Munich Agreement, (September 30, 1938), settlement reached by Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy that permitted German annexation of the Sudetenland, in western Czechoslovakia.
Signing the Munich Agreement
The Czechoslovaks wanted to go down fighting and mobilized the army. A quarter of a million dissatisfied Czechs rallied in front of Prague’s Rudolfinum concert hall, where high-ranking Communist official Klement Gottwald addressed them. France also began to mobilize its troops in the event of what looked like impending war. President Beneš refused to instigate a war without the Western Powers backing him up. Although Hitler had demanded that Czechoslovakia cede the Sudetenland by September 28 or war would break out, the Munich Agreement was not signed until 1:30 a.m. on September 30, though it was dated September 29. The signatories were Hitler, Britain’s Chamberlain, France’s Prime Minister Édouard Daladier and Italy’s Mussolini. The Sudetenland would join the Reich by October 10, and the fate of other territories would be decided by an international commission. Britain and France put their foot down and told Czechoslovakia that they would have to fight Germany alone or act according to the Munich Agreement.
Consequences of the Munich Agreement: Czechoslovakia ceased to exist
By December of 1938, the Sudetenland was the most pro-Nazi region in the Reich as half a million Sudeten Germans had taken membership in the Nazi Party. Daladier was convinced that the agreement would not appease the Nazis and that disaster was yet to come while Chamberlain thought there was cause for celebration, mistakenly convinced that he had achieved peace. The day after the agreement was signed Germany took over the Sudetenland. The Czechoslovaks did not retaliate. On March 15, 1939, Hitler occupied Bohemia and Moravia, and Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. Slovakia had become an autonomous Nazi puppet state a day earlier. Many Sudeten Germans acquired jobs in the Protectorate or as Gestapo agents because they were fluent in Czech. Northern Ruthenia, hoping for independence, was taken over by Hungary.
More consequences of the agreement
Dismayed by the betrayal of his Western allies, President Beneš resigned October 5, 1939 and soon fled to London, where he set up a government-in-exile. In the First Vienna Award of November, 1938, Germany and Italy made Czechoslovakia hand over southern Slovakia and southern Ruthenia to Hungary while Poland took over the town of Český Těšín and the surroundings as well as two regions of northern Slovakia.
Refugees, Karel Čapek and more
Not every German was enthusiastic about living in the Reich, however. Before the Occupation approximately 30,000 Germans and 115,000 Czechs fled to the interior of Czechoslovakia. When well-renowned writer Karel Čapek, who fervently supported democratic ideals, died December 25, 1938, Prague’s National Theatre refused to raise a black flag in his honor. After the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was created, the Communist Party was banned and stripped of its property. Communists were expelled from Parliament, too. The Liberated Theatre, which performed anti-fascist productions courtesy of the ingenious duo of actors Jiří Voskovec and Jan Werich, was shut down.
War erupts
After Germany invaded Poland September 1, 1939, Chamberlain declared war on the Nazis. World War II had begun. It is noteworthy that Britain and France entered the war over Danzig. One could argue that it made more sense to depend an independent nation like Czechoslovakia than to deny Germany a corridor to East Prussia. Perhaps they realized that Hitler would stop at nothing.
The Beneš decrees
