Ludwig Beck
On 1 February 1938, Halder was promoted to general of the Artillery. He was appointed chief of the General Staff of the Army High Command on 1 September. He succeeded General Ludwig Beck who had resigned on 18 August amid the Sudetenland crisis. Halder was approached by conservative nationalist officers about heading the envisaged coup d'état should Hitler start a war, but he declined. In any case, the war was averted by the conclusion of the Munich Agreement that ceded Sudetenland to Germany.