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Sudetenland

Sudeten-Germans (German: Sudetendeutschen) are Bohemia Germans (Boehmen-Deutsche), who after 1920 became known for the mountain range called Sudeten they lived in, which is called Sudetenland before 1918 and 1938-1945. The Boehmer Wald or Sudeten mountains are directly adjacent to the Bavarian Wald mountains and are situated in Magna Germania recorded by various ancient and medieval historians.

First under Bavarian, then Frankish rule this part of the land became known as Bohemia and part of Greater Moravia, to where successive groups of Finno-Ugric and Slav language[?] speakers had moved into Germania. They became a part of the Frankish/German-ruled kingdoms and and empire, ruled via tributary relationships, marriages etc.

The many different people, who had came to the area starting after AD 600, still remained there in the ninth and tenth centuries. They were for a large part lumped together and collectively called Slavs for centuries. Only after the 16th century with the Protestant Reformation are differences in languages recognized. All these groups of people were subjects to the Holy Roman Empire.

The later Habsburg imperial rulers inherited the land of Bohemia.

After the destruction of the Holy Roman Empire by 1806, Bohemia including the Sudeten or Bohemian mountains became a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Because of the constant movement of peoples in response to the changing boundaries resulting from inheritances , selling and trading of territories, the people who lived in the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation then found themselves in an enclave of German people living in these Sudeten mountains and other areas of Bohemia. The land of Bohemia was broken up by the Versailles Treaty in order to create the state of Czechoslovakia.

Adolf Hitler conquered the western parts of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and annexed the region.

The Munich-based Verband der Sudetendeutschen (Sudeten-German Federation) is a minor association that represents the people's rights.



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