Hitler's first foreign minister and Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, convicted at Nuremberg
From a Swabian baronial family, he joined the Foreign Office in 1901 and was ambassador to Italy and Britain. Foreign minister as an independent in Papen's cabinet from 1932, he stayed on under Hitler and lent respectability to his expansionist policy: leaving the League of Nations, the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the remilitarisation of the Rhineland. He became a Nazi Party member in 1937 and received honorary SS rank. After objecting to the timing of war at the Hossbach conference he was replaced by Ribbentrop in 1938. As Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia from 1939 he banned parties and trade unions and crushed student protests (1,200 sent to camps, nine executed), but lost real power to Heydrich in 1941. Convicted on all four counts at Nuremberg, he was sentenced to fifteen years and released in 1954.
Also known as: Konstantin Hermann Karl Freiherr von Neurath
Activities and affiliations
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1901–1932
Germany state institutionsAmbassador to Italy and Britain
Diplomacy and international organization -
1932–1938
Germany state institutionsForeign MinisterMain
Diplomacy and international organization -
1937–1945
Diplomacy and international organization
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1939–1943
Germany state institutionsReich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia
Government and administration
Career Timeline
- 1901Joins the Foreign Office
- 1921–1930Ambassador to Italy
- 1930–1932Ambassador to Britain
- 1932–1938Foreign Minister (Papen, Schleicher and Hitler cabinets)
- 1939–1943Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia
- 1946Sentenced to fifteen years at Nuremberg