Chods

These relocations occurred even as the Bohemian monarchy invited selective immigration of Bavarian craftspeople into certain settlements of western Bohemia to assist in the economic and technological development within their Kingdom.

As a condition of their relocation, the ancestral Chods were made direct servants of the king, with significant privileges that differentiated them from other subjects – including the right of unrestricted movement within the Bohemian Forest region, access to the resources of the forest, and the right to own large dogs forbidden to ordinary Bohemian peasantry.

Reflected in their ethnonym, implying "walkers," "rangers" or "patrollers," they represent a rare example of a professional identity coming to define a group's overall ethnic designation.

The events of World War II, including the brutal occupation of the Chod region as part of Nazi Germany's Sudetenland annexation, followed by the disorderly and brutal expulsion by the Czechs of German-speakers from western Bohemia at the war's end, contributed to a significant decline in the scale and distribution of the Chod population within western Bohemia.

They speak the Chod dialect, a separate dialect of Czech, enjoy unique and strong traditions such as the use of special folk costume and musical instruments; they maintain a strong sense of identity that is linked to the Bohemian Forest and their role as defenders of the western Bohemian borderland.