The study deals for the first time with the origin of the Sudeten German demands for reparation against Prague. It shows that these demands are not an invention of the post-1989 era, but rather began in the nationality conflict in Czechoslovakia in the interwar period. Iris Nachum analyzes the development of 'reparation' into a central Sudeten German catchphrase after 1919 and asks about the role that the concept of reparation played in the break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1938/39.