The turbulent course of history, wars, and various state policies led to a significant reshaping of the ethnic map and a profound change in the composition of the population of the Czech lands during the 20th century. The status of national minorities was shaped by the prevailing state system and political regimes. State minority policy, and the question of national minorities more broadly, played a significant (and at certain historical moments, for example in 1938, crucial) role in the modern history of the Czech lands.
The post-war expulsion of the German population constituted a decisive moment in the character of the entire Karlovy Vary region. The resettlement that followed brought a diverse spectrum of new inhabitants and marked a major shift in the ethnic composition. Further significant changes in minority representation occurred during the 1990s and with recent waves of migration from Ukraine. Today, the Karlovy Vary region is distinguished by its ethnically and culturally diverse population. This includes Czechs (including descendants of Volhynian Czechs), Slovaks (including ethnic Slovaks from Hungary, Romania, and Subcarpathian Ruthenia), Germans, Hungarians, Ukrainians, Russians, Vietnamese, Roma, and Mongolians.
The political and social changes following 1989 offered minority communities opportunities for further development, cultural visibility, and new activities, as well as for being a mobilising impetus for their members.
In 2001, the Czech Republic adopted Act No. 273/2001 Coll., on the Rights of Members of National Minorities. Currently, fourteen groups are recognised as national minorities: Belarusians, Bulgarians, Croats, Hungarians, Germans, Poles, Roma, Rusyns, Russians, Greeks, Slovaks, Serbs, Ukrainians, and Vietnamese. This exhibition presents those minorities that have long been active in the Committee for National Minorities of the Karlovy Vary Regional Council, which in 2025 celebrates the twentieth anniversary of its foundation. The exhibition is the result of a regional cooperation project between the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Karlovy Vary Region, represented in the project by the Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences, and the Karlovy Vary Museum.