| Abstrakt: |
Abstract: a1_Konrad Henlein’s visits to London represent an interesting phenomenon in the internationalisation of the Sudeten German problem from 1935. The SdP leader found, superficially perhaps somewhat surprisingly, an audience in the British capital which expanded with each of his trips - while in December 1935 he spoke only in Chatham House, in July 1936 he was received by Sir Robert Vansittart, and in May 1938 he met the leader of the Liberal Party, Archibald Sinclair, and then with Winston Churchill; even the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister agreed to his visit. On the other hand, however, neither of them ever received him. Henlein found a sympathetic environment in London which listened to him carefully, one reason for this being that he said what his co-debaters wanted to hear, and proposed the solution to the Sudeten German problem which they preferred - increasing pressure on the Czechoslovak government and forging an agreement between Prague and the Sudeten German Party. The SdP leader determined an objective; to give a positive representation of himself and style himself as moderate compared to the Nazis, the assessment of him as a moderate and fair main confirming this, and to present the Sudeten German Party as a reliable and essentially the only real partner for discussions with the Czechoslovak government; this objective was then gradually met. Henlein’s next objective was to ascertain the opinion of the British elite on the Sudeten Germans’ position as regards Czechoslovakia. One reason for his success in achieving this was that his speeches and pronouncements fell within the British policy concept towards Czechoslovakia which worked from the idea that this issue, marginal from a British interests perspective, should not become a reason for global conflict. |
