Hubert Masarík

Hubert Masarík is the chief of cabinet to the Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia and one of the country’s designated observers at the Munich conference. He arrives with his colleague Vojtek Mastny, the Czech Minister in Berlin, only to find that they have been taken to a hotel room and barred from the proceedings. Masarík’s appeal to Hugh Legat makes the conference’s central contradiction concrete: decisions about Czechoslovakia are being made while its representatives are shut out.

Identity and Arrival

Masarík identifies himself as the Foreign Minister’s chief of cabinet and speaks for the two Czechoslovak officials held at the hotel. He and Mastny had landed from Prague less than an hour earlier. They expected to be taken directly to the conference; instead, Gestapo officers met them at the airport and brought them to the hotel, where they were kept from leaving for the talks.

The account gives Masarík a precise physical presence amid the diplomatic crisis: he is about forty, distinguished-looking, and wears a pale grey suit with a handkerchief in its breast pocket. His long, high-domed head is flushed, and his round tortoiseshell spectacles have been knocked askew. When he reaches Legat, he is gesticulating and trying to push past four men in suits, urgently demanding to speak to an Englishman.

Appeal to Legat

Legat responds to Masarík’s call and identifies himself as the Prime Minister’s Private Secretary. The Gestapo officer immediately changes his manner, denying that the two men are imprisoned and describing their enforced wait as a security measure. Masarík counters that they are supposed to be observers at the conference and appeals to the British Government’s representative to let them perform the task for which they were sent.

Legat asks to pass, and the Gestapo officer permits him to do so. The other officers stand aside. Legat shakes hands with Masarík, apologizes for what has happened, and follows him into the bedroom, where Mastny is seated on the edge of the bed, still wearing his overcoat and holding his hat between his knees. The scene moves from an urgent public appeal to the subdued sight of the colleague whom Masarík has been trying to reach.

Exclusion from the Conference

Masarík’s account sets out the discrepancy between the officials’ expectation and their actual treatment: they had come to observe the conference, but were intercepted at the airport and confined to their hotel room. The Gestapo officer insists that they may not participate and must wait until further instructions. Masarík rejects the distinction between being held and being under arrest, making the coercion plain even as the officer denies it.

The exclusion carries particular weight because the conference is taking place under an immediate threat to Czechoslovakia. In Sir Horace Wilson’s briefing, Adolf Hitler has demanded that the disputed territory begin to be evacuated by Saturday, warning that otherwise he will march in; Wilson judges that the crisis must be settled that day or war will follow. Against that deadline, Masarík and Mastny are not merely delayed observers: they are representatives of the country at the center of the dispute, denied a place in the talks. The scene ends without establishing whether they are released or admitted, leaving their protest—and the question of Czechoslovakia’s voice—unresolved.