Joachim von Ribbentrop: biography, the main dates and events of life

Joachim von Ribbentrop is one of the key figures who made history during the Second World War. This man is best known as Germany's Foreign Minister and one of Adolf Hitler's close associates with the Reich Chancellor during the years of the Führer's in power. This article is devoted to key events in the life of the Reich Minister since his birth on April 30, 1893 and ending with the death penalty in the course of the Nuremberg trial in October 1946. In order to have a clearer idea of the personality of Ribbentrop, we need to trace and analyze in turn the most important, sometimes fateful moments of his life.

Childhood

Von Ribbentrop, whose biography is presented below, was born in a small German fortress town of Wesel. His parents were considered educated people, provided with wealth, could boast of a noble lineage.

The mother, unfortunately, died as far back as 1902 from illness, so both sons were brought up in rigor and discipline by their father Richard Ulrich Friedrich Joachim Ribbentrop, prime-lieutenant of the artillery regiment. Young Joachim was provided with an excellent education for those years. In connection with the fact that his father was sent to various parts of Germany, his sons had both English and French languages since childhood, and improved them in college. From his mother Ribbentrop, the youngest, was given a love of music: playing the violin became an integral part of his life.

Youth and first career steps

Even in his teens he managed to live with several years in Switzerland, England, America (New York), Canada, through profitable parenting. In the latter Joachim also settled, because there were created favorable conditions for building a career. During his stay in Montreal, he managed to try himself in banking, and as a transport controller. However, having moved to Ottawa by invitation, Ribbentrop wanted to start a business of his own, correctly invest in the inherited capital.

Activities during the First World War

In 1914, not wishing to remain aloof from military operations, Ribbentrop left Canada and is sent to serve in the cavalry front-line regiment. It fights both on the Eastern and on the Western Front. In 1918, being already a senior lieutenant, he was noted for his military merits and injuries 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 consciously resigned, feeling helpless in opposing the Treaty of Versailles. 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 the Weimar Republic, which undergoes economic disruption, it was impossible to make a solid state of itself, so Ribbentrop decides to return to Canada, Ottawa, where his long-time friends remained. Literally for a year he manages to get into a firm for the import of cotton and to conduct a number of successful transactions, which made it possible to quickly get rich and establish new meaningful acquaintances.

1919-20s he remembered later with special warmth, because at this time his relationship with future wife Annelies Henkel, which bore him five children, was fastened. The most famous of them will be in the future one of the sons - Rudolf Ribbentrop, which is narrated at the end of the article.

The marriage union was actually a happy one, and very profitable, too, since Father Anneliesz offered his son-in-law the place of co-owner of his own branch firm in Berlin, which purchases and delivers wines from abroad. This business helped Joachim von Ribbentrop by 1924 to open his own company for trade in imported alcohol "Schoenberg and Ribbentrop." The company began to bring a considerable income, which enabled its owner to join the supreme society of Berlin.

In the second half of the 1920s, Ribbentrop restored contact with the Reich Chancellor Franz von Papen. At the same time, being confident of his own strength and influence, he sets the task to change the policy of his native country, which has weakened over the years.

Acquaintance with Adolf Hitler and joining the NSDAP

Von Ribbentrop negatively perceived the Treaty of Versailles, which, in his opinion, ravaged and oppressed the Weimar Republic. Realizing that the then government with its vague policy and 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 sympathy to the National Socialists.

It was after acquaintance with Hitler and his plans for Germany that von Ribbentrop joined both his party and the SS, becoming the Standartenfiihrer, and began to advance the future Fuhrer to the post of Reich Chancellor in place of Paul von Hindenburg. To this end, he organized numerous negotiations between the current and potential leaders of the country, and for their meetings offered his own villa in Dahlem. In addition, business contacts with wealthy people of Germany were also useful to him: Joachim von Ribbentrop skillfully urged them to help financially the nationalists. Thus, it can be admitted that Hitler was given enormous material and spiritual support from the newly-made National Socialist. For this Hitler, having seized unlimited power, appointed him his foreign policy adviser.

First diplomatic successes

The Fuhrer did not accidentally trust Ribbentrop with many important assignments, as he understood that this man is different from the rest of the diplomatic corps. His adviser was fluent in English and French, had an idea of the mentality, politics of England and France. Hitler often consulted about relations with these countries with Ribbentrop and sent him to London and Paris with various missions, for example those connected with disarmament. And if negotiations with France failed, then from Great Britain he brought Hitler in 1935 an agreement in which the necessary ratio of English and German fleets was fixed 100: 35, and the chances for the development of friendly relations between the countries.

A separate item can not fail to mention the creation of the 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 headed him personally, therefore it is not surprising that among the future diplomats there were quite a few natives of the SS. Later, all the staff of the Foreign Ministry on his orders will be included in these security units.

Another merit of von Ribbentrop was the conclusion in 1936-37 of the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan and Italy for the joint containment of communist influence from the East. The union of these countries remained until the end of the Second World War and until the last attempt to prevent communism in any of its manifestations.

New Imperial Minister of Foreign Affairs

In 1938, Ribbentrop received the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs, becoming the successor to von Neurath. From this moment his relations with his colleagues have deteriorated. Firstly, he did not tolerate excessive independence in matters of foreign policy, which was abused by the same Reichsführer SS Himmler or the Reichsleiter Rosenberg department. Constantly, a great number of disagreements arose between them about Masons, churches, Scandinavian countries, Jews, etc.

Secondly, many rebuked the new minister in fawning before Hitler, inability to defend his own proposals. Ribbentrop himself (the memoirs recorded by him in 1946, this confirm) partially acknowledged this, explaining that the Fuhrer was such a strong and charismatic figure that even the most persistent and recalcitrant people easily obeyed him, afraid to contradict him. Nevertheless, he justified himself by the fact that Hitler was inclined to take spontaneous decisions, and not only von Ribbentrop was unable to convince him.

Prewar activities

In his new position, the imperial foreign minister had several tasks: Austria, Memel, Sudetenland and Danzig. Ribbentrop fully supported the Fuehrer in striving to annex Austria and the Sudeten Germans to the Reich, therefore he invested in this maximum of strength: he arranged meetings with the Austrian ambassador, held talks with British Prime Minister Chamberlain, participated in the preparation of the Munich agreement. It was not without aggression, later he was accused of ill-treatment of the Jewish population, because he, like Hitler, wanted his extermination. As for Poland, in his memoirs von Ribbentrop asserts that he did not know about the preparation of the war with her and used all his diplomatic talents for the peaceful settlement of disputable issues. However, the facts say the opposite, because he could not foresee the military confrontation with the Poles because of his position.

Relations with the USSR on the eve of the war

The initiator of the restoration of ties and negotiations between the two countries was precisely Joachim von Ribbentrop, who long persuaded Hitler of the need to establish contacts with the Soviet Union. In his view, this would have allowed Russian neutrality in the event of a war with Poland, to conclude a profitable economic deal, and also more confidently to appear before the Western countries. After numerous requests for talks, Stalin agreed to meet with the German plenipotentiary. Despite anti-communist views, the Führer sent a Ribbentrop mission to the USSR, because he personally drafted the German-Russian Non-Aggression Pact and was seriously committed to signing it.

The culmination of the career is the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement of August 23, 1939

This event went down in history together with a lot of disputes that accompany it to this day. In fact, it is not easy to explain how a successful nonaggression pact, in which both sides were interested, turned into a massive bloody war. However, in 1939 neither Germany nor the USSR planned any military interventions in each other's policy; on the contrary, it was not friendship that was established between countries (in view of the preservation of different ideological ideologies), but a mutually beneficial relationship. As the German foreign minister writes in his memoirs, their foreign policy department had a bad image of the Soviet Union, Stalin and Stalin saw it as a mystical figure. Ribbentrop did not expect such a quick and warm reception that was given to him, and the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov and the leader of the Soviet Union were surprisingly agreeable and compromise politicians. Thus, Germany and the Soviet Union approved mutual neutrality in the event of either side entering the war and abandoned external aggression against each other.

Among other things, a secret Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was signed that divided Eastern Europe and the Baltic states into areas of interest. The USSR took control of most of the Baltic countries, Finland, Bessarabia, and Lithuania and western Poland withdrew to Germany. Later, on September 28, the demarcation line between them after the German-Polish war was adjusted and fixed in the Treaty of Friendship and Borders. 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, models of cars, etc.

Ribbentrop in the early 1940s

With the outbreak of the war against the USSR, more and more disagreements arose between Hitler and the Foreign Ministry, which led to the fact that the Foreign Minister together with his department were literally isolated from the policy in the East. Von Ribbentrop loses his influence at this time, increasingly his position is at odds with the position of the Fuhrer. This leads to the fact that by 1945 he himself resigns from the minister. After the defeat of Germany, he and his family hide in Hamburg, where they arrest him.

The Nuremberg Trials

On October 16, 1946, the execution of sentenced German figures was held, which were found guilty of crimes against peace, in various violations of a military nature. Ribbentrop for his illegal activities was to be punished by hanging. His graves were not preserved, because the ashes were scattered.

Prolongers of the genus

After his death, his wife Annelies Henkel published in 1953 her husband's memoirs, edited and supplemented them with the necessary information. Speaking of children, Ribbentrop's son Rudolf is most famous. He, becoming a member of the standard of the SS, took part in wars with Poland and France. He is a veteran of the war against the USSR, he 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 a presentation in Russia. Children and grandchildren have a hard time having the surname of their father and grandfather, but they bear it with dignity in modern society. For example, the grandson of Ribbentrop, Dominic, working as a safe seller, studies in depth the historical documents of the times of the war, considers himself obliged to know the whole truth about that period.