Wissenswertes

In 1938 Chamberlain was lauded during his tenure as Prime Minister for keeping Britain out of a war with Germany. However after World War II he was denigrated for appeasement.

British Conservative Prime Minister (28 May 1937 - 10 May 1940).

The Munich Agreement is now regarded as a failure because it failed to stop further German aggression. Upon realizing its failure following the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, it was Chamberlain's decision to offer a military alliance to Poland on 25 August 1939 that resulted in World War II. Despite this alliance, the UK was in no position to do anything to help Poland and many of the Nazis' worst atrocities took place in that country over the next six years.

His brother started the urban myth that the Chinese have a saying: "May you live in interesting times".

He attempted to form an anti-fascist alliance with the Soviet Union in August 1939, but this was made impossible when Poland and Romania said they would not allow the Red Army to be stationed on their territory in order to deter a German invasion. The Soviet Union subsequently signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Germany on 23 August 1939.

His support for Churchill was instrumental in enabling his successor to survive the War Cabinet Crisis in late May 1940, and to therefore continue the war.

Despite being warned about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact he refused to dishonor the Anglo-Polish military alliance. However on 2 September 1939 he considered accepting Mussolini's offer of an international summit like the Munich Conference on the Polish situation.

He was dismayed when Poland invaded Czechoslovakia on 1 October 1938 and annexed Zaolzie.

Some later historians have taken a more favorable perspective of Chamberlain and his policies, citing government papers released under the Thirty Year Rule and arguing that going to war with Germany in 1938 would have been disastrous as the UK was unprepared.

In early 1940 Chamberlain approved a naval campaign designed to seize the northern part of Norway, a neutral country, including the key port of Narvik, and possibly also to seize the iron mines at Gällivare in northern Sweden, from which Germany obtained much of its iron ore.

Many of the tanks Germany used to invade Poland in 1939 and France in 1940 were made in Czechoslovakia.

Since 1934 the British policy had been to try to avoid causing war with Germany, as it was considered likely that Italy and Japan would want to join the conflict in the hope of seizing British and French colonies.

Revisionist historians have argued it was a mistake for Chamberlain to form a military pact with Poland in 1939 as it could not be enforced. It also encouraged the Soviet Union to invade Poland in September 1939, and encouraged the Poles to fight the Germans while Britain and France did little to help. Some historians have also questioned whether the UK should have declared war when it could not defeat Germany by itself.

The military and political advice Chamberlain received in 1938 was that war would be disastrous as Britain was too unprepared, and that it would be better to give the German-speaking Sudetenland to Germany in the hope of forestalling German claims on the rest of Czechoslovakia.

Chamberlain angrily denounced the German invasion of Poland in the House of Commons on 1 September 1939, to cheers from Members of Parliament. On the following day he backtracked and indicated the resumption of appeasement by endorsing a diplomatic initiative suggested by fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to resolve the crisis.

The term "appeasement" is sometimes considered controversial today, as the UK and France were occupying half the world by force in the 1930s.

Cousin of Alan Napier, half-brother of the Conservative party leader and Foreign Secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain and a younger son of the statesman Joseph Chamberlain.

A Conservative Lord Mayor of Birmingham, who entered Parliament in middle age.

He was portrayed by Terrence Hardiman in the original production of the play "Never So Good", by Howard Brenton , which premiered at the National Theatre, London, UK in March 2008.

He spent his time after the Munich Agreement building up military for War. The only reason his agreement looks bad in retrospect was because he never believed that Hitler would have gone to war with an equally unprepared military and plan.

Even Winston Churchill, who completely disagreed with his decision, believed that Chamberlain was a good and highly intelligent leader who made the best decision in the circumstances Britain had. Churchill even gave him a spot on his cabinet to fight Germany.

He passed the Factories act which improved the horrific conditions of factories and decreased child labor.

Contrary to popular belief, his approval rating actually increased to 68 percent after he made the deal with Hitler.

Authorised the bombing of German warships at Wilhelmshaven on the night of 3 September 1939, and again on the following day.

Returned the Treaty ports to Ireland in 1938. This later caused great difficulties for the Royal Navy during the Battle of the Atlantic.

His military alliance with Poland ensured the Soviet invasion of the country in September 1939. Joseph Stalin knew the UK and France would be unable to declare war on the Soviet Union as well as Germany.

He was against going to war with Germany in 1938 as he knew another major war would destroy the British Empire, and the UK as a world power. In addition the Dominions, apart from New Zealand, said they would not declare war on Germany in 1938 if the UK did.

Ordered the laying of mines in neutral Norwegian waters in April 1940. However this was ended by the German invasion of Norway.

Conspiracy theories persist on the far left that Chamberlain wanted Germany to invade the Soviet Union.

Following the German invasion of Poland Chamberlain delayed in giving a commitment to go to war until the French had also committed.

Historian Richard Toye, a professor at the University of Exeter, said Chamberlain was generally considered to be a successful and popular prime minister until May 1940, who should not be dismissed as a weak or negligible figure.

He recognized early on that going to war with Germany or Italy would mean the United States supplanting the British Empire as a world power.

When it was discovered that Chamberlin was terminally ill with liver cancer, his old political adversary Winston Churchill offered him first a life peerage in the House of Lords, a knighthood in the Order of the Garter and the Companion of Honour designation. Chamberlin respectfully decline every offer, insisting that he was a proud son of a grocer and was content to die as one.

Although he stood down as Prime Minster in May 1940, he remained the leader of the Conservative Party and subsequently served in the coalition War Cabinet as Lord Privy Seal. This was done with the understanding that following the conclusion of the war, the coalition government would dissolve, Winston Churchill would stand down as Prime Minster, and Chamberlin, with a comfortable Conservative majority in the House of Commons, would resume being Prime Minister. However, Chamberlin died of liver cancer in November 1940, clearing the way for Churchill to be named as leader of the Conservative Party.

The reason factories were able to mobilize so quickly to build weapons was due to the changes Chamberlain brought to working conditions.