Branch: Government
Born: 2 February 1873 in Kleinglattbach German Empire.
Died: 14 August 1956 in Enzweihingen, West Germany.
Appointment's:
Reich Minister of Foreign Affairs 1 June 1932 to 4 February
1938
Weimar Republic 1 June 1932 to 4 February 1938
Nazi Germany 1 June 1932 to 4 February 1938
Protector of Bohemia and Moravia 21 March 1939 to 24 August
1943.
Decorations:
Other: Personnel
Articles:
Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath was born on 2 February 1873
in Kleinglattbach German Empire and became 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, Konstantin von 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 would result in
Adolf
Hitler replacing Konstantin von Neurath with the more
compliant and fervent Nazi
Joachim
von Ribbentrop.
Konstantin von Neurath served as Reichsprotektor
of Bohemia and Moravia between 1939 and 1943, but
after being sidelined for SS-Obergruppenführer
Reinhard
Heydrich his authority became nominal. He was tried
as war criminal in Nuremberg and sentenced to fifteen years
imprisonment for his compliance and actions in the Nazi
regime.
Konstantin von Neurath was born at the manor of Kleinglattbach
since 1972 part of Vaihingen an der Enz in Württemberg,
the scion of a Swabian dynasty of Freiherren. His grandfather
Constantin Franz von Konstantin von Neurath had served as
Foreign Minister under King Charles I of Württemberg
reigned 1864 to 1891 his father Konstantin Sebastian von Konstantin
von Neurath 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 Württemberg
in 1904, as Lord Chamberlain to King William II, he was
created an Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian
Order. Konstantin von 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 Konstantin von Neurath married Marie Auguste
Moser von Filseck 1875 to 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 to 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.
In 1919 Konstantin von 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.
Konstantin von 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
Adolf
Hitler's rule, Konstantin von Neurath lent an aura of
respectability to
Adolf
Hitler's expansionist foreign policy.
In May 1933, the American chargé d'affaires reported
that Baron von Konstantin 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 remilitarisation of the Rhineland. In 1937, Konstantin
von Neurath became a member of the National Socialist Party. He was awarded
the Golden Party Badge and was given the honorary rank of
a Gruppenführer in the SS.
Nevertheless on 4 February 1938, Konstantin von 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, 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. He was also named as president of the Secret
Cabinet Council, a purported super-cabinet to advise
Adolf
Hitler's on foreign affairs. However, this body only existed
on paper.
In March 1939, Konstantin von Neurath was appointed Reichsprotektor
of occupied Bohemia and Moravia, serving as
Adolf
Hitler's personal representative in the protectorate.
Adolf Hitler's
chose Konstantin von Neurath in part to pacify the international
outrage over the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. Soon
after his arrival at Prague Castle, Konstantin von 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,
Adolf
Hitler felt his rule was too lenient, and in September
1941 he was relieved of his day-to-day powers and replaced
by
Reinhard
Heydrich and Kurt Daluege. Konstantin von Neurath already
attempted 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.
Late in the war, Konstantin von Neurath had contacts with
the German resistance
Konstantin von Neurath was tried at the Nuremberg Trials in
1946, where he was defended by Otto von Lüdinghausen.
The Allies accused him of conspiracy to commit crimes
against peace planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression
war crimes and crimes against humanity. Konstantin von
Neurath's chief defence strategy was predicated on the fact
that his successor and fellow defendant
Joachim
von Ribbentrop was more culpable for the atrocities committed
in the Nazi state. The International Military Tribunal acknowledged
the fact that von Konstantin von 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 Konstantin
von 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.
Konstantin von 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, having 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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