Evening star., 1939-08-27

beaten to its knees, disarmed. placed
under heavy burden of reparations and
labeled pariah nation by the victorious
Allies. This experience, his friends say,
had much to do with his later espousal
OF the Nazi cause and his determination
to help free Germany from its chains.
Between the war's.end and the Nazi
revolution, Won Ribbentrop was known
only to his own circle of friends. He, like
his father law, went into the cham
pagne business and reputedly amassed
considerable money on his own account.
Won Papen a Friend.
Won Ribbentrop had very influential
friend in Berlin-Herr Franz Won Papen,
an aristocrat of the imperial regime a
former military attache of the German
Embassy in Washington and vice chan
cellor of the German Reich Through
Won Papen he met many people of po-
itical prominence.
Meanwhile, Won Ribbentrop had be-
come interested in the Nazi movement
and had formed a contact with Hitler
Knowing both men, it was he who ar
Aoii6Co VIC DSlWS6U
them at the home of Baron Won Schroe-
der, at which Herr Hitlers first entry
into the government was arranged.
When the Nazis first came to power
there were only few men of education,
rank and wealth in the party Won
Ribbentrop was one of this small mi
nority Not only was his social position
in Berlin high but he had Travelled widely
abroad, had many friends in London
and Paris society and possessed a good
working knowledge of international poll
tics
Hitler distrusted the professional diplo-
mats in the Wilhelmstrasse, men who
had come to power under the Kaiser or
the Weimar regime, and soon turned
more and more to Won Ribbentrop for
advice on foreign relations. In time the
amateur diplomats position was formal
lied by his being made head of the
foreign section of the Nazi party.
Two Foreign Offices.
His quarters were next to the Will
helmstrasse. Germany had, in reality,
two foreign Offices. One-the official
one-carried on the routine of interna-
tional relations-granted passports and
visas, made political and economical re-
ports and kept the normal wheels of
diplomacy turning. The other-Von Rib
bentrop's organization-really deter
mined, under Hitler's monitorship-the
foreign policy of the Reich. This situa-
ton existed until February, 1888, when
Won Ribbentrop was made Foreign Min
lister in name as well as in fact.
Won Ribbentrop's first official title was
commissioner for disarmament. When
Germany left the futile disarmament de-
liberations at Geneva, he was given the
title of Ambassador at Large. It was
in this capacity that he negotiated the
Anglo German naval agreement, one of
Hitler's first major triumphs in the field
of diplomacy. 1t he was, also, who nego-
tiated the German-Japanese anti Com
intern pact in 1886, then regarded as
cloaking a coalition against Russia. Its
present status, in view of the German
Russian rapprochement, is one of the
many current enigmas in world diplo
macy.
Following this, Won Ribbentrop spent
the next two years d936-38) as Herr
Hitler's Ambassador in London, with the
results already outlined.
Rose at Time Of Purge.
Won Ribbentrop assembled to his pres
ent peak of power in February, 1888, at
the time of the political purge of the
Nazi regime, which prefaced the Third
Reichs program of territorial expansion.
1t had been obvious for some time
that an internal struggle was going on
in the German government between the
moderates and the aggressive left-wing
elements. This struggle reached a crisis
just before the invasion of Austria, when
Hitler dismissed his commander in chief
of the army, Won Fritsch, and IA other
high-ranking officers and filled their
posts with men more sympathetic toward
his own ideas. At the same time he
removed the veteran Foreign Minister