Province of the Sudetenland

  Province of the Sudetenland

  Province of German Bohemia

As shown within German Austria

The Province of the Sudetenland (German: Provinz Sudetenland) was established on 29 October 1918 by former members of the Cisleithanian Imperial Council, the governing legislature of the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire. It consisted of German-speaking parts of Moravia, Bohemia and Austrian Silesia, and was meant to become an integral part of the newly proclaimed Republic of German Austria.^[1]

The province was originally established by the provisional government of so-called "German Moravia", which meant to represent German interests in Moravia. The provisional capital was declared as Troppau (Opava). It mimicked a similar provincial establishment in Bohemia, where Reichenberg (Liberec) became the capital.

Along with various other German-speaking parts, these provinces were intended to eventually integrate into Austria, on the basis of Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, which emphasized the right to self-determination of peoples.^[1] This would not come to pass, however. Both the provinces of German Bohemia and German Moravia were given to the newly proclaimed Czecho-Slovak Republic. Czechoslovak troops occupied the province by the beginning of 1919, and position of said province within Czechoslovakia was confirmed by the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which was signed 10 September 1919.

In 1919, about 646,800 ethnic Germans lived within the province, along with about 25,000 ethnic Czechs.^[1]

The majority of ethnic Germans in all of Czechoslovakia, including what was once this province, were expelled after the Second World War.

References

• Adrian von Arburg (in German): Die Festlegung der Staatsgrenze zwischen der Tschechoslowakei und Deutschland nach dem Münchener Abkommen 1938. Grin Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-638-016-48-3.
• Emil Franzel (in German): Sudetendeutsche Geschichte. Mannheim 1978, ISBN 3-8083-1141-X.