In truth, a large percentage of the overall population was of German descent, tracing back historically to early settling of the Czech lands. Despite their separate cultures and languages, the Czechs and Germans had been coexisting for centuries with pockets of each ethnicity spread throughout the landscape. Their intermingling influences are apparent in such things as the absence of the Cyrillic characters in the Czech and Slovak languages, which are otherwise of Slavic origin (like Russian). German influence also accounts for the Czech and Slovak embrace of the Roman Catholic Church as opposed to Eastern Orthodoxy.

During the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, German was the language of the intelligentsia and the cultured. For example, famed Czech author Franz Kafka (1883-1924) wrote exclusively in German, despite being fluent in Czech for all other purposes. The heightened focus on German-related interests in the Czech lands through these years is part of what caused further rifts between the Czechs and Germans when the Czechoslovak Republic was formed. While minority rights were protected as the fledgling government struggled to balance multinational interests, the Czech-Germans nevertheless had no real part in political affairs of the country. For years the Czech-German political parties fluctuated in acceptance and dissent over their place in the government. By the time the Nazis were steadily gaining power in Germany, however, many Czech-Germans’ loyalties turned Nationalist in favor of Germany over their local environment.

The final straw was when the Nazis annexed Austria in the Anschluss of 1938. It soon became apparent that the Czechoslovak Republic was Hitler’s next target for expansion, and his wish was soon granted. In the Munich Agreement, the Allies determined the Czechs’ fate in order to appease Hitler and, they hoped, avoid an outbreak of war. France, Britain, and Italy met with Germany to determine a redivision of Czech territory without any input from the Czechs themselves, who were forced to be helpless pawns in a political chess game.

Chamberlain (United Kingdom), Daladier (France), Hitler, and Mussolini (Italy)
emerge after signing the Munich Agreement