Bohemian Forest Region

It includes parts of southwestern Bohemia in the Bohemian Forest once mainly populated by ethnic Germans.

The Bohemian Forest Region was historically an integral part of the Habsburg constituent Kingdom of Bohemia but, with the imminent collapse of Habsburg Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I, areas of the Czech-majority Bohemia with an ethnic German majority began to take actions to avoid joining a new Czechoslovak state.

On 11 November 1918, Emperor Charles I of Austria relinquished power and, on 12 November, the ethnic German areas of the empire were declared the Republic of German Austria with the intent of unifying with Germany.

After World War II, the area was returned to Czechoslovakia and is now part of the Czech Republic.

During the Cold War the border region was closed off, but with the fall of the Iron Curtain it has become a popular tourist destination with 1.8 million visitors per year.

The provinces of German Austria . The Bohemian Forest Region is the area in orange north of the current boundary of Austria (red line).