1938 European Athletics Championships
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men
800 m	men
1500 m	men
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
80 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men
3000 m steeplechase	men
4 × 100 m relay	men	women
4 × 400 m relay	men
Road events
Marathon	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Javelin throw	men	women
Combined events
Decathlon	men

The men's 400 metres at the 1938 European Athletics Championships was held in Paris, France, at Stade Olympique de Colombes on 3 and 4 September 1938.^[1]

Gold	Godfrey Brown  Great Britain
Silver	Karl Baumgarten  Netherlands
Bronze	Erich Linnhoff  Germany

4 September

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Godfrey Brown	Great Britain	47.4	CR
	Karl Baumgarten	Netherlands	48.2
	Erich Linnhoff	Germany	48.8
4	János Görkói	Hungary	48.9
5	Aarne Tammisto	Finland	49.1
6	Bertil von Wachenfeldt	Sweden	50.0

3 September

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Godfrey Brown	Great Britain	48.4	Q
2	János Görkói	Hungary	49.2	Q
3	Carl-Henrik Gustafsson	Sweden	49.8
4	Ottavio Missoni	Italy	50.3
5	Georges Meyer	Switzerland	50.3
6	Abdyl Këllezi	Albania	55.0

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Erich Linnhoff	Germany	49.2	Q
2	Bertil von Wachenfeldt	Sweden	49.7	Q
3	Pierre Smet	Belgium	50.4
4	Jean Cerutti	France	50.6
5	Feri Pleteršek	Yugoslavia	52.3
	József Vadas	Hungary	DQ

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Aarne Tammisto	Finland	48.3	Q
2	Karl Baumgarten	Netherlands	48.3	Q
3	John Horsfall	Great Britain	49.5
4	Joseph Bertolino	France	49.5
5	Charles Stein	Luxembourg	NT

According to an unofficial count, 17 athletes from 13 countries participated in the event.