Czech–German relations are the relationships between the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The two countries share 815 km of common borders and both are members of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...

OSCE The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the pr ...

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

and the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that g ...

Country comparison

Background

Bohemia and Moravia (now in the Czech Republic) were settled in the 6th century by

Czechs The Czechs (, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavs, West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common Bohemia ...

, as part of the post-Roman migration of peoples. Later German settlers constituted a minority in the Czech lands and relations between the two communities were generally amiable. In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, the

Bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a ...

(Czech) realm, itself a part of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

, extended to territories located in present-day Germany, such as

Lusatia Lusatia (; ; ; ; ; ), otherwise known as Sorbia, is a region in Central Europe, formerly entirely in Germany and today territorially split between Germany and modern-day Poland. Lusatia stretches from the Bóbr and Kwisa rivers in the eas ...

and the Bohemian Palatinate. After the extinction of the Czech

Přemyslid dynasty The Přemyslid dynasty or House of Přemysl (, , ) was a Bohemian royal dynasty that reigned in the Duchy of Bohemia and later Kingdom of Bohemia and Margraviate of Moravia (9th century–1306), as well as in parts of Poland (including Silesia ...

, the

Kingdom of Bohemia The Kingdom of Bohemia (), sometimes referenced in English literature as the Czech Kingdom, was a History of the Czech lands in the High Middle Ages, medieval and History of the Czech lands, early modern monarchy in Central Europe. It was the pr ...

was ruled by the

House of Luxembourg The House of Luxembourg (; ; ) or Luxembourg dynasty was a royal family of the Holy Roman Empire in the Late Middle Ages, whose members between 1308 and 1437 ruled as kings of Germany and Holy Roman emperors as well as kings of Bohemia, List of r ...

, the Jagiellonians, and finally the

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

s. In the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

, the Protestant Czechs resisted Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II's attempt to reintroduce Catholicism. After the Czechs' defeat at the

Battle of White Mountain The Battle of White Mountain (; ) was an important battle in the early stages of the Thirty Years' War. It led to the defeat of the Bohemian Revolt and ensured Habsburg control for the next three hundred years. It was fought on 8 November 16 ...

in 1620, the Czech nobility and educated Protestant population was slaughtered or exiled, the Czech lands made a hereditary possession of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

made the official language. The

Czech language Czech ( ; ), historically known as Bohemian ( ; ), is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script. Spoken by over 12 million people including second language speakers, it serves as the official language of the ...

declined, and became endangered until the

Czech National Revival The Czech National Revival was a cultural movement which took place in the Czech lands during the 18th and 19th centuries. The purpose of this movement was to revive the Czech Czech language, language, culture and national identity. The most pro ...

in the late 18th century. Tensions deteriorated between the Czechs and the Germans, and after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, when

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Tomáš () is a Czech name, Czech and Slovak name, Slovak given name, equivalent to the name Thomas (name), Thomas. Tomáš is also a surname (feminine: Tomášová). Notable people with the name include: Given name Sport *Tomáš Berdych (born 198 ...

convinced American President Woodrow Wilson to establish a Czechoslovak state in Central Europe on the principle of national

self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...

, after three hundred years of Austrian domination, with a significant German minority (30% of the total population) in the nation's

borderlands A borderland or borderlands are the geographical space or zone around a territorial border. Borderland or borderlands may refer to: Places * Borderland, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in Mingo County, West Virginia * Borderland (elec ...

, which had a majority German population. After

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

's rise to power in Germany, the Nazi German government sought to inflame nationalistic tensions in neighbouring Czechoslovakia, and instructed local Nazi leader Konrad Henlein, the leader of the German minority in the Czech borderlands, to make unreasonable demands on the Czech government and to attempt to paralyse the

First Czechoslovak Republic The First Czechoslovak Republic, often colloquially referred to as the First Republic, was the first Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak state that existed from 1918 to 1938, a union of ethnic Czechs and Slovaks. The country was commonly called Czechosl ...

. Ethnic German nationalists backed by Hitler demanded the union of German-speaking districts with Germany. At the height of Western

Appeasement Appeasement, in an International relations, international context, is a diplomacy, diplomatic negotiation policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power (international relations), power with intention t ...

of Nazi Germany, the British and French-backed

Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement was reached in Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic, French Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. The agreement provided for the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–194 ...

granted the German areas, including all of the crucial

Czechoslovak border fortifications First Republic of Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovakia built a system of border fortifications as well as some fortified defensive lines inland, from 1935 to 1938 as a defensive countermeasure against the rising threat of Nazi Germany. The objective of ...

, to Germany. Despite the Czech-French alliance, Czech officials were not invited to negotiate and were informed of the agreement only after its conclusion. The defenceless Czechoslovak state was forced to give up one third of Slovakia to Hungary, and the

Trans-Olza Trans-Olza (, ; , ''Záolší''; ), also known as Trans-Olza Silesia (), is a territory in the Czech Republic which was disputed between Poland and Czechoslovakia during the Interwar Period. Its name comes from the Olza River. The history of ...

area, containing the only railway between the Czech lands and Slovakia, to Poland. The Czechoslovak leadership fled to London and Hitler seized the rest of Czechoslovakia. The

German occupation of Czechoslovakia German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

destroyed the Czechoslovak state, the only Central European

parliamentary democracy A parliamentary system, or parliamentary democracy, is a form of government where the head of government (chief executive) derives their democratic legitimacy from their ability to command the support ("confidence") of a majority of the legisl ...

, and sought to "reintegrate" Bohemia and Moravia into the Nazi empire. This Nazi German policy took the form of so-called ''Grundplanung OA'' (Basic planning) from the summer of 1938, which included the extermination of Czech nation, and later the genocidal ''

Generalplan Ost The (; ), abbreviated GPO, was Nazi Germany's plan for the settlement and "Germanization" of captured territory in Eastern Europe, involving the genocide, extermination and large-scale ethnic cleansing of Slavs, Eastern European Jews, and o ...

''. At the end of the war, as part of the post-war flight and expulsion of Germans, the German population was expelled from Czechoslovakia in accordance with the

Potsdam Agreement The Potsdam Agreement () was the agreement among three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union after the war ended in Europe that was signed on 1 August 1945 and published the following day. A ...

and

Beneš decrees The Beneš decrees were a series of laws drafted by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in the absence of the Czechoslovak parliament during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II. They were issued by President Edvard Beneš fr ...

. These expulsions were carried out by the army and wartime resistance forces. An estimated 2.4 million ethnic Germans were deported to

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

and

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, of whom several thousand perished in the population movement. There have been calls within Germany for the compensation of the refugees, which the

Czech government Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surna ...

has refused to entertain, citing the German occupation, wartime injustices, the German minority's support for the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

, genocidal plans by the German government, and atrocities such as the

Lidice massacre The Lidice massacre () was the complete destruction of the village of Lidice in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which is now a part of the Czech Republic, in June 1942 on orders from Nazi Party, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and acting ''Rei ...

Modern relations

After the end of the Cold War, relations warmed between the newly-reunified

Federal Republic of Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen constituent states have a total population of over 84 ...

and the newly-democratic

. On 27 February 1992, German Chancellor

Helmut Kohl Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as chancellor of Germany and governed the ''Federal Republic'' from 1982 to 1998. He was leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to ...

and Czechoslovak President

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissol ...

signed a treaty of friendship, known as Czech-German Declaration. In 2012, German President

Joachim Gauck Joachim Wilhelm Gauck (; born 24 January 1940) is a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2012 to 2017. A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in East Germany. During the P ...

and Czech President

Václav Klaus Václav Klaus (; born 19 June 1941) is a Czech economist and politician who served as the second president of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013. From July 1992 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993, he served as the second ...

jointly visited

Lidice Lidice (; ) is a municipality and village in Kladno District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 600 inhabitants. Lidice is built near the site of the previous village, which was completely destroyed on 10 June 19 ...

, a Czech village razed to the ground by German forces in 1942, heralding a leap in Czech-German rapprochement. As a result of the

Schengen Agreement The Schengen Agreement ( , ) is a treaty which led to the creation of Europe's Schengen Area, in which internal border checks have largely been abolished. It was signed on 14 June 1985, near the town of Schengen, Luxembourg, by five of the t ...

, there are no border checks between the two countries, and their borders are completely open to one another. Citizens from one state may also freely move to and work in the other state as a result of the European Union's

freedom of movement for workers The freedom of movement for workers is a policy chapter of the acquis communautaire of the European Union. The free movement of workers means that nationals of any member state of the European Union can take up an employment in another member st ...

Relations with the Free State of Bavaria

In December 2010 and November 2011,

Horst Seehofer Horst Lorenz Seehofer (born 4 July 1949) is a German politician who served as Minister for the Interior, Building and Community under Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2018 to 2021. A member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), he served as the ...

was the first

Minister-President of Bavaria Below is a list of the men who have served in the capacity of Minister-President or equivalent office in the German state of Bavaria from the 17th century to the present. Privy Council chancellor Privy Council chancellors (''Geheime Ratskanzl ...

, who visited the Czech Republic. This was considered an important step in the dispute over the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans after the Second World War. In February 2013 the then Czech Prime Minister

Petr Nečas Petr Nečas (; born 19 November 1964) is a Czech former politician who served as the prime minister of the Czech Republic and leader of the Civic Democratic Party from 2010 to 2013, and as Member of the Chamber of Deputies (MP) from 1993 to 20 ...

was the first Prime Minister to visit the Free State of Bavaria. In a speech in front of the Bavarian Parliament he regretted the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans. On December 4, 2014, the Minister-President Horst Seehofer opened the Representation of the Free State of Bavaria in the Czech Republic. Among the guests of the opening ceremony were the Czech Prime Minister

Bohuslav Sobotka Bohuslav Sobotka (; born 23 October 1971) is a Czech politician and lawyer who served as the prime minister of the Czech Republic from January 2014 to December 2017 and leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) from 2010 until his res ...

and many Czech and Bavarian ministers. In his speech, Seehofer praised the establishment of a Bavarian Representation in the Czech Republic as a symbol of the growing friendship between Bavaria and the Czech Republic and for a common Europe. The Bavarian Representation should be a place for dialogue, friendship and cooperation.

Education

The

Deutsche Schule Prag Deutsche Schule Prag (DSP; ) is a school in Jinonice, Prague 5, District 5, Prague, Czech Republic . It includes levels ''kindergarten'', ''grundschule'' (primary school), and ''gymnasium (school), gymnasium'' (secondary school).Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and consulates-general in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

and

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. * Germany has an embassy in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. File:Tschechische Botschaft - panoramio.jpg, Embassy of the Czech Republic in Berlin File:German embassy in Prague.jpg, Embassy of Germany in Prague

Notes

References

References to Books

* Detlef Brandes and Václav Kural (eds.): ''Der Weg in die Katastrophe. Deutsch-tschechoslowakische Beziehungen 1938–1947''. Klartext, Essen 1994, 255 pp. * Václav Kural: ''Konflikt anstatt Gemeinschaft? Tschechen und Deutsche im tschechoslowakischen Staat (1918–1938)''. Ústav mezinárodních vztahů, Praha 2001, 359 pp. * Václav Kural: ''Místo společenství konflikt. Češi a Němci ve Velkoněmecké říši a cesta k odsunu (1938–1945)''. Ústav mezinárodních vztahů, Praha 1994, 296 pp.

External links

German Federal Foreign Office about relations with the Czech Republic

Czech embassy in Berlin (in Czech and German only)

Czech general consulate in Bonn (in Czech and German only)

Czech general consulate in Dresden (in Czech and German only)

Czech general consulate in Munich (in Czech and German only)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Czech Republic-Germany relations Sudetenland

Bilateral relations of Germany