Page "Konrad Henlein" Paragraph 6

Henlein's political party's dominance of the Sudetenland in the 1930s contributed to the Munich Agreement on 30 September 1938, which was due in part to his influence with the British delegate Lord Runciman during the latter's visit of Czechoslovakia.

Henlein presented his party's policy as striving to fulfill the " justified claims " of the then largely nazified German minority.

Henlein, often under direct orders from Berlin, deliberately had worked to help create a sense of crisis that was useful to Hitler's diplomatic and military efforts ; as he once stated, " We must make demands that cannot be satisfied ".

From 12 September 1938, forward, he helped organise hundreds of terrorist attacks and two coup attempts by the Sudetendeutsches Freikorps paramilitary organisation affiliated with the SS-Totenkopfverbände, immediately after Hitler's frenetic and threatening speech in Nuremberg at the Nazi Party's annual rally.

The attempted uprising was quickly suppressed by Czechoslovak forces, whereafter Henlein fled to Germany only to start numerous intrusions into Czechoslovak territory around Asch as a commander of Sudeten German guerilla bands.