The Sudetaland

The Sudetenland On January 30, 1933, the Nazis acquired mastery of Germany when Adolf Hitler was appointed

chancellor. That evening Hitler stood triumphantly in the window of the Reich Chancellery waving to thousands of storm

troopers who staged parades throughout the streets of Berlin. The Nazis proclaimed that their Third Reich would be the

greatest civilization in history and would last for thousands of years. But the meteoric rise of Hitler and national socialism was

followed by an almost equally rapid defeat; the Third Reich survived for a mere twelve years. But one of the main causes of

World War II was Hitler's public justification for the dismemberment of the Czech state through either war or diplomacy was

the plight of the 3.5 million ethnic Germans the Treaty of Versailles had left inside Czechoslovakia. The main land that Hitler

wanted to annex to Germany was that of the Sudetenland, where most of the people living there were of German origin. The

land also bordered Germany to the South East, and Germany was prepared to conquer this land at all cost. "And now before

us stands the last problem that must be solved and will be solved It (the Sudetenland) is the last territorial claim which I have to

make in Europe, but it is the claim from which I will not recedeВ…" - Adolf Hitler, in a speech in Berlin, September 26 1938,

just prior to the Munich conference. Most of the German minorities live in Sudetenland, an economically valuable and

strategically important area along the Czech border with Germany and Austria. The grievances of the Sudeten Germans against

the Czech state had led to the rise of a strong German nationalist movement in the Sudetenland. By the mid -1930's, this

movement had the support of almost 70 percent of the Sudeten German population. Their leader, the pro-Nazi Konrad

Heinlen, began demanding autonomy for this region Both the real and contrived problems of the Sudeten Germans added

credibility to Hitler's charge that they were denied the right of self-determination and lived as an oppressed minority, which he

was obligated to defend In the spring of 1938, Heinlein was directed by Hitler to make demands that the Czechs could not

accept, thereby giving Germany a reason to intervene. The Czech situation soon turned into an international crisis that

dominated the European scene for the rest of that current year. The weekend which began on Friday, May 20, 1938,

developed into a critical one and would later be remembered as the "May crisis." During the ensuing forty-eight hours, the

Governments in London, Paris, Prague and Moscow were panicked into the belief that Europe stood nearer to war than it had

at any time since the summer of 1914. This may have been largely due to the possibility that new plans for a German attack on

Czechoslovakia called "Case Green" which were drawn up for him, got leaked out. Hitler had begun to prepare an attack on

the Sudetenland. The target date was the beginning of October. He was prepared to employ an army of ninety-six divisions.

The Czechoslovak Government, aware of Hitler's intentions but uncertain when the blow would fall, ordered a partial

mobilization on May 21. Hitler was outraged, explaining to his generals that he had offered no threat and was being treated

with contempt. He had been humiliated, and no one yet humiliated him with impunity. His rage against Czechoslovakia

increased, and on May 30 he issued a secret directive to his high command: "It is my unalterable decision to smash

Czechoslovakia by military action in the near future." All through the summer Britain, France and the Soviet Union were aware

that Hitler planned to strike at the Sudetenland and perhaps the whole of Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovaks had an excellent

intelligence