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Ribbentrop: The fall of the Nazi foreign minister 80 years ago!
On June 14, 1945, the former Reich Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop was arrested by the British military police in Flensburg.
Ribbentrop: The fall of the Nazi foreign minister 80 years ago!
On June 14, 1945, the escape of one of the most famous and controversial politicians of the Third Reich, Joachim von Ribbentrop, ended. He, who was born in Wesel on April 30, 1893 and enjoyed a steep rise in politics, including his role as Reich Foreign Minister, was arrested by the British military police and British intelligence. NDR reports that Ribbentrop spent the last days of his freedom in Hamburg, where he went into hiding under the code name “Riese”.
Ribbentrop had a very special plan to finance his escape to South America: He wanted to sell valuable shipments of cognac with the help of a wine merchant. But fate had other plans. The son of an acquaintance betrayed him, and he was finally identified during a fake meeting with his sister. Despite a poison capsule he was carrying, Ribbentrop decided not to take his own life.
From soldier to diplomat
Growing up in a family that lived in different cities, including Kassel and Metz, Ribbentrop had an unconventional childhood. He was athletic, played the violin, but didn't have much luck in school. After attending various schools and a stay in Canada, where he also had a short career in ice hockey, he enlisted in the First World War in 1914. For his services he was awarded the Iron Cross.
After the war, he founded a wine trading company and in 1920 married Anna Elisabeth Henkell, the daughter of the owner of the Henkell & Co sparkling wine cellar. The two had five children. Around 1932, Ribbentrop joined the Nazi Party and quickly established quiet relations with Adolf Hitler, which earned him the position of foreign policy advisor in 1934. Wikipedia explains that From 1935 he headed the “Ribbentrop Office”, which played a central role in National Socialist foreign policy.
War and its consequences
His career culminated in his appointment as Reich Foreign Minister in 1938. In this position, he actively pursued the Third Reich's aggressive foreign policy and was responsible, among other things, for the German-Soviet non-aggression pact, which initiated the division of Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union.
But like many other high-ranking members of the Nazi regime, Ribbentrop also had to accept Germany's bitter defeat in World War II. In the last months of the war he fled Berlin and planned his escape via the “Rat Line North” to Flensburg. An elaborate plan in which he had gold bars worth five million Reichsmarks and valuable cognac transported in order to secure himself financially.
On October 1, 1946, the Nuremberg Tribunal finally found Ribbentrop guilty of several charges, including conspiracy and crimes against peace. According to NDR He was executed on October 16, 1946, and his ashes are said to have been scattered into the Wenzbach. An eventful life that left its mark on history in its own way and whose work is still remembered today.