|
Henlein's Karlsbad demands
During a Sudeten German Party [SdP] rally held in Karlsbad (Karlovy
Vary) on 23 and 24 April 1938, Konrad Henlein outlined his party's demands
in an eight-point programme. The demands were designed to appear innocuous
to outside observers but the Czechoslovak authorities found the final point
particularly unacceptable, arguing that it was not possible to allow the
establishment of a Nazi system within the territory of a democratic state.
The eight points were summarised in the following memorandum for the
German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Eight Demands of Konrad Henlein Announced at Karlsbad, April
24, 1938
- Restoration of complete equality of German national group with the
Czech people;
- Recognition of the Sudeten German national group as a legal entity for
the safeguarding of this position of equality within the State;
- Confirmation and recognition of the Sudeten German settlement area;
- Building up of Sudeten German self-government in the Sudeten German
settlement area in all branches of public life insofar as questions
affecting the interests and the affairs of the German national group are
involved;
- Introduction of legal provisions for the protection of those Sudeten
German citizens living outside the defined settlement area of their
national group;
- Removal of wrong done to Sudeten German element since the year 1918,
and compensation for damage suffered through this wrong;
- Recognition and enforcement of principle: German public servants in
the German area;
- Complete freedom to profess adherence to the German element and German
ideology.
[Source: Documents on German Foreign Policy, (London, 1950),
Series D, vol. II, no. 135, p. 242.]
|