Bidspirit auction | German WWII Sudetenland Commemorative Medal,

German WWII Sudetenland Commemorative Medal, dated 1 October 1938 - German WWII Sudetenland Commemorative Medal, dated 1 October 1938 This medal marks the German annexation of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia in October 1938, an event presented in Nazi propaganda as the liberation and reunification of ethnic Germans with the Reich. The obverse design shows two idealized male figures, one holding aloft a flag and the other depicted with a broken chain at his wrist, standing above a national eagle grasping a swastika, imagery intended to symbolize liberation and unity. The reverse carries the Nazi-era slogan ”EIN VOLK, EIN REICH, EIN FÜHRER” (”One People, One Reich, One Leader”) arranged around the date ”1. OKTOBER 1938.” The medal is in what appears to be a bronze alloy, suspended from an integral ring. The Sudetenland Medal was instituted by Hitler in October 1938 to commemorate the annexation of the German-speaking border regions of Czechoslovakia, ceded to Germany following the Munich Agreement between Britain, France, Italy, and Germany. It was awarded to military personnel, party officials, and civilians who participated in the occupation, with a bar added later for those present during the subsequent occupation of Prague in March 1939. The annexation, achieved without armed conflict, was a key step in the German expansion that preceded the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.