Germans in the Czech Republic

After the Czech Republic joined the European Union in the 2004 enlargement and was incorporated into the Schengen Area, migration between the two countries became relatively unrestricted.

Under Austrian rule, much of what is now modern day Czech Republic was administered from Vienna, which promoted an influx of German settlers into the 19th century.

[citation needed] The end of World War One brought about the partition of the multiethnic Austria-Hungary into its historical components, one of them, the Bohemian Kingdom, forming the west of the newly created Czechoslovakia.

The German Bohemians relied mostly on peaceful opposition to the occupation of their homeland by the Czech military, which started on 31 October 1918 and was completed on 28 January 1919.

Sudeten Germans reacted with fear to the news of Austrian annexation, and the moderate wing of SdP grew in strength.

[9] Hitherto pro-Henlein German newspaper Bohemia denounced the SdP leader, arguing that his call for Sudeten Anschluss goes against the wish of his voters and supporters: "His present call to irredentism saddles the Sudeten Germans with all the consequences of treason to the State; for such a challenge the electors gave him neither their votes nor their mandate".

German Christian Socialists in Czechoslovakia suspended their activities on 24 March; their deputies and senators entered the SdP parliamentary club.

[11][verification needed][10] Contemporary reports of The Times found that there was a "large number of Sudetenlanders who actively opposed annexation", and that the pro-German policy was challenged by the moderates within the SdP as well; according to Wickham Steed, over 50 % of Henleinists favoured greater autonomy within Czechoslovakia over joining Germany.