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On 24 September 1938, Chamberlain flew to Germany to meet Hitler again at Bad Godesberg to tell him that the terms set out in the Berchtesgaden summit had been agreed to by the governments of both France and Czechoslovakia, only for Hitler to reject those terms as insufficient. Following the rejection of Hitler's terms put forward at Bad Godesberg, Europe was on the brink of war. The Munich Conference of 30 September 1938 put an end to the crisis. On the afternoon of the same day, Coulondre visited Fierlinger to offer him his sympathy.{{sfn|Adamthwaite|1977|p=833}} Coulondre reported: "When I entered his study, I felt there is the coldness which penetrates one in a house where there is a dead person".{{sfn|Adamthwaite|1977|p=833}} Coulondre reported that Fierlinger was furious with the "betrayal" of the Munich Agreement as he lashed out at both France and Britain, whom he accused of sacrificing Czechoslovakia to avoid a war with Germany, which he predicated was inevitable.{{sfn|Adamthwaite|1977|p=833}}
Contrary to expectations, Fierlinger did not resign as minister-plenipotentiary when Beneš resigned as president and was succeeded by [[Emil Hácha]].{{sfn|Zeman|Karlsch|2008|p=66}} In January 1939, Fierlinger visited Prague to meet Hácha, whom he felt comfortable in serving despite the fact that Hácha's foreign policy was the complete opposite of Beneš's.{{sfn|Zeman|Karlsch|2008|p=66}} On 15 March 1939, Germany occupied the Czech half of Czecho-Slovakia, which now became the Reich [[Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia]] with Baron [[Konstantin von Neurath]] appointed as the Reich Protector to "supervise" Hácha. With the end of independence, the Czechoslovak Legation in Moscow was closed as Count von der Schulenburg arrived at the legation to demand that Fierlinger hand over the keys, saying that the German embassy from now on would handle relations with the Soviet Union on behalf of the protectorate.{{sfn|Zeman|Karlsch|2008|p=66}} However, the Soviet Union at first did not accept the proclamation of the Reich Protectorate, and the legation continued
In April–May 1939, Fierlinger took an extended vacation, meeting Czechoslovak leaders in exile in London and Paris, through not Beneš who was working as a professor at the University of Chicago.{{sfn|Zeman|Karlsch|2008|p=66}} In late June 1939, Fierlinger returned to Moscow to take charge, though it was understood he was representing the government-in-exile headed by Beneš. However, Litvinov had been replaced as foreign commissar by Molotov, who had no time for Fierlinger. On 26 August 1939, Fierlinger in a letter to Beneš admitted that he was shocked by the German-Soviet non-aggression pact.{{sfn|Zeman|Karlsch|2008|p=66}} However, Fierlinger blamed the non-aggression pact on France and especially Britain, whom he accused of negotiating the Soviet Union's proposed inclusion in the "peace front" meant to deter Germany from invading Poland in a lackluster and ineffective way, writing: "I admit that they are playing for high stakes, but I think vacillation in the West was the only reason for the sensational turnaround in Soviet policy".{{sfn|Zeman|Karlsch|2008|p=66}}
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