Munich Agreement

File:Neville Chamberlain2.jpg

Chamberlain holds the paper containing the resolution to commit to peaceful methods signed by both Hitler and himself on his return from Germany in September 1938. He said:

My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time.

The Munich Agreement was an agreement regarding the Sudetenland Crisis between the major powers of Europe after a conference held in Munich in Germany in 1938 and signed on September 29. The Sudetenland as discussed here was an area of Czechoslovakia, where the German minority was actually majority or close to majority. The Sudetenland was of immense strategic importance to Czechoslovakia, as most of its border defenses were situated there, along with 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 to stand as a major example of appeasement. Because Czechoslovakia was not invited to the conference, the Munich Agreement is commonly called the Munich Dictate by the Czechs. The phrase Munich betrayal is also frequently used, especially because of the 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 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 in 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 Czechs were also less than delighted with the Munich settlement. With Sudetenland gone to Germany and later the area of Cieszyn Silesia retaken 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. Czeckslovakia also lost 70% of its iron/steel, 70% of its electrical power, 3.5 million citizens and the famous Skoda Works to Germany as a result of the settlement(William L Shrier, The Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany)In March 1939 any hope that Chamberlain's words would be true came to an end as the Nazis proceeded to occupy the remainder of Bohemia and Moravia, while the eastern half of the country, Slovakia, became a separate state, dominated by Germany.

Prime Minister Chamberlain felt betrayed by the Nazi seizure of Czechoslovakia (which effectively invalidated the Munich Agreement), realising his policy of appeasement of 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.

Trivia

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

See also

• Czechoslovakia: 1938 - 1939
• Western betrayal
• Lesson of Munich

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)