Bidspirit auction | German WWII Sudetenland Commemorative Medal

German WWII Sudetenland Commemorative Medal - German WWII Sudetenland Commemorative Medal, Dated 1 October 1938 This medal features two male figures on the obverse, one bearing a broken chain and the other raising a flag above a stylized eagle and swastika, rendered in a tone appearing to be gilt bronze. The reverse is inscribed ”1. OKTOBER 1938” surrounded by the slogan ”EIN VOLK, EIN REICH, EIN FÜHRER.” This medal was issued to commemorate the German annexation of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia, formalized by the Munich Agreement of September 1938 and completed with German occupation beginning October 1, 1938. The imagery of the broken chain was intended to evoke the ”liberation” of ethnic Germans in the region, a central theme of Nazi propaganda surrounding the annexation. The medal was instituted by the Nazi government to mark the incorporation of the Sudetenland following the September 1938 Munich Agreement, in which Britain, France, and Italy permitted German annexation of the Czechoslovak border regions without Czechoslovak consent. It was awarded broadly to German troops, civil officials, and Sudeten German activists involved in the occupation, and served as a propaganda vehicle framing the annexation as liberation of an oppressed ethnic German population. The event marked a major step in the escalating territorial expansion that preceded the outbreak of the Second World War the following year.