Eighty Years Ago This Week

The crisis over the Sudetenland reached its conclusion with the last minute four power conference at Munich. In the course of a single sitting that lasted well past midnight Britain, France, Germany and Italy decided that Czechoslovakia was to cede the area to Germany and signed a treaty accordingly. The only concession wrung out of Hitler was a small extension of the timescale for the transfer. Representatives of the Czech government were present at the Fuehrerbau Nazi headquarters in Munich but were only informed of their country's fate once it had been decided. The man who brought them the news was Sir Horace Wilson, personal advisor to prime minister Neville Chamberlain. The following morning Chamberlain visited Hitler at his relatively modest flat bringing with him a sheet of paper that set out a declaration that Britain and Germany would live together harmoniously from thenceforth. He had prepared this entirely on his own inititiative, taking neither advice nor informi...

The hopes raised by Neville Chamberlain’s flight to visit Hitler at Berchtesgaden that there would be a negotiated settlement to thee Czech crisis began to fade rapidly. Hitler met Chamberlain again for a bilateral conference at Bad Godesberg on the Rhine which was supposed to find an equitable solution to the Sudeten problem which could then be put to the Czech government. The meeting ended with no such agreement being announced. The Czech army mobilized which was taken as a sign that Germany launch a military attack imminently, probably triggering an all-out war in Europe. Chamberlain’s personal civil service adviser Sir Horace Wilson flew to Berlin to speak to the Führer . The public explanation for Wilson’s mission pointed towards war. It was given out that he was going to restate British support for Czechoslovakia with the implication that the German demands following Bad Godesberg were not acceptable. This was only half of Wilson’s task and he was probably the only ma...