Bidspirit auction | Set of Third Reich Sudetenland

Set of Third Reich Sudetenland Annexation Medals, 1 October 1938 - A set of commemorative medals issued to mark the annexation of the Sudetenland, each depicting two bare-chested male figures raising flags above an eagle grasping a wreathed swastika. The reverse of each medal is inscribed ”1. OKTOBER 1938 EIN VOLK EIN REICH EIN FÜHRER” around the border. These medals were awarded to German military and civilian personnel involved in the occupation of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia following the Munich Agreement of September 1938. The Medal to Commemorate 1 October 1938 (Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 1. Oktober 1938) was instituted by the German government to mark the annexation of the Sudetenland, the German-speaking border regions of Czechoslovakia ceded to Germany under the Munich Agreement signed by Britain, France, Germany and Italy on 29-30 September 1938. It was awarded to Wehrmacht personnel, party officials and civilians who took part in the occupation and administrative incorporation of the territory, and a clasp bar was later added for those who subsequently participated in the occupation of the rest of Bohemia and Moravia in March 1939. The medal's slogan ”Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer” reflected the Nazi regime's propaganda framing of the annexation as the fulfilment of pan-German unification, a policy that contributed directly to the escalating international crisis preceding the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.