At the advent of the Nazi German Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway of 9 April 1940, Germany sent the envoy Curt Bräuer to present demands of capitulation. Koht personally met with Bräuer, and rejected his demands and threats of war, stating that "war had already started". Koht and the cabinet fled Norway's capital in the morning of 9 April. Even though Koht rejected Bräuer's initial contact, he did convince the cabinet to listen to further German proposals for negotiations later the same day. All Norwegian negotiations with the Germans ended after a failed attempt to capture the Norwegian king and government in Midtskogen early on 10 April. Koht was willing to take up the fight against the invaders. He wrote several key speeches, some of which were delivered by King Haakon VII, to convey staunch resistance to the German demands.