Editing German diaspora (section)

====Czech Republic and Slovakia====
{{Main|Germans in Czechoslovakia (1918–1938)|Germans in the Czech Republic|Germans from Slovakia}}
{{Further|Sudeten Germans|Carpathian Germans|Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia}}

Before [[World War II]], some 30% of the population in [[Czech Republic|Czechia]] were ethnic Germans, and in the border regions and certain other areas they were in the majority.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.livingprague.com/history4.htm |title=Liberation – Post War Changes |publisher=Livingprague.com |access-date=2012-08-25}}</ref> There are about 21,000 Germans in the Czech Republic (number of [[Czechs]] who have at least partly German ancestry probably runs into the hundreds of thousands).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.radio.cz/en/article/27184 |title=Ethnic German Minorities in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia |date=23 April 2002 |publisher=Radio.cz |access-date=2012-08-25}}</ref> Their number has been consistently decreasing since World War II. According to the 2011 census, there remain 11 municipalities and settlements in Czech Republic with more than 6% Germans.

The situation in [[Slovakia]] was different from that in Czech Republic, in that the number of Germans was considerably lower and that the [[Carpathian Germans|Germans from Slovakia]] were almost completely evacuated to German states as the Soviet army was moving west through Slovakia, and only a fraction of those who returned to Slovakia after the end of the war were deported with the Germans from the Czech lands.

Many representatives of expellee<!--is that a word?--> organizations support the erection of bilingual signs in all formerly German-speaking territory as a visible sign of the bilingual linguistic and cultural heritage of the region. The erection of bilingual signs is permitted if a minority constitutes 10% of the population.