page_title: European foreign policy of the Chamberlain ministry
section_title: Plan Z
hierarchical_section_title: European foreign policy of the Chamberlain ministry / 1938: Sudetenland crisis and Czechoslovakia / Plan Z
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Münchener Abkommen, Staatschefs Zentralbild Das Münchner Abkommen vom 29.9.1938. Das am 29.9.1938 in München zwischen dem britischen Ministerpräsidenten Neville Chamberlain, dem französischen Ministerpräsidenten Edouard Daladier, dem italienischen Staatschef Benito Mussolini und Adolf Hitler geschlossene Abkommen ermächtigte das faschistische Deutschland zur Annexion tschechoslowakischen Gebietes. UBz: von links: Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, und der italienische Außenminister Graf Galeazzo Ciano. Im Hintergrund v.l.n.r. Unbekannter (wahrscheinlich ein brite Diplomat), Fromageot, Ribbentrop, Weizsäcker, Leger alias Saint-John Perse. 12 766-38 [Scherl Bilderdienst] Abgebildete Personen: Neville Chamberlain, Premierminister, Großbritannien Graf Galeazzo Ciano, Außenminister, Italien (GND 119178362) Édouard Daladier, Ministerpräsident, Vorsitzender Sozialistische Partei, Frankreich Henri Fromageot, Diplomat, Frankreich Adolf Hitler, Reichskanzler, Deutschland Alexis Leger alias Saint-John Perse, Generalsekretär des Aussenministeriums, auch Dichter, Schriftsteller und Nobelpreisträger für Literatur, Frankreich Benito Mussolini, Ministerpräsident, Regierungschef, Chef des Faschistischen Großrates, Italien Joachim von Ribbentrop, deutscher Außenminister Freiherr Ernst von Weizsäcker, Diplomat, Staatssekretär im Auswärtigen Amt, SS-Führer, Deutschland Information added by Wikimedia users.Русский: После подписаний Мюнхенских соглашений 1938 года. Слева направо: Чемберлен, Даладье, Гитлер, Муссолини, Чиано.
context_page_description: The European foreign policy of the Chamberlain ministry from 1937 to 1940 was based on British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's commitment to "peace for our time" by pursuing a policy of appeasement and containment towards Nazi Germany and by increasing the strength of Britain's armed forces until, in September 1939, he delivered an ultimatum over the invasion of Poland, which was followed by a declaration of war against Germany.
context_section_description: In August 1938, information reached London that Germany was beginning to mobilise reservists. Information leaked from antiwar elements within the German military that war against Czechoslovakia was scheduled for sometime in September.
  Finally, as a result of intense French and especially British diplomatic pressure, Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš unveiled on 5 September 1938 the Fourth Plan for constitutional reorganisation of his country, which granted most of the demands for Sudeten autonomy that had been made by Konrad Henlein in his Karlsbad speech in April 1938 and so threatened to deprive the Germans of their pretext for aggression. Henlein's supporters promptly responded to the offer of Fourth Plan by having a series of violent clashes with the Czechoslovak police, culminating in the declaration of martial law in certain Sudeten districts after major clashes in mid-September. In response to the threatening situation, in late August, Chamberlain had conceived of Plan Z, to fly to Germany, meet Hitler and work out an agreement that could end the crisis.
  The prospect of Chamberlain flying on a dramatic peace mission to Germany was seen as a gesture that was highly bold and daring. Plan Z was a great public relations success, but it deprived the British delegation of expert advice and advance preparation.
  The instigator of Plan Z was Chamberlain's political advisor and spin doctor, Sir Joseph Ball; as Director of the Conservative Research Department, he and Horace Wilson were chief proponents of appeasement. As early as 1935, Ball had advised Chamberlain on Plan X in relation to government policy. Chamberlain advised his inner circle, consisting of Halifax, Wilson, Simon, and Cadogan, of his intention to fly to Germany on 8 September 1938.
  What finally led to Chamberlain making his offer to fly to Germany on 13 September 1938 was erroneous information, which had been supplied by the German opposition, of the invasion of Czechoslovakia starting anytime after 18 September.
  
  Hitler was not happy with Chamberlain's offer but agreed to see him, most probably because to refuse Chamberlain's offer would give the lie to his repeated claims that he was a man of peace who had been reluctantly driven to war by Beneš's intractability. 
   In a summit at the Berghof, at Berchtesgaden, Chamberlain promised to pressure Prague into agreeing to Hitler's publicly-stated demands on allowing the Sudetenland to join Germany, in return for a reluctant promise by Hitler to postpone any military action until Chamberlain had been given the chance to fulfill his promise.
  Under very heavy French-British pressure, Beneš agreed to cede the Sudetenland to Germany. Hitler had agreed to the postponement but expected that Prague would refuse Chamberlain's request to transfer the Sudetenland and was, by all accounts, most disappointed when French-British pressure secured just that. Most damaging to Czechoslovakia was that Chamberlain had implicitly agreed to Hitler's demand that all districts with at least 50% ethnic Germans should be transferred, as opposed to the 80% ethnic German limit that the British had been willing to consider, which considerably enlarged the area that would be transferred to Germany. The talks between Chamberlain and Hitler in September 1938 were made difficult by their innate differing concepts of what Europe should look like, with Hitler aiming to use the Sudeten issue as a pretext for war and Chamberlain genuinely striving for a peaceful solution.
caption: The Munich Conference: Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini
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