The BBC German Service was founded somewhat hastily during the 1938 Munich crisis, as a way of communicating directly with Germans in their own language. Its first broadcast was a German translation of Neville Chamberlain’s speech from 10 Downing Street upon his return from meeting Hitler in Munich. It proved to be a baptism of fire: with only a few hours’ notice from Number 10, BBC producers frantically telephoned all over London to locate suitable German speakers and translators. They drafted in Austrian journalist Robert Lucas to translate the speech in real time, and pulled Walter Goetz (a German-born Daily Express cartoonist, who had zero broadcasting experience) out of a cocktail party to read it live on air. Since the BBC needed to use some of its usual frequencies to transmit the speech, the broadcast provoked a number of calls from alarmed British listeners, convinced the Germans had invaded and taken over Broadcasting House.