European legal thinking, the Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft demands the right of home and return as well as the withdrawal of the »Beneš decrees«. In Austria, too, their withdrawal was repeatedly demanded as a prerequisite for the Czech Republic’s admission to the EU (on May 1, 2004).

Sudeten German Party

According to Directoryaah, Sudeten German Party, abbreviation SdP, former party in Czechoslovakia, was founded on October 1, 1933 by K. Henlein as “Sudeten German Home Front”, renamed SdP in April 1935; regarded itself as a gathering movement for all Sudeten Germans, became materially and politically dependent on German National Socialism. Its supporters were recruited from the Sudeten German Gymnastics Association, the Comradeship Association, the German National Socialist Workers’ Party (DNSAP; self-dissolution on October 4, 1933) and the German National Party (DNP). The party demanded v. a. to counteract their ban by the Czechoslovak state, autonomy for the Sudeten Germans. In May 1935 she won 44 of 66 seats (granted to the German-speaking minority) in the elections to the National Assembly with 15.2% of all votes. In 1937/38 the SdP went beyond its demands for autonomy and demanded the “connection” of the Sudeten German settlement areas to the German Reich. Although conservative national currents were also represented in the party, Especially under the influence of the “Aufbruchkreis”, National Socialist ideas emerged. Submitted in November 1937 Henlein himself and his party to the will of Hitler and his directives. During the “Sudeten Crisis” (1938) the SdP (meanwhile 1.3 million members) was only one of Hitler’s instruments. After the incorporation of the Sudetenland by the German Reich in 1938 (Munich Agreement), the SdP was transferred to the NSDAP.

German Confederation

German Confederation, the amalgamation of the individual German states into a confederation of states founded at the Congress of Vienna (1814/15) by the Federal Act of June 8, 1815.

The German Confederation also included Denmark for Holstein and Lauenburg, Great Britain for Hanover and the Netherlands for Luxembourg and Limburg, Prussia and Austria only with the areas that had belonged to the Holy Roman Empireuntil 1806. The only federal body was the Federal Assembly.

The German Confederation broke up in 1866 (German War) because of the Austrian-Prussian conflict (German history).