Joachim von Ribbentrop (born Joachim Ribbentrop) (April 30, 1893–October 16, 1946) was the Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany from 1938 until 1945.
Ribbentrop was born in Wesel, Niederrhein, the son of the officer Ulrich Friedrich Joachim Ribbentrop. Fluent in French and English, Ribbentrop lived several years abroad, working from 1910 to 1914 in Canada as an importer of German wines. He served in the Army during World War I, finally as a first lieutenant, and was awarded the Iron Cross. He then became a diplomat, stationed in Constantinople. Ribbentrop married into a wealthy champagne producing family and travelled Europe selling the family firm's wares. Ribbentrop convinced his aunt, whose husband had been knighted, to adopt him, allowing him to add von to his name. A wealthy champagne merchant, he joined the National Socialist party in 1932. Two years earlier, in 1930, he had met and impressed Adolf Hitler with his knowledge of titled foreigners. He became Hitler's favourite foreign policy advisor and was a great admirer of Hitler. In 1933 he was given the title of SS-Standartenführer.
He was Minister Plenipotentiary at Large (1935 - 1936) and negotiated the Anglo-German Naval Agreement in 1935 and the Anti-Comintern Pact in 1936, in August 1936 he was appointed Ambassador to Britain. While in Britain, his son, Rudolf von Ribbentrop, attended the Westminster School in London. In 1938 he succeeded Konstantin von Neurath as Foreign Minister in the German government. He played a role in the German annexation of Bohemia and Moravia (1938), in the conclusion of the Russo-German nonaggression pact, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939, and in the diplomatic action surrounding the attack on Poland.
Ribbentrop liked Stalin and was against the attack on the USSR in 1941. He passed a word to a Russian diplomat: "Please tell Stalin I was against this war, and that I know it will bring big misfortune to Germany".
Ribbentrop had culpability in the Holocaust for persuading the leaders of satellite countries of the Third Reich to deport Jews to the Nazi extermination camps at the behest of Hitler. He generally earned a reputation as a lackey of Hitler, noteworthy more for fanatical loyalty than for any independent competence at foreign affairs.
At the end of World War II, Ribbentrop was dismissed by acting President, Admiral Karl Dönitz, but he was a defendant at the Nuremberg Trials and was found guilty by the Allies of all charges they put against him. Since Hermann Göring had committed suicide a few hours prior to the time of execution, Ribbentrop was the first war criminal to be hanged on the night of October 16, 1946. His last words were "Gott schuetzt Deutschland!" (God protect Germany).
In 1953 Ribbentrop's memoirs, Zwischen London und Moskau, were published.
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