Henlein continued to present himself as a friend of democracy especially in London where he lectured in 1935 at Chatham House in the Royal Institute of International Affairs. He stated there that he refused the totalitarian principle and that he was in favor of "an honest democracy." "We want a democracy such as is recommended by Masaryk," he emphasized. He denied "Nazism" or "Hitlerism" to be a doctrine "suitable for exportation," he rejected anti-Semitism.
(b) 1937: For complete Autonomy of Sudeten Germans but still within the framework of the Czechoslovak Republic.
In 1937 Henlein struck a somewhat shriller note than before demanding, without defining "complete Sudeten autonomy." The "Sudetendeutsche Partei" laid draft proposals before Parliament amounting to little short of creating a state within a state. The whole document, though moderately worded, was already based on totalitarian principles.
(c) 1938: For Nazism and for Incorporation of the Sudeten Areas into the German Reich.
After the occupation of Austria (March 1938) the Henleinists openly jubilated. Nearly all German "Activist parties" were now stampeded into the Henlein camp leaving the fight against the "Sudentendeutsche Partei" only to the German Social Democrats and Communists. The terrorism of the Henleinists increased. They intensified their campaign against "Bolshevism." Open anti-Semitic propaganda started in the Henlein press.
On April 24th, 1938, Henlein came into the open with his "Karlsbad Programme," set forth in his speech made to the Party Congress in Karlovy Vary. In every line of it could be heard not so much Herr Henlein himself as his master's voice. In the Karlsbad Programme among others the right of the Sudeten Germans to profess "German political philosophy" in other words, National Socialism, was claimed.
In May 1938, Henlein visited Hitler in Berlin and after obtaining his master's instructions was back in London at his old game of intriguing against the Czechoslovak Republic.
The Local Government elections in May 1938—well prepared by the Henleinists by vast propaganda, opened terrorism, unscrupulous using of money, bribery of electors, etc.,—showed 80-90% of votes for Henlein. So almost the whole German population stood behind Henlein.
The Czech Government continued to negotiate with Henlein, but on September 14th,—two days before Hitler fulminated in his Nurnberg speech against "this Benes" and accused him of "torturing" and planning the "extermination" of the Sudeten Germans—he threw off his mask, fled to the Reich declaring on the wireless: "We want to go home to the Reich," and denouncing "the Hussite Bolshevik criminals of Prague."
K.H. Frank, interrogated by Colonel Dr. B. Ecer on May 30th, 1945, at Wiesbaden, stated that the slogan "Heim ins Reich" (Homewards to the Reich) was backed by 90% of the Sudeten Germans.