Munich Agreement 1938

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT THE MUNICH AGREEMENT 1938:

What was the Munich Agreement?
The Munich Agreement was a pact between Nazi Germany, its ally, Italy and the Western Powers of France and the United Kingdom.
The pact allowed Germany to take over the borderlands of Czechoslovakia, known as the Sudetenland.

Why did Germany want the Sudetenland?
Most of the region’s 3.5 million inhabitants were ethnic Germans and they were agitating for a union with Nazi Germany before the pact was signed.
The Sudetenland included all of Czechoslovakia’s border fortifications so the country was defenceless without it.

Since the Nazis could then pretty much walk right over the rest of the country whenever the fancy took them, the Agreement meant they had de facto control of the whole country.
The region also had most of Czechoslavakia’s steel, iron and electricity supplies, the Škoda Works – the country’s biggest company, and many of its banks.

A map showing the the
Sudetenland and Central Europe in 1938.
Munich Agreement 1938

When and where exactly the agreement take place?
The pact was signed about 1.30am on September 29 1938 after a discussion called the “Munich Conference” which started the day before.
It happened in Hitler’s Munich headquarters, the Führerbau, next to the Königsplatz square.
The building is still used today as the Hochschule für Musik (College of Music).

Who was there?
The main players were the leaders of Germany - Adolf Hitler, the United Kingdom - Neville Chamberlain, Italy - Benito Mussolini and France - Édouard Daladier.
Notably, no Czechoslovakians were invited to discuss the future of their country.

munich-agreement-1938 Main players: From left, Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier,
Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Italian foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano. Munich Agreement 1938 Pic: CC WikiCommons

What happened after the pact was signed?
The Nazis occupied the Sudetenland between 1 October and 10 October and put it under military administration. The region's Jews started feeling their presence straight way. Persecution began and synagogues were burned during the
Kristallnacht pogrom of 10 November 1938.

The region became the most pro-Nazi area of the Third Reich and at elections on
4 December a whopping 97 percent of the adult population voted for the Nazi Party. The German Wehrmacht invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939. President Emil Hácha soon surrendered to the Germans.
As well as the annexation of Czechoslovakia, the Munich Agreement left Germany poised to invade Poland in September 1939, starting World War Two.

“The enemy did not expect my great determination. Our enemies are little worms, I saw them at Munich. Now Poland is in the position I wanted.”
– Adolf Hitler in 1939, shortly before invading Poland.

What were the reactions in …. the United Kingdom?
Chamberlain was initially cheered by the British royal family and public, who wanted to avoid another war with Germany.

“I believe it is peace for our time." - British Prime Minister
- Neville Chamberlain in London after signing the Munich Agreement.

munich-agreement-chamberlain-munich Fleeting glory: Chamberlain
recieved only temporary
praise for signing the Munich
Agreement 1938.
Pic: CC WikiCommons

But the writing was on the wall for Chamberlain. The public quickly turned against him, and his signing of the Munich Agreement has become known as the single biggest act of “appeasement” of the 20th century.
Future Prime Minister Winston Churchill scathed the Agreement going so far as to label it a “total and unmitigated defeat”.

“This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom
as in the olden time.” - Winston Churchill speaking
out against the agreement at the British parliament.

….in the USSR?
The Russian big cheese Joseph Stalin furrowed his mighty brow when he heard about the Agreement. He saw it a betrayal and feared the Western Powers might one day collude to partition parts of the Soviet Union.
This led Stalin to turn against France and the UK and attempt to come to terms with Germany, leading to the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact of 1939.

munich-agreement-czech-refugees Clearing out: Czech refugees fleeing
the Sudetenland in October, 1938.
Munich Agreement 1938
Pic: CC WikiCommons

….and in Czechoslovakia?
The ethnic Germans in the Sudetenland were happy as preoverbial larks at joining the Third Reich.
Everyone else in the country was understandably shattered.

The average Czechoslovakian must have felt total Nazi domination was only a few saber rattles away, and he would have been right.
In the Czech Republic and Slovakia the Agreement is still sometimes known as the "Munich Betrayal".

What was the “Lesson of Munich”?
This is what they call the legacy of the agreement, namely, appeasement doesn’t work! This line of thought argues that appeasing aggressive regimes weakens the defender’s position and leads to bigger demands from the aggressor.

Sources
▪ Wikipedia
▪ The Times Airminded

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