Munich 1938: the deal made about Czechoslovakia without Czechoslovakia

The Czech phrase o nás bez nás means "about us without us". It is the standard summary of the Munich Agreement, and it is accurate. On the night of 29 to 30 September 1938 the leaders of Germany, Italy, Britain and France agreed in Munich to transfer the border areas of Czechoslovakia to Germany. The Czechoslovak government was not at the table. Its representatives waited in a hotel and were told the result.

Munich is still a political reference point in Czechia. Live here for a while and you will hear the word in debates about alliances, security and trust, so it helps to know what happened and what it did not do.

The crisis of 1938

The background is set out in interwar Czechoslovakia: the First Republic and Czech Germans and the Sudetenland. By 1938 Adolf Hitler had annexed Austria in March, and Germany had turned its attention to Czechoslovakia. The Sudeten German Party, led by Konrad Henlein, was demanding wide autonomy and receiving instructions and money from Berlin. Each concession offered by the Czechoslovak government was followed by a new demand.

Britain and France wanted to avoid war. The British government sent a mediator, Lord Runciman, to the Sudeten regions in the summer, and prime minister Neville Chamberlain flew to see Hitler twice in September. France was formally allied with Czechoslovakia but was reluctant to fight without British support. The Soviet Union had a treaty obligation to help only if France did so first.

Czechoslovakia was prepared to resist. It had a capable army, a modern arms industry and fortifications in the border mountains. The general mobilisation of September 1938 went off calmly and with high morale. Many Czechs expected to fight, which is why the sense of abandonment was so bitter.

The agreement

The Munich conference met on 29 September. The four leaders agreed that German troops would occupy the Sudetenland in stages between 1 and 10 October, and that an international commission would deal with details. Czechoslovakia was told to accept or face Germany alone. President Edvard Beneš and the government accepted on 30 September, judging that they could not fight without allies.

The treaty is dated 29 September, but it was signed in the early hours of 30 September. The territory handed over contained the main fortifications and a large part of Czechoslovak industry and raw materials, as well as a population that was mostly German-speaking but also included many Czechs and others. Thousands of people, among them Czech residents, Social Democrat and Communist activists and Jews, fled the area.

The weeks after

The damage did not stop at the Sudeten border. Poland used the moment to take the Těšín region, and Hungary received a slice of southern Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia under the First Vienna Award in November. Beneš resigned on 5 October and later left for exile. The rump state, usually called the Second Republic, was weak, turned authoritarian and faced growing pressure from Germany. Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia obtained autonomy, and the state was renamed Czecho-Slovakia, with a hyphen.

On 14 March 1939 Slovakia declared independence under German pressure. The next day the Czech president, Emil Hácha, was summoned to Berlin, and German troops crossed the border at dawn on 15 March. On 16 March Hitler proclaimed the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia from Prague Castle. The Czech lands were nominally autonomous but under German control, with a Reich Protector in Prague.

The Protectorate

The occupation lasted until May 1945. Czech universities were closed after student demonstrations in late 1939, a date that is now marked on 17 November. Political parties were dissolved, the Jewish population was persecuted and deported, and industry was harnessed for the German war effort. The destruction of Lidice in 1942, after the assassination attempt on the Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich, remains the best-known example of reprisals. The story of the Jewish population is told in the Czech Jewish heritage.

At the same time, a Czechoslovak government-in-exile under Beneš operated from London and Czechoslovak soldiers fought on the Allied side. A resistance movement existed, though it suffered heavily from arrests and executions. The Prague uprising began on 5 May 1945, and the Red Army arrived in the city on 9 May.

Why it still matters

Munich left a deep mark on Czech political culture. It taught a generation that alliances can fail and that great powers may decide a small country's fate. Some historians argue it also eased the post-1945 turn towards the Soviet Union, since the Western powers were seen to have abandoned the country while the Red Army liberated much of it. That argument needs care: the communist seizure of power in February 1948 had its own causes, discussed in Czechoslovakia under communism.

Historians also debate whether the army should have fought anyway. Some say a war in 1938 would have been fought on better terms for the Allies than in 1939. Others note that Czechoslovakia could not resist Germany alone. The debate is open. What is not disputed is that the agreement was made without the state it concerned and did not bring peace.

Munich also gave politics the word "appeasement", still used in debates about how democracies should treat expansionist powers. In a Czech context it is usually an argument for firmness.

The postwar settlement of Munich

After the war, the Munich Agreement was declared invalid from the start by the Czechoslovak government, and the question of how its consequences should be treated was long disputed. Britain and France made declarations to this effect during the war. In 1973 a treaty between Czechoslovakia and West Germany stated that the agreement was void with respect to their mutual relations, although what that meant for legal consequences stayed unclear. The expulsion of Germans after 1945, discussed in the Beneš decrees explained, is closely linked to that history.

Practical reading

Traces of the period survive in the border fortifications, parts of which are open as museums, and the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes publishes historical material. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Prague Castle websites have historical sections too. Opening hours change, so check the operators.

Frequently asked questions

Who signed the Munich Agreement?

Germany, Italy, Britain and France, represented by their leaders. Czechoslovakia was not a party.

What did Czechoslovakia lose?

The Sudetenland, the border regions that included the main fortifications. Poland and Hungary also took territory soon afterwards.

When did the occupation begin?

German troops entered the Czech lands on 15 March 1939 and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed on 16 March.

Why do Czechs speak of betrayal?

Because France was allied with Czechoslovakia and Britain pushed for the concession. The country had mobilised and was prepared to resist.