Signing Of The Munich Agreement

On 22 September, Chamberlain, who wanted to travel to Bad Godesberg for further conversations just before his plane to Germany, told the press who met him there that “my goal is peace in Europe, I hope this journey is the way to that peace.” [32] Chamberlain came to Cologne, where he received a big reception with a German band that played “God Save the King” and Germans who offered flowers and gifts to Chamberlain. [32] Chamberlain had calculated that full acceptance of the German annexation of all Sudetenland without reduction would force Hitler to accept the agreement. [32] When Hitler heard, he replied, “Does this mean that the Allies have accepted the transfer of the Sudetenland to Germany?”, Chamberlain replied “Exactly,” to which Hitler replied by shaking his head, saying that the Allies` offer was insufficient. He told Chamberlain that he wanted Czechoslovakia to be completely dissolved and its territories redistributed to Germany, Poland and Hungary, and told Chamberlain to take them or leave them. [32] Chamberlain was upset by this statement. [32] Hitler added to Chamberlain that the assassination of Germans since his last meeting, 15 Czechoslovakia, of which Hitler was part of the assassination of Germans, made the situation unbearable for Germany. [32] 29 and 30 September 1938: Germany, Italy, Great Britain and France sign the Munich Agreement, by which Czechoslovakia must cede its border and defensive regions (the so-called Sudetenland) to Nazi Germany. German troops occupied these territories between 1 and 10 October 1938. In the spring of 1938, Hitler openly began to support calls from German spokesmen living in the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia for closer relations with Germany. Hitler had recently annexed Austria to Germany and the conquest of Czechoslovakia was the next step in his plan to create a “Greater Germany”. The Czechoslovakian government hoped that Britain and France would help in the event of a German invasion, but British Prime Minister Chamberlain tried to avoid war. He made two trips to Germany in September and offered favorable agreements to Hitler, but Fuhrer responded to his demands. The American historian William L.

Shirer estimated in his “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” (1960) that Czechoslovakia, although Hitler was not bluffing about its intention to invade, could have resisted considerably. Shirer believed that Britain and France had sufficient air defence to avoid severe bombing of London and Paris, and could have waged a swift and fruitful war against Germany. [66] He quotes Churchill as saying that the agreement means that “Britain and France are in a much worse position than Hitler`s Germany.” [61] After personally inspecting the Czech fortifications, Hitler privately told Joseph Goebbels that “we shed a lot of blood” and that it was fortunate that there had been no fighting. [67] Joseph Stalin was angry at the results of the Munich conference.