Branch: Government
Born: 29 October 1879 in Germany
Died: 2 May 1969 in Obersasbach, West Germany
Appointment's:
Chancellor of Germany 1 June 1932 to 17 December 1932
Vice-Chancellor of Germany 30 January 1933 to 7 August 1934
Minister President of Prussia 20 July 1932 to 3 December 1932
Decorations:
Other: Personnel
Articles:
Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Köningen
was born on 29 October 1879 in Germany and was a German nobleman,
Roman Catholic monarchist politician, and General Staff officer,
and diplomat, who served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932
and as Vice-chancellor under
Adolf
Hitler in 1933 to 1934. A member of the Catholic Centre
Party until 1932, he was one of the most influential members
of the group of close advisers to President
Paul
von Hindenburg in the late Weimar Republic. It was largely
Franz von Papen, believing that
Adolf
Hitler could be controlled once he was in the government,
who persuaded
Paul
von Hindenburg to put aside his scruples and approve
Adolf
Hitler as Chancellor in a cabinet not under National Socialist
Party domination. However, Franz von Papen and his allies
were quickly marginalised by
Adolf
Hitler and he left the government after the Night of the
Long Knives, during which some of his confidants were killed
by the Nazis.
Born to a wealthy and noble Roman Catholic family in Werl,
Province of Westphalia, son of Friedrich von Papen zu Köningen
1839 to 1906 and wife Anna Laura von Steffens 1852 to 1939,
Franz von Papen was educated as an officer, including a period
as a military attendant in the Kaiser's Palace, before joining
the German General Staff in March 1913. He entered diplomatic
service in December 1913 as a military attaché to the
German ambassador in the United States. He travelled to Mexico
to which he was also accredited in early 1914 and observed
the Mexican Revolution, returning to Washington, DC on the
outbreak of World War I in August 1914. He married Martha
von Boch-Galhau 1880 to 1961 on 3 May 1905.
Franz von Papen was expelled from the United States during
World War I for alleged complicity in the planning of sabotage
such as blowing up U.S. Rail lines. On 28 December 1915, he
was declared persona non grata after his exposure and recalled
to Germany. En route, his luggage was confiscated, and 126
check stubs were found showing payments to his agents. Franz
von Papen went on to report on American attitudes, to both
General
Erich
von Falkenhayn and
Wilhelm
II, German Emperor.
In April 1916, a United States federal grand jury issued an
indictment against Franz von Papen for a plot to blow up Canada's
Welland Canal, which connects Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, but
Franz von Papen was then safely home he remained under indictment
until he became Chancellor of Germany, at which time the charges
were dropped. Later in World War I, Franz von Papen served
as an officer first on the Western Front, from 1917 as an
officer on the General Staff in the Middle East, and as a
major in the Ottoman army in Palestine.
Franz von Papen also served as intermediary between the Irish
Volunteers and the German government regarding the purchase
and delivery of arms to be used against the British during
the Easter Rising of 1916, as well as serving as an intermediary
with the Indian nationalists in the Hindu German Conspiracy.
Promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, he returned to
Germany and left the army at the war's end in 1918.
He entered politics and joined the Catholic Centre Party (Zentrum),
in which the monarchist Franz von Papen formed part of the
conservative wing. He was a member of the parliament of Prussia
from 1921 to 1932.
In the 1925 presidential elections, he surprised his party
by supporting the right-wing candidate
Paul
von Hindenburg over the Centre Party's Wilhelm Marx.
He was a member of the Deutscher Herrenklub (German Gentlemen's
Club) of Arthur Moeller van den Bruck.
Chancellor Franz von Papen (left) with his eventual successor,
Minister of Defence Kurt von Schleicher On 1 June 1932 he
moved from relative obscurity to supreme importance when President
Paul
von Hindenburg appointed him Chancellor, even though this
meant replacing his own party's Heinrich Brüning.
The day before, he had promised party chairman Ludwig Kaas
not to accept any appointment. After he broke his pledge,
Kaas branded him the Ephialtes of the Centre Party Franz von
Papen forestalled being expelled by leaving the party on 3
June 1932.
The French ambassador in Berlin, André François-Poncet,
wrote at the time that Franz von Papen's selection by
Paul
von Hindenburg as chancellor met with incredulity. Franz
von Papen, the ambassador continued, enjoyed the peculiarity
of being taken seriously by neither his friends nor his enemies.
He was reputed to be superficial, blundering, untrue, ambitious,
vain, crafty and an intriguer
The cabinet which Franz von Papen formed, with the assistance
of General Kurt von Schleicher, was known as the cabinet of
barons or as the cabinet of monocles and was widely regarded
with ridicule by Germans. Except from the conservative German
National People's Party (DNVP), Franz von Papen had practically
no support in the Reichstag.
Franz von Papen ruled in an authoritarian manner by launching
a coup against the centre-left coalition government of Prussia
(the so-called Preußenschlag) and repealing his predecessor's
ban on the SA as a way to appease the Nazis, whom he hoped
to lure into supporting his government. Riots resulted on
the streets of Berlin, as 461 battles between Communists and
the SA took place, leading to the deaths of 82 lives on both
sides. Berlin was put on military shutdown and von Franz von
Papen sent men to arrest the Prussian authorities, whom he
suspected of being in league with the Communists. Hereafter,
von Franz von Papen declared himself commander of the Prussian
region, further weakening the democracy of the Weimar Republic.
Soon afterward, Franz von Papen called an election for July
1932 in hopes of getting a majority in the Reichstag. However,
he didn't even come close in fact, the Nazis gained 123 seats
to become the largest party. When this Reichstag first assembled,
Franz von Papen obtained in advance from
Paul
von Hindenburg a decree to dissolve it. He initially did
not bring it along, having received a promise that there would
be an immediate objection to an expected Communist motion
of censure. However, when no one objected, Franz von Papen
ordered one of his messengers to get the order. When he demanded
the floor in order to read it, newly elected Reichstag president
Hermann
Göring pretended not to see him his Nazis had decided
to support the Communist motion. The censure vote passed overwhelmingly,
forcing another election.
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