The Munich Agreement

On September 30th, 1938, Germany, Italy, Britain and France signed the Munich Agreement whereby the Sudetenland was ceded to Germany. Czechoslovakia, which did not participate in the Munich conference was told by Britain and France that it could resist Germany on its own or agree to the results of the conference. Seeing resistance as futile it chose to agree.

Chamberlain returned to Britain proclaiming that he brought “peace in our time”. It was raining and he had an umbrella. To this day you will never see an American or British diplomat carrying an umbrella upon returning from a diplomatic conference.

The gain of the Sudetenland, its ethnic German population, its iron, steel, and electric power resources and armaments factories, shifted the European military balance towards Germany. Before Munich it is clear in retrospect that the belief of Britain and France that they were at a military disadvantage relative to Germany was just as erroneous as Hitler’s belief in Germany’s superiority. Hitler’s subsequent contempt for Britain and France contained a substantial measure of anger that their weakness had denied him an opportunity for war. He was to get his opportunity eleven months later from a position of substantially greater relative strength than he had in 1938.

Winston Churchill is famous for his quick denunciation of Munich as a “disaster of the first magnitude” and “defeat without a war” which would lead to further concessions and still result in the need for resistance and, if necessary, war as the best possible outcome. Soon however he was not alone as opinion quickly shifted from alignment with Chamberlain’s optimism to a growing conviction that Munich was a mistake.

An account of these events and those that followed up to the outbreak of war along with related internet links can be found here .