2 Schindler was a supporter of Nazism years before the Czechoslovakia crisis
In the 1930s a growing sect of the Nazi Party developed among the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia, which had itself been created when it declared independence from Austria-Hungary near the end of the First World War. The Sudeten German Party supported the Nazis in Germany. They were separatists, espousing secession from Czechoslovakia and entry into the German Reich. In 1935, Schindler joined the Sudeten German Party and was immediately an active member who supported the Nazis in Germany and lobbied for expanded membership among the Germans living under the Czech government. His activities caught the attention of the German Abwehr, the military intelligence arm of the German government. Schindler was a citizen of Czechoslovakia, but shortly after joining the Sudeten German Party, he committed treason against his country by becoming a spy for the Abwehr.
In 1936 Schindler was assigned to report to the Abwehr at the offices in Breslau. He was tasked with providing information regarding railroads, highways, the activities of Czech military forces, and financial information on leading Czech politicians and business leaders. He also used his connections within the Sudeten German Party to recruit additional spies, who provided the Abwehr with information regarding Czech activities as the crisis over German absorption of the Sudetenland intensified. Schindler later explained his motives for supporting the Germans to be financial, claiming he was heavily in debt at the time, and also blamed it on his chronic alcoholism, which impaired his judgment. In 1938 the Czech government, aware of his activities (they may have used him to provide false information to the Abwehr) arrested and imprisoned Schindler for espionage.