This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2008)

Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Protektorat Bohmen und Mahren
Protektorat ?echy a Morava
Protectorate and autonomous component
of Nazi Germany[1]

←
1939?1945 →

FlagCoat of arms

Czechoslovakia 1939?1945. The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia is shown in light pink.
CapitalPrague
LanguagesCzech, German
Political structureProtectorate
Reich Protector
 - 1939?1943Konstantin von Neurath
 - 1941?1942Reinhard Heydrich (acting)
 - 1942?1943Kurt Daluege (acting)
 - 1943?1945Wilhelm Frick
State President
 - 1939?1945Emil Hacha
Prime Minister
 - 1939?1941Alois Elia?
 - 1942?1945Jaroslav Krej?i
 - 1945Richard Bienert
Historical eraWorld War II
 - German occupation15 March 1939
 - Liberation of Prague13 May 1945
Area
 - 193949,363 km2 (19,059 sq mi)
Population
 - 1939 est.7,380,000 
     Density149.5 /km2  (387.2 /sq mi)
CurrencyKoruna

The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German: Protektorat Bohmen und Mahren; Czech: Protektorat ?echy a Morava) was the majority ethnic-Czech protectorate which Nazi Germany established in the central parts of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia in what is today the Czech Republic. It was established on 15 March 1939 by a proclamation of Adolf Hitler from the Prague Castle, following the establishment of the independent Slovak Republic on 14 March 1939. Bohemia and Moravia were autonomous Nazi-administered territories which the German government considered part of the Greater German Reich.[1] The state's existence came to an end with the surrender of Germany to the Allies in 1945.
Contents

1 History

2 Politics

2.1 German government

2.2 Czech government


3 Population

4 Administrative subdivisions

4.1 Protectorate Districts

4.2 NSDAP Districts


5 Stamps, currency, officials, documents

6 See also

7 References

8 Sources

9 External links


History See also: German occupation of CzechoslovakiaAdolf Hitler on his visit to Prague Castle after the establishment of a German protectorate.Jaroslav Krej?i giving a speech in Tabor.

The Sudetenland, located on the Czechoslovak border with Germany and Austria proper, with its majority of ethnic German inhabitants, had been incorporated directly into the Reich on 10 October 1938, when Czechoslovakia was forced to accept the terms of the Munich Agreement. Five months later, when the Slovak Diet declared the independence of Slovakia, Hitler summoned Czechoslovak President Emil Hacha to Berlin and intimidated him into accepting the German occupation of the Czech rump state and its reorganisation as a German protectorate.

Hacha remained as technical head of state with the title of State President, but was rendered all but powerless. Real power was vested in the Reichsprotektor, who served as Hitler's personal representative. To appease outraged international opinion, Hitler appointed former foreign minister Konstantin von Neurath to the post. German officials manned departments analogous to cabinet ministries, while small German control offices were established locally. The Gestapo assumed police authority. Jews were dismissed from the civil service and placed outside of the legal system. Political parties and trade unions were banned, and the press and radio were subjected to harsh censorship. Many Communist Party leaders fled to the Soviet Union.

The population of the protectorate was mobilized for labor that would aid the German war effort, and special offices were organized to supervise the management of industries important to that effort.