The Wilmington morning star., 1944-10-29
V0N PAPEN FAMED
FOR DOUBLE DEALS
BY LOUIS LOCHNER
(Former Chief of the Associated
Press Berlin Breau)


Press Berlin Bureau)
NEW YORK, Oct. 28.-RECrafty
Baron Franz Won Papen may i'm
dulge in his passion for the dan.
gerous life once too often, if and
when he offers himself as Ger
man Darlan or Badoglio to the
United Nations. His record for in
trigue and international double
crossing entities the United Nations
to place Franz Won Papen high on
the list Of war criminals.
The former dashing cavalry Of
ficer plunged into diplomacy and
statecraft in the m reckless
manner with which he used to take
obstacles in steeplechases. He un-
seated the last Republican chan
cellor. Heinrich Bruening, by paint
ing Bruening to aging President
Paul Won Hindenburg as an eco
nomic radical who was bent upon
breaking up the vast estates of the
east Prussian Junkers. He had
himself appointed chancellor on
the promise, as he himself once
told me, 'tnat he would give the
Nazsi enough rope to hang them
selves with"
When he realized that the Nazi
movement was stronger than he
had foreseen. he reversed himself,
brought Hitler into contact with
Baron Kurt Won Schroeder and 9TH
er leading Rhenish Westphaalian
bankers and industrialists, and
even persuaded the doddering, oc-
togenarian president to offer the
chancellorship to Adolf Hitler.
Won Papen thus is directly re-
sponsible for the sensational rise
of Germany's intuition corporal to
political power.
Hitler's stock was at lowest ebb
when Won Papen brought him the
financial support of some OF Ger
many's richest men. His personal
standing with Germany's soldier
president was one of mutual dis
dain, when suddenly Won Papen
prevailed upon the field marshal
and corporal to become political
bedfellows.
Like Germany's other outstand-
ing will o the wisp politico, DR..
Hjalmar Schacht, Won Papen is
fond of giving the impression that
he is not a Nazi. Yet he willingly
helped them in all their diplomatic
and political scullduggery and oft
en- rendered the Nazi cause much
greater service than a dyed-in-the
wool Nazi party member could
have rendered.
Cashing in on his title of papal
Chamberlain, he succeeded in ne
gotiating a concordat for Nazi Ger
many with the Holy See in 1888. He
persuaded the Austrian chancellor,
Kurt Won Schuschnigg, to overcome
his reluctance about meeting Adolf
Hitler, and to go to the fatefu
meeting at Berchtesgaden in Feb
ruary, 1888 which sealed the doom
of the Austrian republic.
Won Papen became past mas
ter at using hunting parties for in
ternational intrigues. Hunts in Hun
gary, Poland, and Sweden nad
their immediate political repercus-
sions in better relations of these
countries with Adolf Hitler's Third
Reich.
He thus was of great value to
Hitler, even though der Fuehrer'
more rabid followers like Hmm
Ter and Goebbels never quite trust
ed the willy diplomat and arlsto-
crat. It is also commonly believed
in Germany that Won Papen has
hold on Hitler by his knowledge OF
the terms of Won Hindenburg's will.
If anything uptoward were to hap
pen to Won Papen at Nazi hands,
Germans in the know believe the
text of the Hindenburg will would
be released.
During the notorious purge OF
June 30, 1894, the chief of Won
Papen's vice chancellory, Hubert
Won Bose was killed by the Nazls
lust after his long conversation
with the Catholic Bishop of Trier,
through whom he sought to per-
suade the Catholics of the Saar
valley to vote in favor of the Saar's
return to Germany in the pending
plebiscite. Several minor members
of Won Papen's staff were tortured
in concentration camps during that
purge, Yet Won Papen did nothing
for the men under him.