| Province of the Sudetenland Provinz Sudetenland (German) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Province of the Republic of German-Austria | |||||||||
| 1918–1919 | |||||||||
 Flag[1] | |||||||||
 Province of the Sudetenland as shown within German Austria, colored in orange. | |||||||||
| Capital | Troppau | ||||||||
| Demonym | Sudeten Germans | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
• 1919 | 6,534 km2 (2,523 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1919 | 671.800 | ||||||||
| Historical era | Interwar period | ||||||||
• Established | 29 October 1918 | ||||||||
| 10 September 1919 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Czech Republic | ||||||||
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.[2]
The province was originally established by the provisional government of the 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.[2] This would not come to pass, however. Both the provinces of German Bohemia and German Moravia were given to the newly proclaimed Czechoslovak Republic. Czechoslovak troops occupied the province by the beginning of 1919, and the position of the said province within Czechoslovakia was confirmed by the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which was signed 10 September 1919, and the province was disestablished in the same day.
In 1919, about 646,800 (96.2%) ethnic Germans lived within the province, along with about 25,000 (3.7%) ethnic Czechs.[2]
The majority of ethnic Germans in all of Czechoslovakia, including what was once this province, were expelled after the Second World War.
- ^ When the Province of the Sudetenland was established on 29 October 1918, the colors of the Frankfurt Parliament – the black, red and gold tricolor – were adopted as its flag. On 4 March 1919 however, the victors of the First World War determined that the Sudetenland should be part of Czechoslovakia. Out of mourning for this, the lower golden stripe of the flag was replaced by a second black stripe.
- ^ a b c Prinz, Friedrich (1993). Deutsche Geschichte in Osten Europas: Böhmen und Mähren (in German). Berlin: Wolf Jobst Siedler Verlag GmbH. p. 381. ISBN 3-88680-200-0. Retrieved 25 February 2013.