Joachim von Ribbentrop is one of the key figuresmade history in the years of the Second World War. This man is best known as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany and one of those close to Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler in the years of the Führer's rule. This article is devoted to key events in the life of the Reich Minister, beginning with his birth on April 30, 1893, and ending with the death penalty during the Nuremberg Trials in October 1946. To have a clearer idea of the personality of Ribbentrop, it is necessary to trace and analyze in turn the most important, sometimes crucial moments of his life.
Childhood
Von Ribbentrop, whose biography is presentedbelow, was born in a small German fortress town Wesel. His parents were considered to be educated, wealthy people, they could boast of noble origin.
Мать, к сожалению, умерла еще в 1902 году от illness, therefore both sons were brought up in strictness and discipline by father Richard Ulrich Friedrich Joachim Ribbentrop, the premier lieutenant of an artillery regiment. Young Joachim was provided with an excellent education for those years. Due to the fact that the father was sent to different parts of Germany for service, his sons since childhood have mastered both English and French, improved them in college. From the mother Ribbentrop Jr. transferred the love of music: playing the violin has become an integral part of his life.
Youth and first career steps
As a teenager, he managed toprofitable parenting dating live a few years in Switzerland, England, America (New York), Canada. In the latter, Joachim and settled, as there were created favorable conditions for building a career. During his time in Montreal, he managed to try himself both in banking and as a traffic controller. However, having moved by invitation to Ottawa, Ribbentrop wanted to open his own business, to competently invest the inherited capital in the business.
Activities during the First World War
In 1914, not wanting to stay away fromhostilities, Ribbentrop leaves Canada and is sent to serve in a cavalry front regiment. Fights on both the Eastern and Western fronts. In 1918, when he was already a senior lieutenant, he was noted for his military achievements and wounds with the Iron Cross. For health reasons, he is transferred to Turkey as an adjutant of the authorized military ministry, from where Ribbentrop reports on the combat readiness of this country. When the war was finally lost by Germany, he deliberately resigned, feeling his helplessness in opposing the Versailles Treaty. It can be recognized, however, that the years of service were not wasted by von Ribbentrop: it was at the front that he acquired fateful acquaintances with prominent political figures such as Franz von Papen and Paul von Hindenburg.
From business to politics
In post-war Europe, especially in WeimarIt was impossible for the republic, which was undergoing economic disruption, to build a reliable state for itself, so Ribbentrop decides to return to Canada, Ottawa, where his long-time friends remained. Literally over the year, he manages to get a job at a cotton import company and conduct a series of successful deals that made it possible to get rich quick and establish new meaningful acquaintances.
1919-20-ies, he later recalled with a specialwarmth, because at this time his relationship with his future wife Annelise Henkel, who bore him five children, began to develop. The most famous of them in the future will be one of the sons - Rudolf Ribbentrop, which is told at the end of the article.
The marriage union was actually happy, to thatIt’s also very profitable, since Father Annelise offered his brother-in-law a place as co-owner of his own branch office in Berlin, which deals with the purchase and delivery of wines from abroad. This business helped Joachim von Ribbentrop to open in 1924 his own company for the sale of imported alcohol, Schönberg and Ribbentrop. The company began to bring considerable income, which allowed its owner to join the high society of Berlin.
In the second half of the 1920s Ribbentroprestores fellowship with Chancellor Franz von Papen. In parallel with this, being confident in his strengths and influence, he sets the task of changing the policy of his native country, which has weakened over the years.
Introducing Adolf Hitler and joining the NSDAP
Von Ribbentrop negatively perceived Versaillesa treaty which, in his opinion, plundered and oppressed the Weimar Republic. Realizing that the then government, with its uncertain policy and the rapid change of the Reich Chancellors, is not able to resist both the influence of Western countries and the spread of Bolshevism, he gives his sympathies to the National Socialists.
It was after meeting with Hitler and his plans.for Germany, von Ribbentrop joins his party and the SS ranks, becoming a standard, and begins to promote the future Fuhrer for the post of chancellor instead of Paul von Hindenburg. For this, he organized numerous negotiations between the current and potential leaders of the country, and for their meetings he offered his own villa in Dalem. In addition, business contacts with wealthy people in Germany were useful to him: Joachim von Ribbentrop skillfully assured them of the need to financially help the nationalists. Thus, it can be recognized that Hitler was provided with enormous material and spiritual support from the newly-made National Socialist. For this, Hitler, having seized unlimited power, appointed him his adviser on foreign policy.
First diplomatic successes
The Fuhrer did not accidentally trust Ribbentrop muchimportant assignments, as I understood that this person is different from the rest of the diplomatic corps. His adviser was fluent in English and French, had an idea about the mentality, politics of England and France. Hitler often consulted about relations with these countries precisely with Ribbentrop and sent him to London and Paris with various missions, such as those related to disarmament. And if negotiations with France failed, then in Great Britain he brought back an agreement in 1935 to Hitler, in which the necessary ratio of the English and German fleets was 100: 35, and the chances of developing friendly relations between the countries.
A separate item not to mention the creationThe so-called Ribbentrop Bureau, whose goals were to train professional diplomatic personnel to form a new cabinet, as well as to develop foreign policy strategies and plans for Germany. Ribbentrop personally led him, so it is not surprising that there were quite a few people from the SS among the future diplomats. Later, all employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on his orders will be included in these security detachments.
Another merit is von Ribbentropthe conclusion of the Anti-Comintern Pact in 1936-37 with Japan and Italy to jointly contain communist influence from the East. The union of these countries persisted until the end of the Second World War and until the last time tried to prevent communism in any of its manifestations.
New Imperial Minister for Foreign Affairs
In 1938Ribbentrop is appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, becoming the successor to von Neurath. His relationship with his colleagues deteriorated from that moment on. First, he did not tolerate excessive independence in matters of foreign policy abused by the same Reichsfuhrer SS Himmler or the Reichsleiter Rosenberg office. Constantly between them arose a lot of disagreements concerning masons, churches, Scandinavian countries, Jews, etc.
Secondly, many have blamed the new minister foringratiating with Hitler, inability to defend his own proposals. Ribbentrop himself (the memories he recorded in 1946 confirm this) partially recognized this, explaining that the Führer was such a strong and charismatic figure that even the most persistent and recalcitrant people easily obeyed him, afraid to rebuke. Nevertheless, he justified himself by the fact that Hitler was inclined to make spontaneous decisions, and not only von Ribbentrop was not able to convince him.
Pre-war activities
In a new position before the imperial ministerForeign Affairs had several tasks: Austria, Memel, Sudetenland and Danzig. Ribbentrop fully supported the Fuhrer in his desire to annex Austria and the Sudeten Germans to the Reich, so he put maximum energy into it: arranged meetings with the Austrian ambassador, held talks with British Prime Minister Chamberlain, and participated in the preparation of the Munich Agreement. Not without aggression, he was later charged with cruel treatment of the Jewish population, because, like Hitler, he wanted to exterminate him. As for Poland, in his memoirs, von Ribbentrop claims that he did not know about preparing war with her and used all his diplomatic talents for the peaceful resolution of controversial issues. However, the facts say the opposite, because, in view of his position, he could not have foreseen a military clash with the Poles.
Relations with the USSR on the eve of the war
The initiator of the restoration of communications and negotiationsbetween the two countries, it was Joachim von Ribbentrop who long convinced Hitler of the need to establish contacts with the Soviet Union. In his opinion, this would allow achieving Russian neutrality in the event of a war with Poland, conclude a profitable economic deal, and also appear more confidently before Western countries. After numerous requests for negotiations, Stalin agreed to a meeting with the German plenipotentiary. Despite the anti-communist views, the Fuhrer sent Ribbentrop on a mission to the USSR, because he personally drafted the German-Russian non-aggression pact and was seriously determined to sign it.
Career culmination - Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement of August 23, 1939
This event is history with manydisputes that accompany him to this day. In fact, it is not easy to explain how a successful non-aggression pact, in which both parties were interested, turned into a large-scale bloody war. However, in 1939 neither Germany nor the USSR planned any military interventions in each other’s policies, on the contrary, there was no friendship between the countries (due to the preservation of different ideological ideologies), but a mutually beneficial relationship. As the German foreign minister writes in his memoirs, their foreign affairs agency had a bad idea of the Soviet Union, Stalin also saw it as a mystical figure. Ribbentrop did not expect such a quick and warm reception, which was provided to him, and the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov and the leader of the Soviet Union turned out to be surprisingly compliant and compromise politicians. Thus, Germany and the USSR approved mutual neutrality in the event of any of the parties entering the war and refused external aggression against each other.
Among other things, a secret pact was signedMolotov-Ribbentrop, who divided Eastern Europe and the Baltics into spheres of interest. The USSR took control of most of the Baltic countries, Finland, Bessarabia, and Lithuania and western Poland relegated to Germany. Later, on September 28, the boundary line between them after the German-Polish war was adjusted and enshrined in the Treaty of Friendship and Frontiers. An economic exchange was also established: the Soviet Union supplied the Germans with the necessary raw materials, and in return received information about their technical developments, samples of machines, etc.
Ribbentrop in the early 1940s
With the beginning of the war against the USSR between Hitler andThe Foreign Ministry had more and more disagreements, which led to the fact that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, together with his department, were literally isolated from the policy in the East. Von Ribbentrop loses his influence at this time, more and more often his position diverges from the position of the Fuhrer. This leads to the fact that by 1945, he himself takes off the powers of the minister. After the defeat of Germany, he and his family are hiding in Hamburg, where he is arrested.
Nuremberg process
October 16, 1946 the execution took placesentenced German activists who were found guilty of crimes against the peace and various military offenses. Ribbentrop for his unlawful activity was to be punished by hanging. His grave was not preserved, since the dust was scattered.
Continuers of the race
После его смерти жена Аннелиз Хенкель published her husband’s memoirs in 1953, editing and supplementing them with the necessary information. If we talk about children, the most famous son of Ribbentrop Rudolph. He became a member of the SS standard, took part in the wars with Poland and France. He is a veteran of the war against the USSR, fought in the north of the Soviet Union and near Kharkov before surrendering to the Americans. In 2015, he published the book “My father Joachim von Ribbentrop. “Never Against Russia!” ”And even made its presentation in Russia. It is not easy for children and grandchildren to have the last name of their father and grandfather, but they carry it with dignity in modern society. For example, Ribbentrop's grandson, Dominic, working as a safe-seller, studies in depth the historical documents of the war, considers himself obliged to know the whole truth about that period.
