page_title: Sudeten Germans
section_title: Rise of Nazis
hierarchical_section_title: Sudeten Germans / Rise of Nazis
context_page_description: German Bohemians, later known as Sudeten Germans, were ethnic Germans living in the Czech lands of the Bohemian Crown, which later became an integral part of Czechoslovakia in which before 1945 over three million German Bohemians inhabited, about 23 percent of the population of the whole country and about 29.5 percent of the population of Bohemia and Moravia. Ethnic Germans migrated into the Kingdom of Bohemia, an electoral territory of the Holy Roman Empire, from the 11th century, mostly in the border regions of what was later called the "Sudetenland", which was named after the Sudeten Mountains. The process of German expansion was known as Ostsiedlung. The name "Sudeten Germans" was adopted during rising nationalism after the fall of Austria-Hungary after the First World War. After the Munich Agreement, the so-called Sudetenland became part of Germany.
  After the Second World War, the remainder of the German-speaking population, mostly Roman Catholic and only few Protestants, prevailingly from Czech Silesia, was expelled from Czechoslovakia to Germany and Austria.
context_section_description: The Sudeten German nationalists, particularly the Nazis, expanded their activities after the Depression started. On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. The Czechoslovak government prepared to suppress the Sudeten Nazi Party. In the autumn of 1933, the Sudeten Nazis dissolved their organization, and the German Nationals were pressured to do likewise. The government expelled German Nationals and Sudeten Nazis from local government positions. The Sudeten German population was indignant, especially in nationalist strongholds like Egerland.
  On 1 October 1933, Konrad Henlein with his deputy, Karl Hermann Frank, aided by other members of the Kameradschaftsbund, a youth organization of mystical orientation, created a new political organisation. The Sudeten German Home Front (Sudetendeutsche Heimatfront) professed loyalty to Czechoslovakia but championed decentralization. It absorbed most former German Nationals and Sudeten Nazis.
  In 1935, the Sudeten German Home Front became the Sudeten German Party (Sudetendeutsche Partei) (SdP) and embarked on an active propaganda campaign. In the May election, the SdP won more than 60% of the Sudeten German vote. The German Agrarians, Christian Socialists and Social Democrats each lost approximately half of their followers. The SdP became the centre of German nationalist forces. The party represented itself as striving for a just settlement of Sudeten German claims within the framework of Czechoslovak democracy.  Henlein, however, maintained secret contact with Nazi Germany and received material aid from Berlin, which told him to refuse every concession offered by Czechoslovakia. The SdP endorsed the idea of a Führer and mimicked Nazi methods with banners, slogans and uniformed troops. Concessions offered by the Czechoslovak government, including the installation of exclusively Sudeten German officials in Sudeten German areas and the possible participation of the SdP in the cabinet, were rejected.  By 1937, most SdP leaders supported Hitler's pan-German objectives.
  On 13 March 1938, the Third Reich annexed Austria during the Anschluss.  Immediately, many Sudeten Germans supported Henlein. On 22 March, the German Agrarian Party, led by Gustav Hacker, merged with the SdP. German Christian Socialists in Czechoslovakia suspended their activities on 24 March; their deputies and senators entered the SdP parliamentary club. Although the Social Democrats continued to champion democratic freedoms, the masses supported the SdP.
caption: Flag flown by some Sudeten Germans