Sudetes

The Sudetes (IPA2|suˈdiːtiːz) is a mountain range in Central Europe. They are also known as the Sudeten (German: IPA| [zu'de:tən] ) or Sudety (Czech: IPA| ['sudetɪ] ; Polish: IPA| [su'detɨ] ) Mountains.

The Sudetes stretch from eastern Germany to Poland and the Czech Republic. The highest mountain is Sněžka-Śnieżka in the Krkonoše/Karkonosze Mountains on the Czech-Polish border. They reach up to 1,602 metres in altitude. The current geomorphological unit in the Czech part of the mountain range is "Krkonošsko-jesenická soustava" ("Krkonoše-Jeseníky").

The Karkonosze/Krkonoše Mountains have experienced growing tourism for winter sports during the past ten years. Its skiing resorts are becoming an alternative to the Alps.

Etymology

The name "Sudetes" has been derived from "Sudeti montes", a Latinization of the name "Soudeta ore" used in the "Geographia" of Ptolemy (Book 2, Chapter 10) ca. 150 for the present-day northern Czech mountains. Ptolemy said that they were above the Gabreta Forest, which places them in the Sudetenland. Ptolemy wrote in Greek, in which the name is a neuter plural. Latin mons, however, is a masculine, hence Sudeti. The Latin version is likely to be a scholastic innovation, as it is not attested in classical Latin literature.

The meaning of the name is not known. In one hypothetical derivation, it means "Mountains of Wild Boars", relying on Indo-European *su-, "pig". A better etymology perhaps is from Latin sudis, plural sudes, "spines", which can be used of spiny fish or spiny terrain.

History

The exact location of the Sudetes is not very clear, as it has varied over the centuries. The ancient "Sudetenland" meant at least the northwest frontier of today's Czech Republic, probably extending to the north. By implication, it was part of the Hercynian Forest mentioned by many ancient authors of Antiquity.

Role of Sudetes in World War II

The name was used before World War II in (Nazi) German parlance to describe areas of Czechoslovakia with large German populations. A considerable proportion of Czechoslovak/Czech and Polish populace strongly resist to use this term as it harks painfully to the Nazi German times. After being annexed by Nazi Germany, much of the region was redesignated as the province of Sudetenland - Sudetengau. The ethnic Germans living there were called Sudeten Germans. They were heavily clustered, especially along Bohemia's borders to German Silesia and Saxony. These were the descendants of Medieval German colonists invited by the Kings of Bohemia into these previously Slavic areasFact|date=April 2008 for agricultural and urban development ("see Ostsiedlung"). Adolf Hitler redefined the term to mean the entire mountainous periphery of Czechoslovakia, and under that pretext, got his future enemies to concede the Czech defensive border in the Munich Agreement, leaving the remainder of Czechoslovakia shorn of its border fortifications and buffer zone. Germany occupied the rest of Bohemia and Moravia in March, 1939.

Post-war

After World War II, most of the German population of Czechoslovakia was expelled.Neither Czechoslovakia/Czechia, nor Poland observe this designation officially, in maps etc., using only discrete local names in Czech and Polish for individual mountain ranges (e.g.,
Karkonosze/Krkonoše, see Subdivisions below).

Occupation of Sudetes by Germany in 1938–1939 is discussed again in 2008 in connection with the South-Ossetian war [Dick Morris,Eileen McGann. HITLER INVADED SUDETENLAND; NOW PUTIN INVADES SOUTH OSSETIA.Baltimore reporter, September 20th 2008 , Vol 1. No. 25.http://www.baltimorereporter.com/?p=5636 ] [Kate Connolly. Obama adviser compares Putin to Hitler. Guardian, Tuesday August 12 2008;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/12/georgia] [ BBC Monitoring:Lithuania's main daily urges policymakers to boost country's nationalsecurity. Lituanica, September 1, 2008http://irzikevicius.wordpress.com/] [Melik Kaylan."Destroying Democracy".Forbes, September 4, 2008.http://virtualcollector.blogspot.com/2008/09/destroying-democracy.html] [Михаил Берг.Осетинские Судеты. Грани, 14.08.2008,http://grani.ru/Politics/Russia/m.140057.html] and Kosovo [Luis Sanzo. Quebec/Kosovo.Britakula Almendron, 30 de Junio de 2006 , http://www.almendron.com/tribuna/9786/quebeckosovo/] [ Von Jürgen Elsässer.Verhandlungen nach Rambouillet-Muster.Verhandlungen über den Status der serbischen Provinz Kosovo stehen bevor, http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb5/frieden/regionen/Serbien-Montenegro/status4.html] .

Subdivisions

The Sudetes are usually divided into:
* Eastern Sudetes
** Golden Mountains
** Jeseníky Mountains
** Opawskie Mountains
** Śnieżnik Mountains

* Central Sudetes
** Bardzkie Mountains
** Bystrzyckie Mountains
** Orlické Mountains
** Owl Mountains
** Stone Mountains
** Table Mountains

* Western Sudetes
** Ještěd-Kozákov Ridge
** Jizera Mountains
** Kaczawskie Mountains
** Karkonosze/Krkonoše
** Lusatian Mountains
** Rudawy Janowickie
** Lausitzer Bergland

Notable towns

Notable towns in this area include:
* Zittau (Germany)
* Karpacz (Poland)
* Szklarska Poręba (Poland)
* Špindlerův Mlýn (Czech Republic)
* Harrachov (Czech Republic)

References

External links

* [http://www.euratlas.com/Atlasphys/sudetes.htm Orographic map with Sudetes highlighted] fr icon
* [http://www.euratlas.com/Atlasphys/Sudetes2.htm Orographic map with Sudetes highlighted] en icon