Editing Sudetenland (section)

===Within the Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)===
{{Main|Germans in Czechoslovakia (1918–1938)}}
[[File:Flag of Province Sudetenland.svg|thumb|Flag flown by Sudeten Germans<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.flaggenlexikon.de/fsudeten.htm |title=Sudetenland (flag) |publisher=Flaggenlexikon.de |access-date=2013-05-01}}</ref>]]
According to the February 1921 census, 3,123,000 native German speakers lived in Czechoslovakia, 23.4% of the total population. The controversies between the Czechs and the German-speaking minority lingered on throughout the 1920s and intensified in the 1930s.

During the [[Great Depression]], the mostly-mountainous regions populated by the German minority, together with other peripheral regions of [[Czechoslovakia]], were hurt by the [[economic depression]] more than the interior of the country was. Unlike the less developed regions ([[Carpathian Ruthenia]], [[Moravian Wallachia]]), the Sudetenland had a high concentration of vulnerable export-dependent industries (such as glass works, [[textile industry]], paper-making and toy-making industry). Sixty percent of the [[Costume jewellery|bijouterie]] and glassmaking industry were located in the Sudetenland, and 69% of employees in the sector were German-speaking according to mother tongue, and 95% of bijouterie and 78% of other glassware was produced for export. The glass-making sector was affected by decreased spending power and by protective measures in other countries, and many German workers lost their work.<ref>Kárník, Zdeněk. České země v éře první republiky (1918–1938). Vol. 2. Prague 2002.</ref>

The high unemployment, as well as the imposition of Czech in schools and all public spaces, made people more open to [[populism|populist]] and extremist movements such as [[fascism]], [[communism]] and German [[irredentism]]. In those years, parties of German nationalists and later the [[Sudeten German Party]] (SdP), with its radical demands gained immense popularity, among [[Germans in Czechoslovakia (1918–1938)|Germans in Czechoslovakia]].