English Translation

17 The initial efforts of the Nazis not to further escalate the international political situation, together with the fact that the territory of Bohemia and Moravia represented an area of direct German expansion, predestined to be involved in the empire, were the reason why the Protectorate belonged to the other occupation regimes of Nazis a special place and why it was granted autonomy and autonomy in the statute (Das Protectorat Böhmen und Mähren ist autonomy und verwaltet sich selbst.). (12) Later, after the start of the war fire, however, Hitler turned away from the idea of 'autonomy' for the conquered nations: 'Small states must be destroyed as quickly as possible. Only Germans can build a united Europe....The administration is the way to independence. (13) The very term "proportion" used by contemporary propaganda already indicated that it was only a temporary arrangement that could be changed at any time according to the needs of the occupying power. The formula in Hitler apparently as a provisional decree created by the State's basis for the protectorate was vague, which opened a considerable space for arbitrary interpretation by the German side. The autonomy was not clearly defined either territorially or with respect to the Czech population or protectorate administration. Konstantin von Neuratha was also closely associated with the acceptance of the Protectorate for foreign countries. On March 18, 1939 Hitler called to the Imperial Hotel in Vienna to appoint him a protector in Bohemia and Moravia. (14) Before the attack on Poland Hitler was still hoping for concessions from Britain and France. ©Von Neurath is the only option to assure doubting Goebbels. •In the Anglo-Saxon world, he values him as a distingenuous person. His appointment will calm the international situation: the world will know that I do not desire to take away their national life from the Czechs. (15) Von Neurath also remembered after the war that the reconciliation of Western powers was one of the reasons why, as Hitler told him, he was appointed Reich Protector. (16) More important for his appointment was that "in Hitler's presence, a great, corpolent man was awkwardly transformed into always willing subordinate, who was on needles only to be needed" (17).