Sudeten German Party

Sudeten German Party
Sudetendeutsche Partei
SecretaryKonrad Henlein
Founded1 October 1933 (1933-10-01)
Dissolved5 November 1938 (1938-11-05)
Merger ofDNSAP, DNP
Merged intoNSDAP
Headquarters, later shifted to Cheb[1]
NewspaperDie Zeit
Paramilitary wingsVolkssport, SFK, FS,[2]
Membership1.35 million (1938 est.)
IdeologyNazism
Political positionFar-right
Colours  Black   Red
Party flag

The Sudeten German Party (German: Sudetendeutsche Partei, SdP, Czech: Sudetoněmecká strana) was created by Konrad Henlein under the name Sudetendeutsche Heimatfront ("Front of the Sudeten German Homeland") on 1 October 1933, some months after the First Czechoslovak Republic had outlawed the German National Socialist Workers' Party (Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei, DNSAP). In April 1935, the party was renamed Sudetendeutsche Partei following a mandatory demand of the Czechoslovak government. The name was officially changed to Sudeten German and Carpathian German Party (Sudetendeutsche und Karpatendeutsche Partei) in November 1935.

With the rising power of Nazi Party in Germany, the Sudeten German Party became a major pro-Nazi force in Czechoslovakia with the explicit official aim of breaking the country up and joining it to the Third Reich. By June 1938, the party had over 1.3 million members, i.e. 40.6% of ethnic-German citizens of Czechoslovakia. During the last free democratic elections before the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the May 1938 communal elections, the party gained 88% of ethnic-German votes, taking over control of most municipal authorities in the Czech borderland. The country's mass membership made it one of the largest fascist parties in Europe at the time.[3]

  1. ^ Kurt Nelhiebel (1962). Die Henleins gestern und heute: Hintergründe und Ziele des Witikobundes. Röderberg. p. 70.
  2. ^ Freiwilliger deutscher Schutzdienst
  3. ^ Hruška, Emil (2013), Boj o pohraničí: Sudetoněmecký Freikorps v roce 1938 (1st ed.), Prague: Nakladatelství epocha, Pražská vydavatelská společnost, p. 11

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