Czech-German Relations and the Politics of Central Europe: From Bohemia to the EU

Product Description In the aftermath of World War Two, approximately three million Sudeten-Germans were expelled from their homes in the former Czechoslovakia because of their part in the dismemberment of the Czechoslovak Republic by Nazi Germany in 1938-39. For many years their representatives, the Sudeten-German Association, attempted in vain to redress the wrong done to their people. However, the end of the Cold War has given a new impetus to their campaign. Currently they attempt to block Czech entry into the EU unless there is restitution of confiscated properties. Jürgen Tampke tells the story of the Sudeten-Germans from the beginning of their settlement seven hundred years ago in what is now the Czech Republic to current times. Review Relations between Germany and Czechoslovakia were not only crucial for the development of Nazi foreign policy and the origins of the Second World War but continue to be of significance today in the context of the enlargement of the EU. This book provides both a timely insight into these issues and a scholarly history of ethnic relations between Germans and Czechs in Central Europe. - Dick Geary, Professor of Modern History, University of Nottingham 'Jurgen Tampke's concise and thoughtful book provides the reader with a very good account of the fate of the Sudeten Germans and their role in the often fraught relations between Czechs and Germans'. - Tim Haughton, Nations and Nationalism, Volume 10, Part 3 About the Author JÜRGEN TAMPKE is Associate Professor in European History and Politics at the University of New South Wales in Australia. He has published a number of books and articles, including Australia Willkommen: A History of the Germans in Australia and Ruthless Warfare: German Military Planning and Surveillance in the Australia-New Zealand Region Before the Great War.