One of the oldest Czech towns, Litoměřice was established in the 10th century on the site of an early medieval Slavic fort. A royal-town statute was granted in 1219. From the 12th to the 17th century it was a significant trading center in the Holy Roman Empire. The German population suffered during the 15th century Hussite Wars. After the Protestant insurrection that triggered the Thirty Years' War and the Protestants' defeat in the Battle of White Mountain, the population of the city had to accept Catholicism or leave the town, which became a bishop's residency in 1655. As a result, the Czech population shrank and the town became largely Germanized.
In 1918, Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia became constituent parts of newly created Czechoslovakia (which was confirmed by the Treaty of St. Germain), along with large border area, inhabited predominantly by the Germans. Local Germans tried to join German Austria (which in turn aimed to join post-war German Reich), but Czech(oslovak) troops prevented this. Known under informal name Sudetenland, the region became the subject of political controversy in the following years. Slavs settled there again, but remained a minority. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, German troops occupied the Sudetenland (and all remnants of Czechia few months later). Czech population, which had grown to about 5,000 people, had to leave again.
In the final stages of World War II, German troops retreated to escape the advancing Red Army. Czech resistance took control of the castle on 27 April 1945, and after a few days they started negotiations with the German commander about the terms of his surrender. The Wehrmacht capitulated in the night after 8 May, but German troops fled on 9 May, just before Soviet troops entered the town on 10 May 1945. Most of the German population of the town was expelled by the so-called Benes decrees in August 1945, along with about 2.5 million other former Czechoslovak citizens of German
