Czech-German Relations and the Politics of Central Europe : From Bohemia to the EU

Annotation In the aftermath of World War II, approximately three million Sudeten-Germans were expelled from their homes in the former Czechoslovakia because of their part in the dismemberment of the Czechoslovak Republic by Nazi Germany in 1938-39. For many years their representatives, the Sudeten-German Association, attempted in vain to redress the wrong done to their people. However, the end of the Cold War has given a new impetus to their campaign. Currently they attempt to block Czech entry into the EU unless there is restitution of confiscated properties. Jrgen Tampke tells the story of the Sudeten-Germans from the beginning of their settlement 700 years ago in what is now the Czech Republic to current times The German-speaking population of the Bohemian lands has been the centre of political controversy for over a century. The success of the fascist Sudeten German Party in the 1930s led to the Munich Agreement of September 1938 - the event that was soon to signal the beginning of World War Two. After harsh years of Nazi German occupation, the Czechs and Slovaks expelled the great majority of the Sudeten Germans from their country at the end of the war. Although most of the expellees did well in the Federal Republic, their chief representative, the Sudeten Homelands Association, never ceased to wage a relentless campaign for the right of the Sudeten Germans to return to their ancestral lands. After the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, the leaders of the expellee associations insisted that Czech entry into the EU should be made conditional on meeting Sudeten German restitution demands - an issue that is still afflicting negotiations today Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgements......Page 9 Glossary of Geographical Terms......Page 10 List of Abbreviations......Page 11 Map of the Bohemian Lands......Page 13 Introduction......Page 14 1 The Lands of the Weceslav Crown......Page 20 2 Czechoslovakia......Page 44 3 The Reichsgau Sudetenland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia......Page 64 4 Expulsion and Forced Resettlement......Page 92 5 Expellee Politics......Page 114 6 In the Forefront......Page 137 7 Lest We Forget......Page 157 Notes......Page 175 Works Cited and Consulted......Page 198 A......Page 210 B......Page 211 C......Page 213 D......Page 216 E......Page 217 F......Page 218 G......Page 219 H......Page 220 K......Page 222 M......Page 223 N......Page 224 P......Page 225 R......Page 226 S......Page 227 U......Page 230 W......Page 231 Z......Page 232 In the aftermath of World War Two, approximately three million Sudeten-Germans were expelled from their homes in the former Czechoslovakia because of their part in the dismemberment of the Czechoslovak Republic by Nazi Germany in 1938-39. For many years their representatives, the Sudeten-German Association, attempted in vain to redress the wrong done to their people. However, the end of the Cold War has given a new impetus to their campaign. Currently they attempt to block Czech entry into the EU unless there is restitution of confiscated properties. Jürgen Tampke tells the story of the Sudeten-Germans from the beginning of their settlement seven hundred years ago in what is now the Czech Republic to current times. The country around the Bohemian Basin and its adjacent mountain ranges to the south, west and north, which today constitutes the Czech Republic, is part of the diverse ethnic, cultural and religious landscape so characteristic of eastern-central, eastern and south-eastern Europe. Jurgen Tampke tells the story of the Sudeten Germans from the beginning of their settlement in the 14th century, in what is now the Czech Republic, to the 21st century Jürgen Tampke. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 179-190) And Index.