Nazi Germany’s foreign minister, he played a key role in negotiating the German-Soviet nonaggression pact.
Joachim von Ribbentrop served as Germany’s foreign minister from 1938 to 1945. He played a key role in negotiating the 1939 German-Soviet nonaggression pact, which made possible Germany’s invasion of Poland that September. He also directed diplomatic efforts to persuade Axis partners to deport Jews to German killing centers and to hand over their Jewish citizens in Germany to deportation. The International Military Tribunal convicted him on all four counts and sentenced him to death; he was hanged on October 16, 1946.
Activities and affiliations
- Diplomacy and international organization · Germany state institutions
Career Timeline
- 1938–1945German foreign minister
Related historical events
- 1939.08–1940.08The Nazi-Soviet Pact and the Partition of Eastern EuropeGerman foreign minister who negotiated the pactHe played a key role in negotiating the 1939 German-Soviet nonaggression pact.
- 1940–1944The French Resistance and the Liberation of Franceforeign minister pressing deportations in occupied FranceIn February 1943, he protested to Mussolini about the slow deportation of Jews from the Italian-occupied zone of France.
Diplomacy for Aggression and Jewish Deportations
The International Military Tribunal’s judgment documented how Ribbentrop used diplomacy as part of Nazi Germany’s aggressive policies. He attended a conference on August 12, 1939, to seek Italian support in case an attack on Poland led to a general European war. From August 25 to 30, he discussed German demands concerning Danzig and the Polish Corridor with the British ambassador, while knowing that the planned attack had only been temporarily postponed as Germany tried to induce Britain to abandon its guarantee to Poland. The Tribunal concluded that Ribbentrop had not conducted these discussions in good faith to reach a settlement. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, he signed the law establishing the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. In March 1941, two days after assuring Yugoslavia that Germany would respect its sovereignty and territorial integrity, he attended a meeting where plans to destroy Yugoslavia were made.
The Foreign Office under his direction also participated in the persecution and deportation of Jews. According to the judgment, in September 1942 Ribbentrop ordered German diplomatic representatives in Axis satellite states to hasten the deportation of Jews to the East. In February 1943, he protested to Mussolini about the slow deportation of Jews from the Italian-occupied zone of France. At a meeting between Hitler and Hungarian Regent Miklós Horthy in April 1943, he said that Jews “must either be exterminated or taken to concentration camps.” The Tribunal found that Ribbentrop’s diplomatic work was closely connected with aggression and that he assisted in implementing criminal policies in occupied territories, particularly the extermination of Jews; it found him guilty on all four counts.