'German South Moravia' (; ) is a historical region in
Czechia. It includes parts of northern and western
Moravia once largely populated by
ethnic Germans.
History

The provinces of
German Austria. German South Moravia is the area in pink north of the current boundary of Austria (red line).
German South Moravia was historically an integral part of the
Habsburg constituent Margraviate of Moravia but, with the imminent collapse of Habsburg
Austria-Hungary at the end of
World War I, areas of the
Czech-majority Moravia with an ethnic German majority began to take actions to avoid joining a new Czechoslovak state. German South Moravia was declared on
2 November 1918 with its capital at
Znojmo (German: Znaim).
On
11 November 1918, Emperor
Charles I of Austria relinquished power and, on
12 November, the ethnic German areas of the empire were declared the Republic of
German Austria with the intent of unifying with
Germany. However, the area was quickly taken by the Czechoslovak army with Znojmo falling on
27 December 1918.
The status of German areas in Moravia and
Bohemia was definitively settled by the 1919 peace
treaties of Versailles and
Saint-Germain-en-Laye that declared that the areas belong to
Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak Government then granted amnesty for all activities against the new state.
The region was then integrated into the Moravian Land of the
First Republic of Czechoslovakia and remained a part of it until the
Nazi dismemberment of Czechoslovakia when it was added to Nazi
Austria (Ostmark). After
World War II, the area was returned to Czechoslovakia and is
now part of
Czechia.
See also
★
German Austria
★
Origins of Czechoslovakia
★
Sudetenland