Konrad Henlein

Konrad Henlein (born May 6, 1898, Maffersdorf bei Reichenberg, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now Liberec, Czech Republic]—died May 10, 1945, Plzeň, Czechoslovakia) was a Sudeten-German politician who agitated for German annexation of the Czechoslovak Sudeten area and in World War II held administrative posts in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia.

Henlein, educated at a commercial academy, became a bank clerk and later a gymnastics instructor. He was head of the German gymnastics movement (Deutsche Turnbewegung) in Czechoslovakia from 1923 until 1933, when he appeared as leader of the Sudeten-German Home Front (Sudetendeutsche Heimatfront), which became the second strongest party in the Czech chamber in 1935. On April 24, 1938, he unavailingly demanded autonomy for the Sudeten-German areas. He visited Adolf Hitler on September 1 and two weeks later, when a revolt broke out in the Sudetenland and martial law was ordered, presented the Czech government with an ultimatum for the withdrawal of that order. The Czech government having ignored his ultimatum, he issued a proclamation demanding the cession of the Sudeten-German territory to Germany; the government suspended his party for treasonable activities; Henlein fled to Germany to escape arrest and established a Sudeten-German “Free Corps,” which engaged in skirmishes along the frontier as the German-Czech crisis approached its climax. On Oct. 1, 1938, after the four-power conference at Munich had ceded the Sudeten-German areas to Germany, Henlein was appointed by the German government commissioner (Reichskommissar) for the Sudeten-German territory, later regional party leader (Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter) of Sudetenland. At the end of World War II, he committed suicide while in Allied custody.