Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop served as Nazi Germany's Foreign Minister from 1938 until the end of the war. A wine merchant who acquired the aristocratic 'von' by dubious adoption, he came to Hitler's attention in the early 1930s when his villa provided a discreet meeting place for Hitler and political conservatives. As Ambassador to Britain (1936-1938) he proved catastrophically unsuited to the role, returning to Berlin convinced the British would never fight — a misreading that contributed to the calculations behind the war. As Foreign Minister, his greatest coup was the Non-Aggression Pact with the Soviet Union signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939, which freed Germany to invade Poland without a two-front war. Contemptuous and arrogant, he was despised even within the Nazi leadership — Goering called him 'Germany's number one parrot.' He was arrested at war's end, tried at Nuremberg, convicted of war crimes and crimes against peace, and became the first senior Nazi to be hanged on 16 October 1946.
- Lived: 1893 CE – 1946 CE
- Nationality: German
- Roles: foreign_minister, diplomat, nazi_official
