The German People's Group in Czecho-Slovakia (german: Deutsche Volksgruppe in der Tschecho-Slowakei, abbreviated DVG) was a German minority

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

in the Second Czechoslovak Republic from October 30, 1938 to March 1939.

Formation

The

Sudeten German Party The Sudeten German Party (german: Sudetendeutsche Partei, SdP, cs, Sudetoněmecká strana) was created by Konrad Henlein under the name ''Sudetendeutsche Heimatfront'' ("Front of the Sudeten German Homeland") on 1 October 1933, some months afte ...

(SdP) was banned by the Czechoslovak government on September 15, 1938, in the midst of the

Sudeten crisis The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...

. In areas that had remained in Czechoslovakia after the German annexation of Sudetenland its followers re-grouped as DVG. The party had a

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

profile and represented German state interests towards Czechoslovakia. DVG was launched on October 30, 1938. In Carpatho-Ukraine the movement worked under the name German People's Council (''Deutsche Volksrat''). Ernst Kundt was the leader of the party and in-charge (''Volksgruppeführer'') in Bohemia and Moravia, and

Anton Ernst Oldofredi Anton Ernst Oldofredi (1906-1982) was a German scholar and politician. In the early stage of the Second World War he served as the ''Volksführer'' of the German minority in Carpatho-Ukraine and held the post of Under-Secretary of State in the gove ...

the leader of the German People's Council in Carpatho-Ukraine.

Press

In Brno the party published ''Tagesboten'', which was renamed as ''Volksdeutsche Zeitung'' in February 1939. ''Volksdeutsche Zeitung'' was published from

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

and Brno.

National Assembly

After the annexation of Sudetenland, six of the SdP/KdP members of the Chamber of Deputies and four of its senators had remained in Czechoslovakia. One of them, deputy Gustav Peters, resigned from his seat on November 5, 1938. On November 7, 1938 the remaining five deputies formed the Club of German National Socialist Deputies as their new parliamentary faction. The Club was chaired by Kundt. The four other members were Franz Karmasin (of Slovakia),

Robert Mayr-Harting Robert von Mayr-Harting (September 13, 1874 in Aspern, now a part of Vienna – March 12, 1948 in Prague) was an Austrian-born Sudeten German politician. The member of German Christian Social People's Party was one of few German-speaking politici ...

, Hans Lokscha and Stanislav Králíček. On the same day the four senators formed the Club of German National Socialist Senators, chaired by Dr.

Karl Hilgenreiner Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austri ...

. The three other Senators were Kurt Brass, Sigmund Keil and Emil Schrammel.

In Carpatho-Ukraine

The German People's Council functioned as the Nazi unity party amongst the German minority in the

Carpatho-Ukraine Carpatho-Ukraine or Carpathian Ukraine ( uk, Карпа́тська Украї́на, Karpats’ka Ukrayina, ) was an autonomous region within the Second Czechoslovak Republic, created in December 1938 by renaming Subcarpathian Rus' whose full ...

1938–1939. In the elections to the ''

Soim The ''Soim'' ( uk, Сойм Карпатської України) was the parliament of the short-lived Republic of Carpatho-Ukraine. The assembly had its seat in Khust. Background The establishment of a ''Soim'', an autonomous parliament for th ...

'' (parliament of Carpatho-Ukraine) held on February 12, 1939 the party was able to get Oldofredi elected as its candidate on the unity list of

Ukrainian National Union The Directorate, or Directory () was a provisional collegiate revolutionary state committee of the Ukrainian People's Republic, initially formed on November 13–14, 1918 during a session of the Ukrainian National Union in rebellion against Sk ...

(UNO).

References

{{Authority control German diaspora political parties Interwar minority parties in Czechoslovakia Nazi parties Political parties established in 1938 Political parties disestablished in 1939 1938 establishments in Czechoslovakia 1939 disestablishments in Czechoslovakia German nationalist political parties Czechoslovakia–Germany relations