Joachim von Ribbentrop

Joachim von Ribbentrop (born Joachim Ribbentrop) (April 30, 1893–October 16, 1946) was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg trials.

Foreign minister of the Reich

On February 4, 1938 he succeeded Konstantin von Neurath as Foreign Minister in the German government. Ribbentrop's appointment was generally taken at the time and since as indicating that German foreign policy was moving in a more radical direction. In contrast to Neurath's less bellicose nature, Ribbentrop unequivocally supported war in 1938-39. Benito Mussolini commented, "Ribbentrop belongs to the category of Germans who are a disaster for their country. He talks about making war right and left, without naming an enemy or defining a objective.2" During the May Crisis of 1938, Ribbentrop boastfully told the British Ambassador, Sir Neville Henderson that Germany was prepared to wage struggle to the death with Britain and France and that in regards to Czechoslovakia "...there would not be a living soul in that state3."

Related Topics:
1938 - Konstantin von Neurath - 39 - Benito Mussolini - 2 - Neville Henderson - Czechoslovakia - 3

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Ribbentrop loathed Neville Chamberlain, and viewed his appeasement policy as some sort of British scheme to block Germany from her rightful place in the world. Ribbentrop regarded the Munich Agreement as diplomatic defeat for Germany, as it allowed Germany to gain the Sudetenland without the war Ribbentrop wanted. Moreover, as time went by, Ribbentrop started to oust the old diplomats from their senior positions in the Auswärtiges Amt and replaced them with men from the Dienststelle. By 1943, 32% of the offices in the Foreign Ministry were held by men who previously served in the Dienststelle.

Related Topics:
Neville Chamberlain - Munich Agreement - Sudetenland - 1943

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On December 6, 1938 Ribbentrop visited Paris, where he and the French foreign minister Georges Bonnet signed an grand-sounding but largely meaningless Declaration of Franco-German Friendship. Ribbentrop was later to claim that Bonnet told him that France recognized Eastern Europe as being within Germany's sphere of influence. He played a role in the German annexation of Bohemia and Moravia (1939) by bullying the Czechoslovak President Emil Hacha into transforming his country into a German protectorate. More importantly, Ribbentrop played a key role in the conclusion of the Soviet-German nonaggression pact, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939, and in the diplomatic action surrounding the attack on Poland. Ribbentrop advised Hitler that Britain would not go to war in the defence of Poland. The signing of the Non-Aggression Pact in Moscow on August 23, 1939 was the crowning achievement of Ribbentrop's career.

Related Topics:
Paris - Georges Bonnet - Bohemia - Moravia - 1939 - Czechoslovak - Emil Hacha - Nonaggression pact - Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - Poland - Moscow

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Ribbentrop's time as Foreign Minister can be divided into three periods. In the first, from 1938-39, he tried to persuade other states to align themselves for Germany for the coming war. In the second from 1939-43, Ribbentrop attempted to persuade other states to enter the war on Germany's side or at least maintain pro-German neutrality. In the final phase from 1943-45, Ribbentrop had the task of trying to keep Germany's allies from leaving her side. During the course of all three periods, Ribbentrop met frequently with leaders and diplomats from Italy, Japan, Romania, Spain, Bulgaria, and Hungary.

Related Topics:
43 - 45 - Italy - Romania - Spain - Bulgaria - Hungary

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After 1940, Ribbentrop, who was a Francophile, argued that Germany should allow Vichy France a limited degree of independence within a binding new Franco-German partnership. To this end, Ribbentrop appointed a colleague from the Dienststelle named Otto Abetz as Ambassador to France with instructions to promote the political career of Pierre Laval. The amount of Auswärtiges Amt influence in France varied as there were many other agencies competing for power there such as the military, the SS and the Four Year Plan office of Ribbentrop's archenemy Hermann Göring, but in general from late 1943 to mid-1944, the Auswärtiges Amt was second only to the SS in terms of power in France. In 1941, Ribbentrop strongly pushed for German aid to for the Rashid Ali government in Iraq.

Related Topics:
1940 - Vichy France - Otto Abetz - Pierre Laval - Hermann Göring - 1944 - 1941 - Rashid Ali - Iraq

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From the later half of 1937, Ribbentrop had championed the idea of an alliance between Germany, Italy and Japan that would partition the British Empire between them. After signing the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact, Ribbentrop expanded on this idea for an Axis alliance to include the Soviet Union to form an Eurasian bloc that would destroy maritime states such as Britain. Ribbentrop liked Stalin and was against the attack on the USSR in 1941. He passed a word to a Russian diplomat: "Please tell Stalin I was against this war, and that I know it will bring great misfortune to Germany."

Related Topics:
1937 - Germany - Italy - Japan - British Empire - Soviet Union - Eurasia - Stalin

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Ribbentrop was found to have had culpability in the Holocaust on the grounds that he persuaded the leaders of satellite countries of the Third Reich to deport Jews to the Nazi extermination camps. The Auswärtige Amt played a key role in arranging the deportations of Jews to the death camps from France (1942-44), Hungary (1944-45), Slovakia, Italy (after 1943), and the Balkans. He was considered an accomplished diplomat made culpable by placing his talents at the disposal of an infamous government. Ribbentrop assigned all of the Holocaust-related work to an old crony from the Dienststelle named Martin Luther, who represented the Foreign Ministry at the Wannsee Conference.

Related Topics:
The Holocaust - Satellite countries - France - Hungary - Italy - Balkans - Holocaust - Martin Luther - Wannsee Conference

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As the war went on, Ribbentrop's influence declined. As much of the world was at war with Germany and as Germany was losing, the usefulness of the Foreign Ministry contracted. Moreover, many of the people Ribbentrop appointed to head German embassies were grossly incompetent. Hitler, for his part, increasingly found Ribbentrop to be a very tiresome man whom he began to avoid. Another blow against Ribbentrop was the participation of many of old diplomats from the Auswärtige Amt in the July 20, 1944 putsch and assassination attempt against Hitler. Ribbentrop had no knowledge of the plot, but the involvement of so many former and serving members of the Foreign Ministry reflected badly on him as Hitler felt with some justification that Ribbentrop was not keeping proper tabs on what his diplomats were up to. After July 20, Ribbentrop worked closely with the SS in purging the Auswärtige Amt of those suspected of involvement with the putsch. Also done in close co-operation with the SS was Ribbentrop's last significant foreign policy move, the coup of October 15, 1944 that deposed Admiral Miklós Horthy of Hungary for attempting to seek a separate peace with the Allies.

Related Topics:
July 20, 1944 - Putsch - Assassination - October 15 - 1944 - Miklós Horthy

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On April 20, 1945 Ribbentrop attended Hitler's 56th birthday party in Berlin. This was the last time he saw Hitler. After the party, Ribbentrop attempted to have a meeting with Hitler, only to be told to go away as Hitler had more important things to do than talk to him. At the end of World War II, Ribbentrop was dismissed by acting President, Admiral Karl Dönitz, and went into hiding. Ribbentrop was arrested by the British in Hamburg on June 14, 1945. Found with him was a rambling letter addressed to the British Prime Minister "Vincent Churchill" criticizing British foreign policy for anti-German bias and blaming the British for the Soviet occupation of the eastern half of Germany. The fact that Ribbentrop even in 1945 didn't know that Churchill's first name was Winston reflected his genuine cluelessness about the world outside of Germany.

Related Topics:
April 20 - 1945 - World War II - President - Karl Dönitz - Hamburg

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