On this date, 14 August 1956, one of
the defendants of the Nuremberg Trials, Konstantiin Von Neurath passed away. I
will post information about him from Wikipedia and other links.
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Konstantin von Neurath as Reichsprotektor,
1939
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Reich
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Weimar
Republic
Nazi Germany
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In
office
1 June 1932 – 4 February 1938 |
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President
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Paul von Hindenburg (1932–1934)
Adolf Hitler Führer (1934–1938) |
Chancellor
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Franz von Papen (1932)
Kurt von Schleicher (1932–1933) Adolf Hitler (1933–1938) |
Preceded by
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Heinrich Brüning
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Succeeded by
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Joachim von Ribbentrop
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Protector
of Bohemia and Moravia
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In
office
21 March 1939 – 24 August 1943 |
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Appointed by
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Adolf Hitler
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Preceded by
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New post
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Succeeded by
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Reinhard Heydrich (de facto)
Wilhelm Frick (de jure) |
Personal
details
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Born
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2 February 1873
Kleinglattbach German Empire |
Died
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14 August 1956 (aged 83)
Enzweihingen West Germany |
Political party
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Independent (1932–1937)
Nazi (1937–1945) |
Spouse(s)
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Marie Auguste Moser von Filseck
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Children
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2
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Konstantin Hermann Karl Freiherr von Neurath (2 February 1873 – 14 August 1956)
was a German diplomat remembered mostly for having served as Foreign minister
of Germany between 1932 and 1938. Holding this post in the early years of Adolf
Hitler's regime, Neurath was regarded as playing a key role in the foreign
policy pursuits of the Nazi dictator in undermining the Treaty of Versailles
and territorial expansion in the prelude to World War II, although he was often
averse tactically if not necessarily ideologically. This aversion eventually
induced Hitler to replace Neurath with the more compliant and fervent Nazi
Joachim von Ribbentrop.
Neurath
served as "Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia" between 1939 and
1943, though his authority was only nominal after September 1941. He was tried
as a major war criminal in Nuremberg and sentenced to fifteen years
imprisonment for his compliance and actions in the Nazi regime.
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Konstantin von Neurath during his military
service, 1893
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Early
life
Neurath
was born at the manor of Kleinglattbach (since 1872 part of Vaihingen an der Enz)
in Württemberg, the scion of a Swabian dynasty of Freiherren. His
grandfather Constantin Franz von Neurath had served as Foreign Minister under
King Charles I of Württemberg (reigned 1864–1891); his father Konstantin
Sebastian von Neurath (died 1912) had been a Free Conservative member of the
German Reichstag parliament and Chamberlain
of King William II of Württemberg.
He
studied law in Tübingen and in Berlin. After graduating in 1897 he initially
joined a local law firm in his home town. In 1901 he entered into civil service
and worked for the Foreign Office in Berlin. In 1903 he was assigned to the
German embassy in London, at first as Vice-Consul and from 1909 as Legationsrat
(legation counsel). Following the visit of the Prince of Wales to the Kingdom
of Württemberg in 1904, as Lord Chamberlain to King William II, he was created
an Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. Neurath's career
was decisively advanced by Secretary of State Alfred von Kiderlen-Waechter. In
1914 he was sent to the embassy in Constantinople.
On
30 May 1901 Neurath married Marie Auguste Moser von Filseck (1875–1960) in
Stuttgart. His son Konstantin was born in 1902, followed by his daughter
Winifred in 1904.
During
World War I he served as an officer with an infantry regiment until 1916 when
he was badly wounded. In December 1914 he was awarded the Iron Cross. He
returned to the German diplomatic service in the Ottoman Empire (1914–1916),
where he witnessed the Armenian Genocide. In 1917 he temporarily quit the
diplomatic service to succeed his uncle Julius von Soden as head of the royal
Württemberg government.
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Konstantin
von Neurath in 1920
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Political
career
In
1919 Neurath with approval by president Friedrich Ebert returned to diplomacy,
joining the embassy in Copenhagen as Minister to Denmark. From 1921 until 1930
he was the ambassador to Rome; he was not overly impressed with Italian
Fascism. After the death of Gustav Stresemann in 1929, he was already
considered for the post of Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Chancellor
Hermann Müller by president Paul von Hindenburg, but his appointment failed due
to the objections raised by the governing parties. In 1930 he returned to head
the embassy in London.
Neurath
was recalled to Germany in 1932 and became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the
"Cabinet of Barons" under Chancellor Franz
von Papen in June. He continued to hold that position under Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and then under Adolf
Hitler from the Machtergreifung on 30 January 1933. During the
early days of Hitler's rule, Neurath lent an aura of respectability to Hitler's
expansionist foreign policy.
In
May 1933, the American chargé d'affaires reported that "Baron von
Neurath has shown such a remarkable capacity for submitting to what in normal
times could only be considered as affronts and indignities on the part of the
Nazis, that it is still quite a possibility that the latter should be content
to have him remain as a figurehead for some time yet". He was involved in
the German withdrawal from the League of Nations in 1933, the negotiations of
the Anglo-German Naval Accord (1935) and
the remilitarization of the Rhineland.
In 1937, Neurath joined the Nazi Party. He was awarded the Golden Party Badge and was given the honorary
rank of a Gruppenführer in the SS —equivalent in Wehrmacht
rank to a lieutenant general.
On
5 November 1937, the conference between the Reich's top military-foreign
policy leadership and Hitler recorded in the so-called Hossbach Memorandum occurred. At the
conference, Hitler stated that it was the time for war, or, more accurately,
wars, as what Hitler envisioned were a series of localized wars in Central and
Eastern Europe in the near future. Hitler argued that because these wars were
necessary to provide Germany with Lebensraum,
autarky and
the arms
race with France and Britain made it imperative to act before the Western
powers developed an insurmountable lead in the arms race. He further declared
that Germany must be ready for war as early as 1938, and at the latest by 1943.
Of
those invited to the conference, objections arose from Neurath, Blomberg and
the Army Commander in Chief, General Werner von Fritsch. They all believed that any
German aggression in Eastern Europe was bound to trigger a war with France
because of the French alliance system in Eastern Europe, the so-called cordon
sanitaire. They further believed that if a Franco-German war broke out,
it would quickly escalate to a European war, since Britain would almost
certainly intervene rather than risk the prospect of France's defeat. Moreover,
they contended that Hitler's assumption that Britain and France would just
ignore the projected wars because they had started their re-armament later than
Germany was flawed. The opposition expressed by Fritsch, Blomberg and Neurath
was concerned entirely with the assessment that Germany could not start a war
in the heart of Europe without Anglo-French involvement, and that more time was
needed to rearm. However, they did not express any moral opposition to
aggression or disagreement with Hitler's basic idea of annexing Austria or
Czechoslovakia.
In
response to the reservations expressed at the Hossbach conference, Hitler
tightened his control of the military-foreign policy making apparatus by
removing those who out of touch with his policy. On 4 February 1938, Neurath
was sacked as Foreign Minister in the course of the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair. He felt his office
was marginalised and was not in favour of Hitler's aggressive war plans because
he felt Germany needed more time to rearm, which were detailed in the Hossbach Memorandum of 5 November 1937. He was
succeeded by Joachim von Ribbentrop, but remained in government as a minister without portfolio to allay the
concerns that his removal would have caused internationally. He was also named
as president of the "Secret Cabinet Council", a purported
super-cabinet to advise Hitler on foreign affairs. On paper, it appeared that
Neurath had been promoted. However, this body only existed on paper; Hermann Göring subsequently testified that it never met, "not for a minute."
In
March 1939, Neurath was appointed Reichsprotektor of occupied Bohemia
and Moravia, serving as Hitler's personal representative in the protectorate.
Hitler chose Neurath in part to pacify the international outrage over the German occupation of Czechoslovakia.
Soon after his arrival at Prague Castle, Neurath instituted harsh press
censorship and banned political parties and trade unions. He ordered a harsh
crackdown on protesting students in October and November 1939 (1200 student
protesters went to concentration camps and nine were executed). He also
supervised the persecution of Jews according to the Nuremberg Laws. Draconian
as these measures were, Neurath's rule overall was fairly mild by Nazi
standards. Notably, he tried to restrain the excesses of his police chief, Karl Hermann Frank.
However,
in September 1941, Hitler decided that Neurath's rule was too lenient, and
stripped him of his day-to-day powers. Reinhard Heydrich was named as his
deputy, but in truth held the real power. Heydrich was assassinated in 1942 and
succeeded by Kurt Daluege. Neurath officially remained as Reichsprotektor
through this time. He tried to resign in 1941, but his resignation was not
accepted until August 1943, when he was succeeded by the former Minister of the
Interior Wilhelm Frick. In June of that year he had been
raised to the rank of an SS-Obergruppenführer--equivalent to a three-star
general.
Late
in the war, Neurath had contacts with the German
resistance.
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Konstantin
von Neurath in 1920
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Trial
and imprisonment
The
Allies of World
War II prosecuted Neurath at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946. Otto
von Lüdinghausen appeared for his defence. The prosecution accused
him of "conspiracy
to commit crimes against peace; planning, initiating and waging wars of
aggression; war crimes and crimes against
humanity". Neurath's chief defence strategy was predicated on
the fact that his successor and fellow defendant, Ribbentrop, was more culpable
for the atrocities committed in the Nazi state. The International Military
Tribunal acknowledged the fact that Neurath's crimes against humanity were
mostly conducted during his short tenure as actual Protector of Bohemia and
Moravia, especially in quelling Czech
resistance and the summary execution of several university students.
The tribunal came to the consensus that Neurath, though a willing and active
participant in war crimes, held no such prominent position during the height of
the Third Reich's tyranny and was therefore only a minor adherent to the
atrocities committed. He was found guilty by the Allied powers on all four
counts and was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment.
Neurath
was held as a war criminal in Spandau Prison until November 1954, when he was
released in the wake of the Paris Conference, officially due to his ill health
– he had suffered a heart attack. He retired to his family's estates in
Enzweihingen, where he died two years later, aged 83.
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