Munich Agreement

The Munich Agreement was an agreement regarding the Sudetenland Crisis between the major powers of Europe after a conference held in Munich, Germany in 1938 and signed on September 29. The Sudetenland was an area of Czechoslovakia where ethnic Germans formed a majority of the population. The Sudetenland was of immense strategic importance to Czechoslovakia, as most of its border defenses were situated there, along with a huge armament facility Škoda Works. The purpose of the conference was to discuss the future of Czechoslovakia and it ended up surrendering much of that state to Nazi Germany. It is considered by many as a major example of appeasement. Because Czechoslovakia was not invited to the conference, the Munich Agreement is commonly called the Munich Dictate by Czechs and Slovaks. The phrase Munich betrayal is also frequently used, especially because of military alliances between Czechoslovakia and France and between France and Britain, that were not taken into account.

Sudetenland Crisis

In March 1938 Germany had annexed Austria in the Anschluss. It was widely expected that Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland with its substantial German population, led by the Nazi politician Konrad Henlein, would be Hitler's next demand. France and the Soviet Union both had alliances with Czechoslovakia, but both were unprepared materially and politically for war. Indeed, Stalin and Soviet Russia were very wary of any capitalist alliances and the French were under the leadership of Édouard Daladier, who was a politically weak leader and a general election held in France in 1938 meant that a French military expedition was unlikely. None of the powers in western Europe wanted war. They severely overestimated Adolf Hitler's military ability at the time, and while Britain and France had superior forces to the Germans they felt they had fallen behind, and both were undergoing massive military rearmament to catch up. Hitler, on the other hand, was in just the opposite position. He far exaggerated German power at the time and was desperately hoping for a war with the west which he thought he could easily win. He was pushed into holding the conference, however, by Benito Mussolini who was totally unprepared for a Europe-wide conflict, and was also concerned about the growth of German power. The German military leadership also knew the state of their armed forces and did all they could to avoid war.

In the lead up to the conference the great powers of Europe mobilized their forces for the first time since World War I. Many thought war was inevitable and that a peace that would satisfy everyone would be impossible.

Resolution

A deal was reached, however, and on September 29, Adolf Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier and Benito Mussolini signed the Munich Agreement. The Czechoslovak government capitulated September 30 and agreed to abide by the agreement. The settlement gave Germany the Sudetenland starting October 10, and de facto control over the rest of Czechoslovakia as long as Hitler promised to go no further.

Hitler and Chamberlain signed an additional resolution determining to resolve all future disputes between Germany and the United Kingdom through peaceful means. This is often confused with the Four-Power Munich Agreement itself, not least because most photographs of Chamberlain's return show him waving the paper containing the resolution, not the Munich Agreement itself.

Reactions

Chamberlain received an ecstatic reception upon his return to Britain. At Hendon Aerodrome, north of London, he made the now infamous "Peace for our time" speech and waved the agreement to a delighted crowd. Though the British and French were pleased, as were the German military and diplomatic leadership, Hitler was furious. He felt like he had been forced into acting like a bourgeois politician by his diplomats and generals.

Joseph Stalin was also very upset by the results of the Munich conference. The Soviets had not been represented at the conference and felt they should be acknowledged as a major power. The British and French, however, mostly used the Soviets as a threat to dangle over the Germans. Stalin was also distressed by the readiness of the west to hand over an ally to the Nazis, causing concern that they might do the same to the Soviet Union in the future, allowing the Communists and the Fascists to kill one another off, after which the western powers would step in and pick up the shattered pieces of both. This fear influenced Stalin's decision to sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany in 1939.

The Czechoslovaks were also less than delighted with the Munich settlement. With Sudetenland gone to Germany and later southern Slovakia (one third of Slovak territory) taken by Hungary and the area of Cieszyn Silesia by Poland (the disputed area West of Olza river, so called Zaolzie - 906 km², 258,000 inhabitants), Czecho-Slovakia (as the state was now renamed) lost its border defenses with Germany and without them its independence became more nominal than real. In fact, Edvard Beneš, the then President of Czechoslovakia, had the military print the march orders for his army and the press on standby for the declaration of war. Czechoslovakia also lost 70% of its iron/steel, 70% of its electrical power, 3.5 million citizens and the famous Škoda Works to Germany as a result of the settlement Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich''

After Hitler personally inspected the Czech fortifications, he privately admitted to Joseph Goebbels that ‘We would have shed a lot of blood,’ and said that it was fortunate things turned out the way that they did. Irving, David. '' "Goebbels. Mastermind of the Third Reich". P. 474,

Invasion of the remainder of Czechoslovakia

In March 1939 any hope that Chamberlain's words would be true came to an end as Nazi armies entered Prague and proceeded to occupy the remainder of Bohemia and Moravia. The eastern half of the country, Slovakia, became a separate pro-nazi state.

Prime Minister Chamberlain felt betrayed by the Nazi seizure of Czechoslovakia, realising his policy of appeasement towards Hitler had failed, and immediately began to mobilize the British Empire's armed forces on a war footing. France did the same. Though no immediate action followed, Hitler's move on Poland in September started World War II in Europe.

End of the agreement

The agreement was withdrawn after Czechoslovakian soldiers assassinated one of the most powerful nazis, Reinhard Heydrich, 1942 in Prague during the Operation Anthropoid.

In Chamberlain's own words

"My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time." Chamberlain's reference is to Beaconsfield's return from the Congress of Berlin in 1878.

"I asked Hitler about 1 in the morning while we were waiting for the draftsmen whether he would care to see me for another talk….I had a very friendly and pleasant talk, on Spain, (where he too said he had never had any territorial ambitions) economic relations with S.E. Europe, and disarmament. I did not mention colonies, nor did he. At the end I pulled out the declaration which I had prepared beforehand and asked if he would sign it. As the interpreter translated the words into German Hitler frequently ejaculated Ja! Ja! and at the end he said Yes I will certainly sign it. When shall we do it. I said "now", & we went at once to the writing table & put our signatures to the two copies which I had brought with me." in a letter to his sister Hilda Chamberlain, 10/2/38

References

Igor Lukes & Erik Goldstein (editors) The Munich crisis, 1938 : prelude to World War II, London ; Portland, OR : Frank Cass Inc, 1999.
William L. Shirer The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, New York: Touchstone Press, 1959.
Wheeler-Bennett, Sir John Munich: prologue to tragedy, New York: Viking Press, 1965.

External links

The Munich Agreement - Text of the Munich Agreement on-line
British Pathe newsreel (includes Chamberlain's speech at Heston aerodrome)

Czechoslovakia | World War II politics | History of Munich

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