Benutzer:Zsasz/Errata (Zeitungsartikel)

• • Rheinischer Merkur vom 18. Dezember 1959
• Meinungsgbildung in der Kirche
  • Ein Schlusswort zur Diskussion über den Fall Papen
  • Seit dem bitteren Kampf um dne Europäische Verteidigungsgemeinschaft sind der Redaktion des Rheinischen Merkur nicht mehr so viele Zuschriften zugegangen wie zu dem Artikel "Ein Ärgernis" vom 30. Oktober 1959. Nur ein Bruchteil von ihnen konnte veröffentlicht werden; von den mehreren hundert Briefen nehmen nicht ganz fünf Prozent gegen den Artikel Stellung, was natürlich noch nicht heißt, dass diese fünf Prozent auch für Herrn von Papen Stellung nähmen. Dies ist nur bei einem Prozent der Zuschriften der Fall. Aber es gibt Leute, die der Ansicht sind, es wäre besser gewesen, die ganze Affaire mit Stillschweigen zu quittieren und das Genick einzuziehen, bis die nichtchristlichen Organe ihre Breitseiten abgeschossen hätten. Durch "Ein Ärgernis" sei die wünschenswerte geschlossenheit der katholischen Front verletzt und den Kirchengegnern das unerquickliche Schauspiel eines Familienstreites geliefert worden.
  • Abgesehen davon, dass es Gewissensfragen gibt, die auch auf die Gefahr unerwünschter Nebenwirkungen hin behandelt werden müssen, hat das "Schauspiel auf die Außenstehenden gar nicht so unerquicklich gewirkt. Im Gegenteil. Auf viele hat es einen durchaus positiven Eindruck gemacht, daß das Papstwort von der Meinungsfreiheit im Schoße der Kirche "in den Dingen, die der freien Erörterung überlassen sind" (Pius XII. vor dem Weltkongress der katholischen Presse in Rom am 17. Februar 1950) kein leerer Wahn ist, sondern befolgt wird.
  • Es lag auch ganz im Sinne jener Papstrede und des von ihr erörterten Zusammenwirkens von "Hirten und Gläubigen" im Prozess der Meinungsbildung, daß der Kölner Erzbischof sich selbst an der Diskussion über den Fall Papen beteiligte. Bei dem Empfang des Apostolischen Nuntius in der Bonner Beethoven-Halle am 4. November 1959 führte Kardinal Frings mit Bezug auf Papst Joahnnes XXIII. u.a. folgendes aus:
  • Väterliche Güte ist das hervorstechendste Moment seiner Natur. Er hat sie schon als Nuntius in Paris gegenüber den deutschen Kriegsgefangenen bewiesen, richtete für die Theologen unter ihnen das Seminar in Chartres ein und hat mehreren von ihnen selbst die Priesterweihe erteilt. Vielen Gefangenen hat er zur Freiheit verholfen oder sie vor dem Tode bewahrt. In Rom hat er durch seine Besuche im Gefängnis und am Krankenbett, durch seine Sorge für die wirtschaftlichen Belange namentlich der kleinen Angestellten alle Herzen gewonnen. Wenn er in der Verleihung kirchlicher Auszeichnungen weitherzig verfahren ist, so möge das bei diesem Seelsorgerpapst nicht politisch gewertet werden,und es erscheintm ir wenig höflich und wenig dankbar,wenn man in der Öffentlichkeit daraus einen großen Fall konstruiert. Man denke lieber an die Alterweisheit Verdis, der im Schlusschor seines Falstaff veront hat."
  • Der Text der Schluss-Fuge in Verdis "Falstatt" lautet:
  • Alles ist spaß auf Erden,/ Wir sind geborene Toren, ja Toren/ Glauben wir weise zu werden,/ dann sind wir dümmer noch als zuvor/ Besser lacht wohl keiner/ als wer am Ende noch lacht."
  • Mit diesem "Falstaff"-Zitat hat Kardinal Frings auf eine sehr noble und humorvolle Weise den gazen Wust von Erklärungen, Verlautbarungen, Vermutungen und Deutungen beiseitegeschoben und den Fall Papen in die Perspektive des distnazierten und überlegneen Betrachters gerückt, ohne irgendeine Art von Stellungnahme zu Gunsten Papens auch nur anzudeuten. Man wird es dem Rheinischen Merkur nicht verübeln, wenn er dieses Zitat weniger als eine Bekräftigung denn als eine Relativierung des vorhergehenden Tadels, ja vielleicht sogar als eine feinsinnige Anspielung auf den nicht gerade heilswichtigen Charakter gewisser Hofdienste in Rom versteht.
  • Um so neugieriger durfte die Öffentlichkeit auf eine römische Stellungnahme sein. In offizieller Form ist sie nicht erfolgt, derartiges war auch nicht zu erwarten. Dagegen veröffentlichte die Katholische Nachrichten-Agentur" eine aus Rom datierte Meldung vom 1. November 1959, die eine aufschlussreiche Analyse erlaubt:
  • Zu Pressemeldungen über die Wiederverleihung des Titels eines Päpstlichen Geheimkämmerers an Franz von Papen wurde am SOnntag in vatikanischen Kreisen erklärt, es sei mit diesem Schritt weder eine Bestätigung angeblicher Verdienste Papens noch eine Rehabiliteriung des ehemaligen Reichskanzlers beabsichtigt gewesen. Vielmehr habe Papst Johannes XXIII., vor allem aus menschlichen Rücksichten, dem Drängen des greisen Bittstllers nachgegeben. Daneben hätte allerdings auch andere Erwägungen nichtpolitischer Art eine Rolle gespielt.
  • "Wie hierzu aus anderer, unbedingt zuverlässiger Quelle zu erfahren war, handelte es sich bei diesen Erwägungen des Heiligen Stuhls um die Rücksichtnahmen auf eine kirchliche Stelle in Deutschland, die dem Heiligen Stuhl die Wiederaufnahme Papens in die Liste der Päpstlichen Geheimkämmerer empfohlen hat. Sie soll dem Heiligen Stuhl gegenüber auch die Garantie dafür übernommen haben, daß die Bestätigung Papens als Geheimkämmerer von der öffentlichen Meinung in Deutschland nicht falsch verstanden werde. Dem Heiligen Suhl fiel also bei der vieldiskutierten Erneuerung des Titels eine eheer passive Rolle zu. Der Umstand, dass Papst Johannes XXIII. aus seiner Tätigkeit als Apostolischer Delegat in Konstantinopel von Papen als damaligen Botschafter in Ankara persönlich kannte, war nicht die Ursache.
  • "Es ist bezeichnend, dass die Wiederbestätigung von Papens, die bereits am 24. Juli erfolgte, bis heute in den 'Acta Apostolicae Sedis', dem offiziellen Amtsblatt des Vatikans, nicht veröffentlicht worden ist; wie verlautet, ist eine solche Veröffentlichung auch in Zukunft nicht geplant."
  • Was aus dieser Mitteilung mit voller Klarheit hervorgeht, ist eigentlich nur die peinliche Verlegenheit, in die sich die römischen Stellen dadurch gebracht sehen, dass die beabsichtige und verabredete Diskretion über die Rehabilitierung Papens nicht eingehalten wurde. Der geneigte Leser darf dreimal raten, wer es wohl gewesen sein mag, der das Schweigen gebrochen hat...
  • Aber noch zwei weitere Stellen dieses merkwürdigen Dokumentes kirchlicher Pressepolitik geben zum Nachdenken Anlass: Wer könnte die mit so eigenartiger Anonymität umkleidete "kirchliche Stelle in Deutschland" gewesen sein, die dem "Heiligen Stuhl die Wiederaufnahme Papens" empfohlen und den Papst in eine "eher passive Rolle" gedrängt haben soll? Hierüber ist eine Aufklärung nicht möglich gewesen. Immerhin ist festzuhalten, mit welcher Enegie die vatikanischen Kreise" die Verantworutng für die ganze Affaire von sich wegwälzen.
  • Die angebliche Garantie, die "eine kirche Stelle" für die Redaktion der deutschen öffentlichen Meinung übernommen haben will, ist eine noch großteskere Angelegenheit. Hier sprudelt ein gefärlicher, unbedingtz u verstopfender Quell neuer Missverständnisse. Es gibt keine Stelle in Deutschland, keine kirchliche und keine weltliche, die in der Lagewäre, eine Garantie für die Reaktion der öffentlichen Meinung auf ein derartiges Vorkommnis zu übernehmen. Sollte es in Rom oder irgendwo sonst in der Welt noch irgend jemanden geben, der an der Meinungs- und Pressefreiheit im heutigen Deutschland zweifelt und glaubt, es sei möglich, die deutsche Presse in der zweiten Republik so zu lenken und zu knebeln, wie das üblich war zu der Zeit, da Herr von Papen als Vizekanzler oder Botschafter der Regierung Hitler wirkte, so befindet er sich in einem folgenschweren Irrtum.
  • Den Tatsachen am nächsten dürfte der Hinweis kommen, dass Papst Johannes "vor allem aus menschlichen Rücksichten dem Drängen des greisen bittstellers nachgegeben" hat. Dieser Gedanke war auch vom Rheinischen Merkur ausgesprochen worden, Kardinal Frings hat ihn in den Mittelpunkt siener Argumentation gestellt. Man wird dem Heiligen Vater, dessen Güte und Großherzigkeit weltbekannt sind, gewiss gerne zubilligen, dass ihm jede Absicht einer Rehabilitierung der politischen Vergeangenheit Papens ganz fern lag, zumal man sich das "Drängen des greisen Bittstellers" lebhaft vorstellen kann. Aber das schließt nicht aus, dass dieser Akt des Nachgebens die ernsthaftesten psychologishcpolitischen Auswirkungen hatte und einen Aufschrei nahezu einhelliger und berechtigter Entrüstung hervorruen musste- und dass dies vorauszusehen war.
  • Vielleicht erschüttert es sogar jene Leser, die der Haltung Papens 1932/33 ein gewisses verzeihendes Verständnis entgegenbringen, wenn ihnen bekannt wird, wie sich Papen nach dem 30. Juni 1934 und nach der Ermordung seiner nächsten Mitarbeiter verhielt. Nun war kein "Irrtum" und keine moralische "desinvolture" mehr möglich. Papen war damals in seiner Wohnung eingesppert worden, die Telephondrähte waren durchschnitten, SS-Posten bewachten die Türen. Nach drei Tagen gelang es ihm zu Hitler vorzudringen, er erklärte seinen Rücktritt und verlangte - nicht etwa Rechenschaft für die Morde, sondern seine eigene Reinigung von dem Verdacht, an der "Revolte" beteiligt gewesen szu sein. Hitler versprach dies unter der Bedinung, dass ein offener Bruch vermiede werde (so mächtig war damals noch der Vizekanzler von Papen). Und was geschah? Papen schrieb am 4. Juli Hitler einen Brief, in dem es heißt: "Ich kann heute mit um so leichterem Herzen um meine Entlassung bitten, als es sich gezeigt hat, daß das von uns gemeinsam am 30. Januar 1933 begonnene Werk jetzt vor weiterem Umsturz sicher scheint." Der Brief schloss mit dem Geöbnis: "Ich bliebe ihnn und ihrem werk für unser duetschland treu ergeben." Und als Hitler sogar zusagte, er wollte papen in einer Rede von dem Komplott-Verdacht reinigen, schrieb ihm, dem Mörder vom 30. Juni, Frnaz von apen die folgenden unglaublichen Worte: "Lassen Sie mich sagen, wie männlich und menschlich groß ich das von Ihnen finde. Die Niederschlagugn der Revolte hat in der ganzen Welt nur anerkennung gefunden... Ich empfinde das Bedürfnis, Ihre Hand wie am 30. Januar 1933 zu drücken..." Wenige Tage später hatte der izekanzler seinen Protest-Rücktritt vergessen und die Aufgae übernommen, als Botschafte in Wien die Unterminierung Österreichs bis zur Sturmreifem itzubewirken.
  • Die Briefe haben dem Nürnberger Militärtrübunal vorgelegen. Es gibt für sie keine Erklärung - es sei denn jene, die Papen Friedrich Carl von Savigny, gab, als dieser im September 1934 Papen Vorhaltungen machte, weil er nach dem Staatsmord vom 30. Juni nicht Hitler den Dienst kündigte; Papen erwiderte damals: "du darfs bei Beurteilung dieser Dingen icht vergessen, lieber Friedrich Crl: ich glaube eben an Adolf Hitler!"
  • Wir h aber weigern uns, an Herrn von Papen zu glauben.

blüher

• 46 Treffer
  • [Suchpfad: Papen + 1969]
  • 1-21 (false positive), ..., 26 (Chicago Tribune), 27-28 (identisch 29), 29 (Chicago tribune), 30 (evening News), 31 (MG), .., 33 (NYT), .., 35 (WP), 36-37 (bel), 38 (bel), 39-46 (false positives) [40]
• Boston Globe (check), Chicago Tribune (check), Los Angeles Times (check), Manchester Guardian (check), New York Times (check), Washington post (check)
  • BG vom 3. Mai 1969, CT vom 3. Mai 1969, MG vom 3. Mai 1969, LAT 3. Mai 1969, NYT vom 3. Mai 1969
  • Austin Statesman 2. Mai und 3. Mai 1969; Jerusalem Post, Toronto Daily Star
  • FAZ, Merkur, Spiegel, Süddeutsche, Zeit;
• [csm, nydh, ac]

---

• (1) "Former German Chancellor Franz von Papen Dead at 89", in: Austin Statesman vom 3. Mai 1969
  • Franz von Papen whose political miscues as chancellor in the early 1930s helped open the way for Hitler's rise to power, died at his secluded home in this Baden village Friday, striving to the end to win some recognition for his servivce to germany.
  • His son, Franz, said von Papen, who was 89, became seriously ill early last month and this was aggravated by advanced age.
  • It was in the political turmoil of 1932 that von Papen's miscalculations aided the Nazi's rise, although the party was nearly bankrupt.
  • President Paul von Hindenburg named him chancellor on June 1 and within two weeks von Papen lifted the ban on Hitler's storm troopers. A wave of political violence followed.
  • Then, in two national elections, the Nazis emerged as the strongest party, although short of a majority
  • von Papen resigned as chancellor on Nov 11, 1932 after Hindenburg turned down his plan for the declaration of a state of emergency and the indefinite suspension of the reichstag.
  • In his place, Hindebburg appointed the gray eminence of the Weimar Republic, gen Kurt von schleicher, who placed false hope in splitting the nazis by wooing the more moderate Hitler deputy Gregor Strasser and his followers.
  • Von Papen, on the other hand, saw Germany'S salvation in bringing the Nzais under Hitler into the mainstream of the nation.
  • Von Papen's role in undermining the Schleicher government is clouded by conflicting accounts. Von papen, himself, denied that he intrigued with Hitler against schleicher.
  • On Jan 4, 1923, von Papen had a momentous meeting with Hitler at the home of a cologne banker, baron Kurt von Schroeder. according to von Papen's account he attmepted to win hitler's support for the schleicher goverment. According to others the two plotted a colation government and new financial backing for the nazis.
  • The upshot was that Hitler became head of a new cabinet that had only two other nazis beside himself. Von Papen was vice chancellor, von papen calculated that his would hold the nazis in check
  • He later publicly regretted his decision and called for an end to fantaicism. He escaped hitler's purges but his aides did not.
  • The death and arrest of these aides did not deter von Papen from accepting Hitler's appointment a month later as German minsiter ti austria, and later as ambassador to Turkey.
  • After World War II, von Papen the non-nazi was placed in the clock at the nuernberg war cirmes Trial along with the surviving top nazis. the tribunal acquited von papen of plotting aggressive war for his part in Austria's forcible anschluss, or peaceful union.
  • The court ruled, however that von Papen had been guilty of grave "offenses against political morality".
  • A German court sentenced him in 1947 to eight year's hard labor as a major offender under the nazis. An appeals court in 1949 reduced the sentence to the four years von Papen already had served in confinement.
  • Since then, von Papen had sought recognition for his evices to his nation by suing for a pension as a former army officer.

• (2) "Franz von Papens, 'Sly Fox of German Diplomacy', Dies, in: Austin Statesman vom 2. Mai 1969
  • Former chancellor Franz von Papen, who helped pave Hitler's way to power and later won acquittal at the Nuernberg war crime trials, died friday, his son reported. he was 89 years old.
  • Von Papen became seriously ill early in April. His son said the illness was aggravated by his adavanced age. He died at his secluded home in this baden village.
  • Von Papen, regarded as something of a lightweight in the German politics of the early 1930s, was as responsible as any one man for brining adolf hitler to power, though that probably was not what he meant to do.
  • In a chaotic political situation in June 1932, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed von Papen chancellor. But the resigned that fall after elections showed Hitler's nazis had made great gains, thouh still not enough for a Reichstag majority.
  • The Nazis were nearly bankrupt then, and von Papen arranged a meeting of Hitler and Baron Kurt von Schroeder, a cologne banker, apprently with the idea of putting Hitler and the nazis in his debt. He persuaded schroeder and his colleagues tha the nation's best hope was a colaition government of nazis and nationalsit rightists. in a short time a fund of four million makrs was raised for hitler's party.
  • Von papen then went to his old friend. President Hindenburg and convinced him that he should summon Htler to be chancellor and make von Papen his deputy. Hitler and two others were the only nazis in the government formed jan. 30 1933, and von Papen said it was deliberately fashioned that way to keep hitler in check.
  • But von Papen the record shows, sat in cabinet meetings at which the nazis gradually substitued, the concetration camp for the rule of law. he assailed in 1934 for muzzling the press, interfering with religion and encouragaging fanatiscism.
  • Two weeks later, hitler gave orders for the blood purge of june 30, in which more than 100 persons were shot. Von Papen and his wife and office staff were held virtual prisoners for three days, and one of his closest aides was murdered. von papen quit as deputy chancellor and there was speculation that only Hindneburg's intervention saved his life.
  • Neverthless, Hitler sent von Papen to austria that august as a special emissary and he worked for peaceful union, or Anschluss. He was recalled on may 10, 1938, the day before the Anschluss was achieved by force.
  • Later he was sent to turkey as ambassador with the taks of keeping that country from joining germany's enemies in world War II. this he succeeded in doing until 1944. his achievements in this field won him the sobiquet of the sly gray fox of german diplomacy."
  • In April 1945, with Germany going down, he placed himself in the path of american troops to be captured, hoping to head a government for peace negotiations. Instead, he was imprisoned and brought to trial on war crimes chrges before the international Military Tribunal in 1946.
  • The court acquitted him of plotting war, said he was guilty of grave "offenses against political morlaity" but added that under its charter it was unable to punish him.
  • In 1947 a german denazification court convicted him of beign a major nazi offender, sentenced him to eight years in prison and confiscated his extensive property. But in 1949 an appeals court ruled he was only a minor offender decied the four years he had spent in detention was sufficient punishemnt and restored his property, exept for a 9000 fine. He also wa barred from politics.
  • von Papen published his memoirs in 1952, critics and historians labeled the volume largely apologia and special pleading with scant value as a history.
  • Up to the end, the old man was attempting throug a court fight to win recognition for his service to the state; he was suing for a pension as a former army officer.

• (3) "Franz von Papen, at 89", in: Boston Globe vom 3. Mai 1969
  • Oberassbach, West Germany - Franz von Papen whose eventful career included sabotage in the United states, brushes with Lawerence of Arabia and a spell as Adolf Hitler's Vice Chancellor, died here yesterday at the age of 89.
  • Mr von Papen won a controversial place in Germany's turbulent 20th century history as the man whose plan to tame" the rising nazi party by giving it responsibility went disastrously wrong.
  • Born into an aristocratic but relatively poor Westphalian family he was a capatin on the german general staff at the outbreak of world War I, when he was despachtec to the German embassy in Washington.
  • There he made a great impact on the social scene. But evidence that he was connected with explosions in munitions factories led to his explusion from the united states in 1915.
  • On his way home he was searched by British naval authorities, and documents found on him proved conlusively that he had been organizing sabotage in the U.S.
  • His next assignment was a the front, where he acquitted himself weil. But he was discredited as a staff officer when he went to the middle east and was outfoxed by T.E. Lawrence of Arabia."
  • During the 1920s the became a deputy of the center party, and then in the beginning of the 1930 associated himself with aging President von Hindenburg
  • His plan was to tame the rising nazi Party by giving it responsibility, he hoped he could then use it to build the conservative, christian society he imagined germany wanted.
  • Appointed chancellor under von hindenburg in 1932, he succeeded in bringing the nazis into the government.
  • But Nazism grew too big and in 1933 Mr von Papen became Mr Hitler's vice chancellor. Then he was sent as ambassador to Vienna and later to Ankara, Turkey, still hoping that mr Hitler would, as he said in his memoirs, "make a fool of himself."
  • He remaiend in Ankara until 1944 when he returned to Germany and wa arrested by American forces
  • He was one of the few germans to be acquitted by the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal. He expressed surprise at being tried as a war criminal, claiming he was ignorant of the atrocities the nazis committed.
  • In recent years the slender aristocrat lived the life of a retired country Gentelman in his villa near this village at the edge of the Black Forest.

• (4) "F. von Papen Ace German Spy, dies at 89", in: Chicago Tribune vom 3. Mai 1969
  • Assisted in Hitler's rise to power
  • Obersasbach Germany may 2 Franz von Papen, 89, a master German spy who aided Adolf Hitler's rise to power, died today in obscurity in his Black Forest home.
  • His best known feats were in Constantinople [now istanbul] where he coordinated Nazi espionage operations.
  • The key to his success in feeritng out allied secret was having the valets of the british amabassador as an agent, code named Cicero who sold top secret documents, in including details of the norman invasion by the allies.
  • Papen, a German military academy graduate who served on the General Staff, was military Attache at German ambassies in Mexico City and Washington at the outset of World War I.
  • Expelled from U.S.
  • He was blamed later for sabotage in the American war effort and plotting the disastrous 1917 black tom munitiosn explosion in Jersey city.
  • The explosion killed two persons and caused 40 millon dollars damage.
  • Papen was expelled from the united staes in 1916 when American newspapers dubbed him "the devil in a top hat."
  • Papen rejoined the general staff until germany's collapse reaching the rank of major then slipped into politics where he achieved influence by ingratiating himself with gen. Paul von Hindenbrug the president.
  • Chancellor in 1932
  • He and general Kurt Schleicher worked together to oust Heinrich Bruening, the last demoractic Chancellor of the Weimar republic, and in 1932 Papen became chancellor. Schleicher double-crossed Papen and took over the chancellorship himself.
  • Papen took his revenge by persuading Hindenburg to oust Schleicher. The "devil in a top hat" found he ha chosen a worse devil for a master.
  • Papen believed that he could outwit Hitler, use him as a front for Papen's own conservative backers, control him, and eventually discard him.
  • However, Hitler dispensed with papen as Vice-Chancellor and imposed the rule of Nazism in which Papen had his uses but never again was a major political figure.
  • Known as the fox
  • Instead, papen embarked on a new diplomatic career which earned him still another sobriquet "the fox".
  • He became Hitler's ambassador to Austria in 1934, undermining the independent country until the nazi take-over in 1938. Then Papen became ambassador to Turkey, where he managed to keep the turks neutral until nearly the end of world war II.
  • He was interned after the war, freed by the nuernberg war crimes court, then sentenced to eight years in a labor camp by a 1947 denzaification court. He was released in 1949 because of failing health.
  • Wrote his memoirs
  • In recent years he wrote his memoirs, "A Path to Truth" an attempt to defend his action in a career which spanned three decades of imperial, Weimar, and nazi rule.
  • Although he spent his later years in seclusion, the obscurity was broken before his 80 birthday in 1959 when the vatican named him a privy Chamberlain the final evidence of his gift for outlivign his past.

• (5) "Franz von Papen, 89, dies; Hitler aide, Master Spy", in: The Evening News vom 3. Mai 1969
  • Franz von Papen Germany's master spy of world war I who aided adolf Hitler's rise to power died Friday in his black forest home in obscurity he had never know during a life as a ruthless intriguer and master of survival. he was 89.
  • In the early day of World War I von Papen was possibly the most hated man in America. The German miltiary attache in Washington who was blamed after for sabotaing the American war effort and plotting the disastrous 1917 black tom munitions explosion in jersey cit, New York. The explosion killed two persons and inflicted 40 million damage
  • Von Papen was expelled from the United states in 1916 when american newspapers dubbed him the devil in a top hat. He was later known as the fox when he engineered hitler's takeover of Austria early in World War II. In between he served as the last Chancellor before Hitler.
  • And it was the scheming von Papen who served as ambassador to Turkey and kept that nation out of the allied camp. He succeeded until 1944 when the end of the war was already in sight the real life german ambassdor in the spy intruiges that became the motive five fingers.
  • He was interned after the war, freed by the Nuremberg war crimes court then sentenced to eight years in a labor camp by a 1947 de-nazification court. He was released in 1949 because of flaing health. He died of a lung ailment.
  • In recent years he wrote his memoirs "A Path to Truth" an attempt to defend his actions in a career which spanned three decades of Imperial, Weimar and nazi rule.
  • Although he spent his later years in seclusion, the obsucrity was broken before his 80th birthday in in 1959 when the Vatican named him a privy chamberlain the final evidence of hi gift for outliving his past.
  • In 1932 he became Germany's next-to-last chancellor before hitler.
  • When he was forced out by military strongman gen Kurt Schleicher, he took his revenge by soon persuading senile president gen Paul von Hindebrug to drop Schleicher in 1933 and name hitler Chancellor, with Papen as vice chancellor.

• (6) Franz von Papen Dies at 89, in: Jerusalem Post vom 4. Mai 1969
  • Franz von papen, former chancellor who served adolf Hitler as Vice-chancellor and ambassador, died at his country home here on Friday. He was 89.
  • Von Papen won a controversial place in Germany's turbulent 20th century history through his fateful role in the events which led to the Nazi accession to power in 1933.
  • In recent years, the slender aristocrat lived the life of a retired country gentleman in his villa set in a garden of alder trees near this village at the edge of the Black Forest. He had been continued to bed, cared for by two of his daughters, since returning with a cold from a holiday in Teneriffe last easter.
  • To his critics, von Papen was an impossible reactionary typical of the conservatives who were prepared to compromise and cooperate with the nzais to suit their own ends and thus contributed to the downfall of the Weimar Republic. But on papen himself said he hoped he could tame the rising nazi party by giving it responsibility and using it to build the conservative Christian society in which he believed.

• (7) "Von Papen who helped Hitler gain power in Germany, Dies", in: Los Angeles Times vom 3. Mai 1969
  • Joe Alex Morris hr
  • Franz von Papen the former Reich's Chancellor who helped Adolf hitler to tain power in Germany, died Friday in the Black Forest retreat where he had lived as a semi recluse in recent years
  • He was 89 and had been bedridden since easter when he came down with a lung infection. To the end he had been fightin to gain a 170 monthly pension as a former field grade officer in the Kaiser's army in World War I. They ultimately'rose to the grade of lieutenant colonel and chief of staff of the 4th Turkish army in World War I.
  • Von papen was an officer, diplomat and politican in an era spanning two world wars and three german eras - the Kaiser, the, weimar republic and then zia dictatorship. He came out of a Prussian officer cadet school and rose to the highest political office in pre-nazi Germany.
  • He incurred America's wrath early in world War I when he wa reported to have directed sabotage which hurt the American preparedness effort. There was a serioes of fires in American munitionsplants and aborad ships. Several railway bridges were destroyed. Then cap. von Papen and his colleague, naval Cap Karl Boy-Ed, in the German embassy in Washington fell under suspicion for directing these sabotage acts.
  • Although von Papen was expelled from the United States in 1916, he was thought to have plotted the worst of these disasters the black tom explosion that killed two persons in Jersey City, NJ in 1917 and destoryed 40 million worth of munitions.
  • His most famous, or infamous act was to persuade the old and ailing president, Paul von Hindenburg to name Hitler's Reich's chancellor in 1933. He himself became Hitler's deputy chancellor, convinced he could use the upstart nazi and former corporal to further the interests of his own conservative and upper class group.
  • Hitler tolerated von papen as his No. 2 man for little more than a year, then sent him off as ambassador to Vienna to prepare the way for the 1938 nazi takeover of austria in a union which Hitler called Anschluss.
  • Historians will argue for years over von papen's role in helping Hitler to the top. Whaz is clear is that von Papen's motives were petty and primarily based on his personal rivalry with another archconseravtive, General Kurt Schleicher.
  • Schleicher and von Papen had collaborated to oust Germany's last democratic chancellor, Heinrich Bruening. Then they fell out and enagegd in a bitter- and disastrous - game of political musical chairs.
  • Musical chairs
  • Schleicher succeeded in forcing von Papen out of the Chancellor's office and took over himself. Then von Papen persuaded Hindebrug to oust Schleicher and install hitler, with himself as Hitler's deputy.
  • After Hitler eased him out, von Papen continued to serve the nazi dictator loyally and with great skill as a diplomat, first in Austria and later in Turkey. He managed to keep the turks neutral during most of world war II and at the same time ulleoff one of the best espioange operations of the war by planting an agent as the valet ot the British ambassador in Turkey.
  • Ironically, the valet, who was code-named Cicero, is also fighting a court battle for a German pension for his services during the war. His case is being heard concurrently with that of his former master of espioange, von Papen
  • Von Papen was tried but acquitted of a war crimes charged by the Nuremberg Tribunal. But the Germans in February, 1947, sentenced him to eight years at his trial before a denazification Court. In January, 1949, and appeals court ruled he was only a minor offender and ordered him released from prison.
  • Afterwards, he retired to Oberisasbach a village in the black forest, where he lived modestly until his death.
  • He made two trips to spain after his release, at the invitation of Generalissimo Francisco Franco.
  • Despite his undoubted services to Germany - for better or worse- von Papen will go down in history as a symbol of the old conservative german upper class which thought it could live with hitler and turn him to serving its own ends.

• (8) "Von Papen, the Arch-Intriguer", in: Manchester Guardian vom 3. Mai 1969
  • Franz von Papen, who died as Obersasbach yesterady, was born in 1879, of an old Westphalian family, and followed his natural career - the army. After the end of the 1914-18 war, being then a Uhlan officer without employment, he became, through the influence of his wife's family, confidential agent o to an importnat industrial firm in the Saar and soon established himself as a link between the pliticians of the right and the great industrialists.
  • His entry into politics was undistinguished; he sat from 1921 to 1931 in the Reichstag as a backbench deputy of the centre party. But he gradually became an important figure in the camarilla which surrounded the aged president Hindenburg who in may 1932, called upon him to form a non-party government
  • The cabinet having suffered an elctoral defeat, Papen got in touch with hitler (who had previously demanded the chancellorship), restored the industrialists subsidies to the Nazi party (which he had previously stopped), and persuade Hindenburg that the appointment of hitler as chancellor was inenvitable. In January, 1933, Hitler was appointed. Papen was for a short time a member of the Führer's cabinet; in 1934, he went as envoy extraordidary to Vienna, to wear down the hospitality to the Nazis caused by the murder of chancellor Dolfuss. It took some time. Dolfuss's successor, Schuschnigg refused to see him except on official occasions, a fatal step, for it left Papen free to work hand, in glove with Schmidt, the foreigh minister, whom, though Schuschnigg did not now it, national Socialism had bought. On account of a trumped-up plot against Papen's life, Hitler invited Schuschnigg to berchetgarden while the Reichwehr massed onv the frontier; in a few days all was over (March 1938) , an Papen had triumphed.
  • In April 1939 he was suddenly appointed ambassador to Turkey. His mission extended beyond Ankara; it was his task to keep Turkey and the Balkan states quiet till war came and then either to keep them neutral or bring them in on Germany's side. Greece was lost through Italy's attack on her; the anti-axis revolution in yugoslavia automatically took Bulgaria to the axis side and Hungarian ambition and Rumanian dea of russia did the rest. Hitler's decision to invade Russia instead of completing the conquest of the middle east by moving through Turkey, made Papen's nominal mission less important. But when it was evident that the Balkans were not conquered of suddenly became as important as ever. His obvious failure had its reactions in Germany. He was indeed hard put to it to defend himself against the attacks of his nazi enemies. Hitler's continued patronage saved him time and again.
  • But in Germany tere would be no employment for him , for there was no place or time left in which to intrigue. Of his alleged peace intrigues there is no accurate information, but it was chacteristic of them an that he should believe that as be had been "honest broker" between hitler and Germany so he could be honest broker" between Hitler and the world.
  • For six months (while his influence with Hindenburg was at its height) his position in Germany was paramount; after that he sank back to be the'enthusiastic intriguer on behalf of other men that he never really had ceased to be. But in those months he pitted his wits - not inconsiderabel wits - against abler and bigger men and won, and failed ony when he came up against peasant cunning even lower than his own.
  • In 1952 the international war cimres tribunal tried and acquitted him; he defended himself on the ground that being in Turkey as ambassador, he had no knoweledge of the atrocities committed by the Nazis during the war. But a German denazification court judged him to be "the chief culprit" in bringing the Nazis to power, sentenced him to eight years detention in a labour camp and ordered the forfeiture of his fortune. He was quickly released on account of his long detention awaiting trial and went to live quietly in a small town on the edge of the black forest, where he wrote his memoirs.
  • By 1959 he was so far rehabilitaed as to be reappointed to the honorary post of papel chamberlain of the cloak and sword, which he had held before the war. And in 1964 he won a case against the state government of Baden-Württemberg which had refused, on account of his activities during the war, in pay pensions due to him on account of his erlier services.

• (9) "Franz von Papen, key backer of hitler in '33 dies", in: New York Times vom 3. Mai 1969
  • Franz von Papen, former German chancellor who helped to pave the way for Hitler, died today in his villa in the town of Obersasbach in Baden-Württemberg. He was 89 years old
  • Von Papen, a former Prussian army officer who was involved in espionage in the United States as a Military Attaché in World War I, went on to serve the Hitler regime as Vice Chancellor as envoy to Austria in preparation for the nazi take-over and as ambassador to Turkey.
  • At the Nuremberg war Crimes trials he was acquitted because, the court held, it had not been established that he had been "a party to the planning of aggressive war."
  • Von Papen, chancellor of the German Reich's last parliamentary democracy, was only sporadically active after his release. He published a memoir in 1952 and a second autobiographical work in 1968.
  • His last years were dominated by his struggle to obtain a pension for service as a major in the former Prussian army. The federal adminstrative court in Berlin sent the case down last feb 6 for an other hearing, and at his death it ws still pending.
  • Obersasbach parish officials said today that von Papen had caught a cold at easter time after returning form a vaction on the Canary Island of Tenerife and that his health had steadily declined thereafter. He had been under the care of two of his daughters.
  • Bild: Papen in the custody of lieutenant colonel H.J. Hatcher after giving himself up in 1945 in the Ruhr. "Once a diplomat always a cool customer" as Stars and Stripes.
  • Bild Adolf Hitler and Franz von Papen, his vice chancellor on way to 1933 ceremonies preceding Reichstag opening

• (10) "A Talent for Intrigue", in: New York Times vom 3. Mai 1969
  • Alden Whitman
  • At a conference at Lausanne Switzerland, in 1932 Edouard Herriot, the French statesman, looked across the table at Franz von Papen, the german chancellor, then turned and whispered to lord Simon of Britain.
  • The more I study the face of a German cavalry officer the more i admire - his horse."
  • Herriot'ss mocking appraisal reflected a prevalent attitude - that the German army officer turned politican was a vain and superificial man with a fifth-rate intellect. However just, this assessment left out of account his talent for intrigue, which opened the door of the chancellor's office to Adolf Hitler and his national socialist German Workers' Party and brought shame to vo nappen'S name.
  • Discussing his midwife's role in the birth of the third Reich. In a history of the weimar republic erich Eyck wrote:
  • Even if von Papen had not formal obligations to Hitler he was motivated by the same basic considerations.
  • Not only did von Papen help materially to make hitler possible in 1933, but he also served as his ambassador to Turkey in world War II. There he organized and led an espionage center that handed out millions of marks in bribes.
  • After the German defeat in 1945, he surrendered to American troops and was put in the dock at Nuremberg as a war criminal. The tribunal acquitted him in 1946 over the objections of the soviet judge.
  • Sentence suspended
  • He was held in detention, however until a denazification court fined him 7,500 in 1949 for his hitlerite activities. an eight-year labor camp sentence as supended in view of the time he had already spent in prison.
  • In a rejection of his application for a pension, the constituional court in karlsruhe asserted in march of last year that he was among "the active servants of the nazi state who violated the principles of humanity and lawfulness through their attitude during the third Reich."
  • Apart from this final disgrace, von papen's cunning, luck and connections among the german arisocracy enabled him to emerge virutally unscathed from episodes that might have tumbled as less wlel endowed man. As a lean and handsome military attache in Washington at the outbreak of World War I, he was implicated in espionage and sabotage in behalf of the central powers.
  • And late in 1915 he was expelled from this country on orders from President Woodrow Wilson. After the war (he served on the Somme front and with the Turkish army in Palestine) he entered politics as a member of the Prussian diet and climbed a slippery pole to the chancellorship in 1932.
  • After serving as vice Chcancellor under hitler - he helped prepare the concordat with the vatican - he fell out with the Führer in 1934 over nazi attacks on the roman catholic church, of which, as a papal chamberlain, he was a leading layman. He was ordered arrested, and one of his close associates was assainated by Nazi thugs.
  • Nevertheless, von Papen and Hitler quickly pattched up their differences, and in July, in 1934 the gray haired, impeccably tailored von papen was dispatched as a special enoy to austria where he prepared the way for hitler's occupation of that country in the spring of 1938
  • In this tour of duty at Ankara, which lasted until 1944 von Papen playd skillfully on Turkish fears of the soviet union.
  • Wrote memoirs at villa
  • In retirement in the fifties and sixties at his park surrounded villa at Obrsasbach near Achern in Baden-Württemberg he composed his memoirs. His Failure of a Democracy published in 1968 sought to pin the blame for the downfall of the Weimar republic on the unbridled demands of the trade unions. German critics found von Papen's excucses for his conduct in those years fatuous. of his autobiography issued in 1952 mr eyck said
  • "Seldom has political ignorance and superificiality been displayed with such selfsatisfaction as in this autobiography, while the author forfeited any claim to gentle treatment by his critics when he gave the German edition of the book the arrogant title Der Wahrheit eine Gasse (make way for truth!)."
  • Von Papen owed much of his political and miliary carried to his extraordinary social gifts and his aristoric connections. He was a splendid horseman, a pleasant conversationalis and one who move easily among the international elite on the continent and in england.
  • Long-faced with a near mustache, he had an erect bearing that exuded distinction. As one of the organizers of the exclusive Herrenklub in berlin he was on close terms with such members as count Bodo von Alvensleben; Oskar von Hindenburg, the german presiden'ts son; Kurt von Schleicher, a chancellor, and paul Reynaud, the French premier.
  • Proud of lineage
  • Proud of his lineage, von papen, in his autobiography, traced his descent in a direct line" from Wilhelm von Papen who died in 1494 as mayor of the town of Werl. Members of his family, he said, had served the holy roman empire and the archibopric of Cologne though the centuries. He considered himself, he added "a member of the german race."
  • Franz von Papen was born in Werl on Oc 29, 1879, the son of a Wesphalian landowner and army officer. His mother was a Rhinelander.
  • In 1897 the youth was appointed an imperial page which brought him into intimate contact with the royal household
  • On his way up to a captaincy von papen, in 1905 married Martha von Boch Galhau the daughter of a wealthy Saarland earthenware family and the owner of an estate at Wallerfangen
  • After attaining his captaincy in 1913 (and with its membership on the general staff) von Papen was appointed military attaché in Washington. His colleague there was cap Karl Boy-Ed, the naval attaché. After the start of World War, in the fall of 1914 the united states was officially neutral, but its war supplies were sold principally to the allied belligernets. Boy-Ed and von Papen took steps to counteract this by promoting acts of sabotage.
  • Documents carelessly left on an elevated train in New York implicated the two men, an subsequently seized check stubs disclosed payments to german agents in this country. The atteches were recalled by request for breach of diplomatic etiquette.
  • After the war von Papen resigned from the army, brought a controlling interest in Germania, a catholic centrist political journal, and entered politics as a member of the Prussian Landtag, or diet. His achievements there were undistignuished, but he came to the attention of gen Kurt von Schleicher, who in 1931-32 was maneuvering with many others in the crisis brought on by the rise of hitler's Nazi Party. When Heinrich Brüning fell as chancellor in June 1932 von Schleicher recommended von Papen to the 84 year old president Paul von Hindenburg.
  • The president's choice met with increduilty," wrote the french ambassador to Berlin
  • No one but smiled or ittee or laugh because Papen enjoyed the reculiarity of being taken seriously by neither his friend nor his enemies."
  • Almost immediately he dissolved the Reichstag, set new elections and lifted the ban on the nazi stormtoopers. He also deposed the prussian governement and appointed himself Reich Commissioner for that state, repclaiming martial law and arresting the socialist leaders in the process. "this was a devleopment which was not lost on the men of the right who had taken over the federal power, nor did it escpae Hitler's notice," William l. Shirer wrote in "the Rise and Fall of the third Reich." he added:
  • There was no need to worry any longer that he forces of the left or even of the democratic center would put up serious resistance ot the overthow of the democratic system."
  • Agreement with hitler
  • With the elections in July, Hitler sought the chancellorship for himself, but yon Hindenburg would not then yield to the man he called the bohemian corporal." The Reichstag was again dissolved, for von Papen could not command a majority in view of its large nazi membership. Nor could he bring himself to break the nazis outside the reichstag.
  • In new elections in novemebr the nazis again emerged as the largest party in the Reichstag, and the president offered Hitler the vice chancellorship under von Papen. He refused. meawhile, von Schleicher was intruiging with the nazis behind his back, with the resul that von papen was, in effect, deposed by von Schleicher with the army's support. Wherupon von papen began to weave his own cabal with the nazis against von Schleicher.
  • This intruige brought Hitler and von Papen togehter at the home of baron Kurt von Schroeder, the cologne banker. Out of this meeting came an agreement that if Hitler became Chancellor, von Papen's supporters would go into his government. Equally important, von Papen took a hand in raising money from West German businessmen for the nazis, then at a low financial ebb.
  • Later, in January von Papen and his friend Joachim von Ribbentrop met with Hitler and his aide and president von hindenburg's son Oskar. The session softend u oskar to Hitler, a key step toward lessening the often-senile preisdent's opposition to him as chancellor.
  • It only remained for hitler to cast the spell over the father" Mr. Shirer wrote, adding
  • Papen, busy as a beaver was working daily on the old man."
  • When, inevtiably, von Schleicher fell from power von Papen was entrusted by the President to explore the possibilties of forming a government under hitler. Thus Hitler became chancellor on Jan. 30, 1933. His Vice-Chancellor was von Papen. The third Reich had begun. It was all done constitutionally.
  • Things went well for von Papen for about two years; but, as Hitler consolidated his dicatorship the catholic church came under pressure. Von papen protested publicly, and in the so called blood purge of 1934 he, his wife and his office staff were held prisoners for three days. He resigned as Vice chancellor amid speculation that he might be shot. Four weeks later however, he was rehablitated an appointed minsiter to Austria.
  • Accused of treachery
  • At his war crime trial he was accused of treachery by conspiring with Arthur Seyss-Inquart, the Austiran gauleiter, wo was hanged at Nuremberg. The court heard a statement made by von Papen in 1934 to Geroge s Messersmith the american minister, which said:
  • Southeasiern europe to Turkey is Germany's hinterland, an I have been designated to carry through the task of bringing it within the folg, austria is first on the program."
  • Von Papen, in this mission ot Vienna, tricked Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg into taking Nazis into his cabinet. He also induced the Chancellor to attend a fateful conference with Hitler at Berchtesgaden on Feb 12, 1938, where the Austrian leader was bullied an threatened, into concessions fatal to his country's independence. The anschluss took place on March 13.
  • A year later, as the Germans were preparing world war II, von Papen was sent to Turkey.
  • His ambassadorship ended in 1944, when the Turks became convinved, after battle of Stalingrad, that germans were not about to win the war and decided to join the ultimate victors. He retire to his estate in west Germany with a personal decoration from hitler for his work.
  • Toward the close of the war on April 10, 1945 von Papen attired in knickerbockers, a hunting jacket and a tyrolean hat, and with his gray hair perfectl coiffed, gave himself up to troops of the united state ninth Army in the Ruhr. A picture caption in Stars and Stripes, the sevrice newspaper commented: "Once a diplomat always a cool customer."
  • opinion of court
  • At the Nuremberg trial he was one of three defendants to be acquitted, the others being Hjalmar Schacht, the Nazis Finance minister, and Hans Fritzsche the radio propagandist. In its verdict on von Papen, for which Francis Biddle, the American judge, voted, the court said:
  • "Von Papen was active in 1932 and 1933 in helping hitler to form the coalition cabinet and aided in his appoinment a Chancellor on jan 30 1933. As vice chancellor in that cabinet he participated in the nazi consolidation of control in 1933.
  • Notwithstanding the murder of his associates, von Papen accepted the position of minister to Austria on July 26, 1934. The evidence leaves no doubt that von Papen's primary purpose as minister to Austria was to undermine the Schuschnigg regime and strengthened the austrian nazis for the sups of bringing about th Anschluss
  • But the charter [of the court] does not make criminal such offenses against political morality, however bad these may be. Under the charter von papen can be held guilt only if he was a party to the planning of aggressive war; but it is not established beyond a reasonable doubt that this was the purpose of his activity."
  • Reappointed chamberlain
  • In the fities and sixties von Papen lived quietly on his Saarland estate. He was, briefly the center of an outcry when his autobiography was published in 1952 and again in 1959 when pope John XXIII renewed his status as a papal chamberlain.
  • A visitor who called on von Papen in 1968 reported that he maintained a lively correpsondence with friends of his younger day, including Schacht and members of the german and british nobility. The old diplomat's stature is as ramrod as ever." The visitor said "and his keen eyes looking from under white bushy eyebrows betray a keen interest in the world."
  • After the death of his wife in 9161, he lived with two of his daughters, Isabella and Margerita, who did not marry. He is also survived by a third daughter, Antoinette, and a son, Friedrich-Franz von Papen who is an industrial consultant and amdinistrator of hi father's landed property.

• (11) Hitler Aide Dies, Franz von Papen", in: The Sun vom 3. Mai 1969
  • His Miscues in the 1930'S helped Fuhrer Rise
  • Franz von Ppaen, whose political miscues as chancellor in the early 1930's helped open the way for Adolf Hitler's rise to power, died at his secluded home in this Baden village today, striving to the end to win some recogniton for his service to Germany.
  • His son Frnaz, said von Papen, who was 89, became seriously ill early last month.
  • It was in the political turmoil of 1932 that von Papen'S miscalculations aided the Nazis rise, although the party then was nearly bankrupt.
  • Violence followed
  • President Paul von Hindenburg named him chancellor on June and within two wecks von Papen lifted the ban on Hitler's storm troopers. A wave of political violence followed.
  • The, in two national elections, the Nazis emerged as the strongest partly, although short of majority.
  • Vn papen resigned as chancellor November 11 1932, after Hindenburg turned down his plan for the declaration of state of emergency and the indefinite suspension of the reichstag.
  • In his place Hindenburg appointed the gray eminence of the Weimar Republic, Gen Kurt von Schleicher, who hoped to split the nazis by wooing the more moderate hitler deputy, Gregor Strasser.
  • Von Papen on the other hand, saw Germany's salvation in bringing the nazis under hitler into the mainstream of the nation.
  • Von papens' role in underminign the schleicher government is cloude by conflicting accounts. von Paoen, himself denied that he plotted with hitler agaisnt schleicher.
  • On January 4, 1933, von Papen had a momentous meeting with Hitler at the home of a Schroeder. According to von Schroeder. According the von papen's account he attemped to win hitler's support for the schleicher government. According to others, the two plotted a coalition governement and new fiancial backing for the nazis.
  • The upshot was that hitler became head of a new cabinet that had only two other nazis beside himself. Von papen was vice chancellor.
  • He later publicly regretted his decision and called for an end to fantaicism. He escaped Hitler's purges but his aides did not.
  • The death and arrest of these aides did no deter von Papen from accepting Hitler's appoinment a month later as german minsiter ot austria, and later as ambassador to turkey.
  • after worl warii von papen was placed in the dock at the nuremberg war crimes trial. the tribunal acquitted von papen of pltting aggressive war for his part in austria's forcible anschluss the court ruled however, that von appe nahd been guilty of grave offenses against political morality."
  • A german court sentenced him in 1947 to eight years hard labor as a major offender under the nazis. An appeals court in 1949 reduced the sentence to the four years von papen already had served.
  • Funeral sevices will be held tuesda in Wallerfangen near saarbrücken.
  • Besiders his sons, von Papen is survived by four daughters.

• (12) "Franz von Papen, 89 Hitler vice chancellor", in: Toronto Daily Star vom 2. Mai 1969
  • Franz von Papen, who was Vice-Chancellor in Adolf Hitler's first government, and Germany's wartime ambassador in Turkey, died at his home at Obersasbach, West Germany today local officals said. He was 89.
  • He served as chancellor under democratically elected President Paul von Hindenburg, then became Hitler's vice Chancellor in order to continue in office.
  • Oone of the few top German officals to be acquitted by the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, he said he was ignorant of Nazis atrocities.
  • A devout Roman catholic, he explaiend his mercurial switches of allegiance during the 1930s as attempts to gain power in order to introduce a more liberal, more Christian era into German life.

• (13) "Franz von Papen dies. Helped Hitler role for Nazis Sue for Pensions", in: Washington Post vom 3. Mai 1969
  • Germany, Franz von Papen whose political miscues as chancellor in the early 1930s helped open the way for Hitler's rise to power, died at his secluded home in this Baden village today, striving to the end to win some recognition for his service to germany.
  • His son Franz said Mr von Papen who was 89 became seriously ill early this month and this was aggravated by advanced age.
  • It was in the political turmoil of 1932 that mr von Papen's miscalculations aided the Nazi rise although the party was nearly bankrupt.
  • President Paul von Hindenburg named him chancellor on June 1 and within two weeks mr von Papen lifted the ban on Hitler's storm troopers. A wave of political violence followed.
  • Then, in two national delegtions, the Nazis emeged as the strongest, party at though short of a majority.
  • Mr von Papen resigned as Chancellor on Nov 11 1932 after Hindenburg uned down his plan for the declaration of a state of emergency and the indefinite supsension of the Reichstag
  • Role for Nazis
  • In his place Hindenburg appointed the gray eminence of the Weimar Republic, gen Kurt von Schleicher, who placed false hope in splitting the Nazis by wooing the more moderate Hitler deputy Gregory Strasser and his followers.
  • Mr von Papen on the other hand saw Germany's salvation in bringing the nazis under Hitler into the mainstream of the nation.
  • Mr von Papen's role in undermining the Schleicher government is clouded by conflicting accounts. Mr von Papen himself denied that he intrigued with hitler against Schleicher.
  • On jan 4 1933 MR von Papen had a momentous meeting with Hitler at he home of a colonge banker, baron Kurt von Schroeder according to mr von Papen's account he attempted to win hitler's support for the Schleicher Government
  • Accoring to other the two plotted a coalition government and new financial backing for the Nazis.
  • The upshot was that Hitler became head of a new cabinet that had only two other nazis beside himself. Mr von Papen was vice Chancellor. He calculated that this would hold he nazis in check.
  • he later publicly regretted his decision and called for an end to fanatiism". He escaped Hitler's purges but his aides did not.
  • The death and arrest of these aiders did not deter...month ater as german ministr to Austria and later as ambassador to turkey.
  • After World War II Mr von papen the non-nazi was placed in the dock the Nuremberg war Crimes Trial along with the surviving top nazis. The tribunal acquitted him of plotting an aggressiv war for his par in austria's forcibel anschluss or oeacul union
  • The court ruled however that mr von papen had been guilty of grave offences against political morality."
  • A German court sentenced in the 1946 to eight years ...a major offender under the nazis. An appeals court in 1949 reduced the sentence to the four years mr von papen already had served in confinement.
  • He published his memoirs in 1952. Critics and historians labeled the volume largely apologia and special pleading with scant value as history.
  • Sues for pension
  • Up to the end, he was attempting through a court fight to win recognition for his service to the state; he was suing for a pension as a former army officer.
  • Mr von Papen was born oc 29 1879 to an aristocratic, Roman catholic Westphalian family with a lineage traceable to Charlemange. He first chose a military career, in the general staff field.
  • During world War I, he was German militay attche in washington and in 1915 was declared unwelcome by the American governemnt on accusations that he was paying secret agents inside the untied States advancing german interest in neighboring Mexico and on suspicion of engineering several acts sabotage in the United States.
  • On his return home he was transferred to active duty in the Somme and rose to lieutenant colonel before the war ended.
  • Four daughters as well as his son survive him.

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15 [assiste in rise to power] [not beyo dou e purpose of activity] [conclusi tha or sabotage in us] [mas ger spy aided hi at pow] [tenerife] [austria preparation of take-over] [helped pave the way for hitler] [hitlers patronage saved him time and again] fox; semi recluse; obscurity [givt for outliving the past] [sabotag dirigiert, feuer shciff u rüswerk, dir btom exp] center of an outcry 1953 [geburtshelferrolle] [same basic considerations motiv hi] [talent for intrigue, open door hit] broutgh shame to name] [herri stuy fac cava offi mor i admi his hore] [vain and superificial man with a fifth rat itnellect] [used to further upper class group] lung ailment] [critics found conduct in those years fatuous] master spy] master of survival [most hated man 1915] [down history a symbol of the old con germ upp cl which though] [motives were petty and primarily base on personal rivalry] [gam of music cha, bitt and dis] [ease him out] charter doe no mak crim such offenses again political morality hwoever bad these may be] [grvae off] [bedridden] stature is ramrod as ever, keen eye lokk from whit bushy eyebrow betray keen int in the world] [cool customer, hackacke] [undermining austria] [park surrounded] [major offender 1957] [boo largely apologia and special plead with scan valu as history] [backbench deputy] [wear down aus] [link bet pol righ an industrialist] [retire country gentleman] [surprise at being rie alime ignoran of atrociti] [putfoxed] [use to buil cons-chri soc he wanted] [ignora and superficiali been displ with su selfsatisfaction as in thi autobiography] arrogant title; forfei claim gent trea by critics title] [owe carreer to extraordin soci gifs and his aristoc connect] [pleas conversationalis and one who mov eas int elite] [helped ah to attai power] [erect bearing exuded distinction] [impeccably tailored] [controversiol place in ger turb his] [forfeitture of fortune] peace intrigues] [bel hone brok bet hi an ger be hon bro bet hi an world] [laugh be pap enjoy the peculiarity of being no take] [achiemen parl undistignuised] [earthenware] [bullie austria concession fatal to country] [choic met increduilty] [task bring bringin it within]

Ablegungen

• [Herkunft]
  • traceable to charlemagne
  • agent firm saar
  • intimate contact royal household
  • church: leading layman

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• US
  • Great impact on social scene Washington 1914
  • breach of diplomatic etiquette
  • carelessly left on train

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• [Regierung]
  • climbed a slippery pole to Chancellorship
  • not inconsiderable wits
  • Gained influence by ingratiating himself with Hindenburg
  • Miscues helped pave the way for Hitler, miscalculations aided rise
  • Considered leightweight, as responsible as any one man for brining Hitler to power, though that probably was not what he meant to

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• [Intrigen Jahreswechsel]
  • His role is clouded by conflicting accounts; denied that he intrigued
  • salvation saw in bringing naz into mainstream of nation
  • use the upstart Nazi
  • He chose a worse devil for a master.
  • Explore the possibility of forming a government
  • Persuaded appointment of H was inevitable
  • working busy as a beaver on Hindenburg
  • would hold in check
  • took a hand in raising money from businessmen

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• [Intrigant]
  • Weimar no place or time left which to intrigue
  • sank back to role enthusiastic intriguer on behalf of others

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• • Failed when came up against a cunning even lower than his own
  • Miscalculations aided Rise to power
  • plan tame party went disastrously wrong

---

• • He had his use in the regime, but never again was a major political figure

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• • Called for an end to fanaticism (regrettet earlier decision)
  • fall-out over attacks on church

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• [Überleben]
  • cunning, luck and connections among arisocracy enabled him to emerge unscathed from episodes, that might have tumbled a less well-endowed man.

---

• • great skill as a diplomat

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• • during war coordinated espionage operations

---

• • could not establish that was party to planning war

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• [Ruhestand]
  • Karlsruhe: among servents, who violated the principle of humanity and lawfulness trough their attitude during Reich
  • Striving to win some recognition to Ger/ fought for recognition
  • Lively correspondence

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• I Visit Franz von Papen, in independent Nr. 59, Oktober 1956ä
  • by George Sylvester Viereck
  • Franz von Papen ist one of the most puzzling figures in the tempestuous history of his country. At seventy-seven he symbolizes in his own person, the ups and downs, the triumphs and humiliations, of the German people from the days of the Kaiser to Adenauer and Pieck.
  • As a youth, the young aristocrat was a page at the court of William II. Here he met Bismarck, Molke, and other giants who created the second German Empire in 1870
  • Then, as a young officer, slim with excellent manners and jovial bearing, he was sent to Washington as the military attache of the German Ambassador, Count von Bernstorff. Dispatched home, because of several gallant but brash attempts to aid his country in her gigantic struggle, he served in the Army with valor and distinction. Bu nothing in his early career foreshadowed the eminent role he was destined to play in history.
  • When Papen became Chancellor of the Reich, under Hindenburg, he lacked the support of the Catholic Center. They resented the fact that he displaced Bruening with the sanction of his party. If the Center had supported him, German history might have taken another more favorable course.
  • In all his dealings Papen stressed his faithful adherence to Rome. But for all his Christian ethics, his desire to serve the Fatherland compelled him to ally himself at times, with some of the most un-christian and unethical forces and factions.
  • Eventually Papen bowed out in favor of Hitler. He joined Hitler's cabinet as vice chancellor in the hope that he would be able toe moderate the trubulent pace of the Fuehrer.
  • It must be remembered in this connection, that the Hitler of 1933 was not the Hitler of 1944. He could be soft-spoken and rational. There was every prospect that responsibility would temper his fiery nature.
  • Some of the 25 points in Hitler's program were beyond reproach. Several of the social measures advocated by him, were not unlike decisive reforms suggested in papal encyclicals. Others, to be sure, were diametrically opposed to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
  • Much of Hitler's program, including his anti-semitic antics, was considered political hogwash, the promises and exaggerations of a campaign orator.
  • After permitting him to give vent to his temper," Papen remarked to me, "Hitler always listened to reason. Unfortunately an unsavory crew, the diabolical Goebbels, the bloodthirsty gangster Himmler, and the maladroit Ribbentrop, often talked him out of his good resolutions when my back was turned."
  • Papen knew that he had to reckon with the hostility of the Nazi extremists. He was almosts murdered by Hitler's henchmen on several occasions. Nevertheless he continued to work with Hitler in the hope of severing his country. He exptected the Fueher to turn the Little Germany of 1870 into a Greater Germany without resorting to war. He expected too much.
  • Arranged Concordat
  • Papen was involved, positively or negatively, in every important step of the Third Reich. He arranged the Concordat regulating the relations between te Vatican and the Reich. He represented Hitler in Vienna at the time of the Anschluss.
  • It is forgotten today that German troops were greeted with wild acclaim by the Austrian people. There was no bloodshed. Hitler's peaceful march into Austria was like the triumphant homecoming of a roman caesar. In spite of misgivings, Papen shared the general enthusiasm.
  • It was Papen who kept Trukey out of the alliance against Germany until the last phase of World War II.
  • Disagreeing as he did with Hitler's policies, he did his best to prevent the war from spreading.
  • After the end of his Turkish mission, and the cataclysmic defeat of the Reich, Papen did not take the advice of his friends to seek asylum in a neural country. He refused to desert his stricken fatherland. In the ensuing chaos he was captured by American troops.
  • He was treated at first with every courtesy due to his eminence. Subsequently he and the other so-called "war-criminals," were caged like beasts in Nuremberg's dungeon. Under the pressure of vengeful emigres and war hysteria, he and the others were subjected to insults and inhuman cruelties which even our penal system would not inflict on criminals convicted of the most heinous offenses. Remember, the men at Nuremberg were still on trial. When it was proved beyond cavil that Papen had done his best to thwart or, at least, to mitigate Hitler's course, he was acquitted.
  • Freedom beckoned, but what freedom?
  • We delivered him into the hands of malignant persons then in power in Germany. A so-called spruchkammer condemned him to years of forced labor. These courts' were manned by brutish and ignorant laymen, including vengeful recently retunred ex-immigrants who assiduously exploited every opportunity to maltreat their intellectual and social superiors.
  • His 'sentence' was subsequently modified, but to this day his ungrateful countrymen have not, so far as I knowm restored the civil right of their former chancellor.
  • I have know Papen in every phase of his illustrious career and in his downfall.
  • We first met when he was in Washington. The dashing young officer represented the german embassy at my wedding. That was in 1914. in those days I was editor of an avant-garde literary magazine founded by Walter Lippman The international and associate editor of current literature, offspring of the Literary Digest, and predecessor of the Reader's Digest.
  • Eight days after the declaration of war, I founded that fighting weekly The Fatherland. Incensed by British propaganda, I undertook to provide an antidote to its poison. I vigorously opposed the forces urging the United States to depart from the Last Will of George Washington.
  • I combatted the campain to make us shed our blood to save the British Empire.
  • Truth has contradictions
  • I printed the truth as I saw it. Nowadays I sometimes doubt if there is such a thing as "the" truth. Truth has many contradictory aspects. it is often - "The paradox of every fith. That both are wrong and both are right."
  • When Cosgrave was President of Ireland, he surprised me by the disclosure that my little magazine had been widely distributed in Ireland during the war. It brought them the truth they wanted. At any rate The Fatherland, although its circulation never exceeded 100,000 played an important part in its day.
  • A regular contributor to my magazine was young Colonel von Papen. He penned a weekly review of the situation at the front, as "the military expert of The Fatherland," which indeed he was. I still treasure a picture he gave me many years later when he was Chancellor. He dedicated it to me "in memory of the years we fought together." He, for the victory of his country, I for the abstention of the United States form the bloody carnage.
  • I met Papen again when he was temporarily in disgrace with Hitler, when several of his trusted, but less prudent associates were brutally jailed or slain.
  • Papen himself miraculously escaped. He escaped from the daggers of Heydrich, just as he eluded the rope of Justice Jackson in Nuremberg.
  • In spite of certain unhappy mistakes and misjudgements, no one could doubt Papen's tireless efforts to end or, at least, to bridle hysteria and bloodlust. In spite of all his trials and tribulations, in spite of the scars of the years, Papen is still the upright, resourceful cavalier he was in his youth.
  • "Are you sorry," I asked him, "that you backed Hitler?"
  • "Everybody," he replied, "who helped in the formation of Hitler's Government must regret that this man was to play such a fateful role in Germany's destiny.
  • "But there was no other choice," he continued. "He came to power in 1933, but after December 2, 1932 his advance could not be halted. It was on that day that President von Hindenburg turned down my proposals for a coup d'etat. I urged him to dismiss the Reichstag and to govern, for a time, without Parliament. Given three months we could have prepared a new constitution, introduced certain electoral reforms and convoked a new national assembly providing for a balanced bicameral government.
  • "At first Hindenbrug consented, but the next day he reneged on his promise."
  • "Would you say that your old comrade Hindenburg broke faith with you?" I asked.
  • The Man of Honor
  • "Not in the least," Papen replied. "I had no right to persuade him to violate his oath of office. I, too, had taken an oath to the constituion, but I was willing to take the risk for the greater welfare of my country. Unfortunately General Schleicher, the power behind many German governments, and who controlled the Army, dissented. He declared my plan would precipate a bloody revolution and civil war. He wanred that the Army was not prepared to maintain order, in such an emergency."
  • "I was still willing," Papen added, "to go through with my plan despite Schleicher, although I would have insisted on his resignation. The German people wanted bread and work, not civil war. They had their fill of party wrangling. But other considerations prevailed.
  • "There was always the danger that Hitler if thwarted, might make common cause with the communists. His majoriy in the reichstag clearly entitled him to the chancellorship. I acquiesced because I was certain that Hitler, once in the saddle, would be as churchill phrased it, "a 'bulwark' against international communism."
  • Papen paused.
  • "If field marhsal von Hindenburg had been a yougner man," he remarked musingly, "he would probably have faced even the menace of civil war.. with his immense authority behind me, my plan would have succeeeded.' It is one of history's many ironies that hitler came into power legally because Hindenburg refused my illegal coup d'etat."
  • What is your real opinion of hilter?"
  • "I would call him a genius with a pathological strain. That characterizes the man. In my opinion Hitler's greatest drawback was his lack of veracity. He was an unconscionable liar. He lied to me, he lied to others, and he lied to the german people, prompted at times by goebbels, at times by the demon within his own soul. His constant jugglery with the ruth, his distortions of facts, foreclosed any consistent and rational policy.
  • "A habitual liar has no faith in others, and so Hitler distrusted most of his advisors and his generals. In the end he relied only on his own intuition."
  • Papen forgets that Hitler, irrespective of his mental state, had reason to distrust many of his advisors in the foreign office and in the general staff. By their own confession, the generals plotted against him from the beginning. They circumvented his orders, and plotted his assaination. The climax was reached in the bomb plot of July 20.
  • "Was Hitler still mentally normal after the fateful day that left him a cripple?" I asked.
  • "No," Papen countered, "decidedly not. Despite his monstrous powers of self deception, he must have known even then that the war was lost. I saw him once more in August of 1944 after my return from Turkey. He was a man twisted nad broken in mind and body."
  • The Conspirators
  • "Since you favored Hitler's liquidation, did you take an active part in the plot of July 20?"
  • "I was aware of the plans of the conspirators, but I did not pariticpate in the plot. I joined the Resistance in my way. I was determined to eliminate Hitler, not by assassination, but by placing him before a legally constituted tribunal. I could take no active steps in that direction because the Allies refused to modify their insensate demand for "Unconditional surrender."
  • "I approached Frnaklin D. Roosevelt through George Earle, to give up that slogan. Roosevelt turend a deaf ear to my suggestion.
  • "If the Allies had been willing to deal more gently with a germany that had repudiated the fuehrer, it would have been possible to save europe from chaos and communism.
  • "Overt defiance was futile, it meant the cocnentration camp or death. Effective resistance, through still perilous, was only possible from within his own regime.
  • "You seem to be gallows-proof," I remarked. "There is no doubt in my mind of your good faith, but what is your attitude towards Canaris? Would you call him a traitor?" (Canaris, head of the german counter-espionage office, played a double game for which he paid with his life.)
  • "I never," Papen replied cautiously, "regarded him as a traitor. Many things were done by his collaborators without his approval. I assume that he shared my conviction that no man may ever betray his country, but that it is permissable to take action against a head of statem who places himself beyond the pale of Christian ethics and leads his country into a bloody abyss."
  • "Do you agree with Lord action's phrase, "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely'?"
• "Not necessarily. Power did not courrpt Bismarck. That great statesman never craved absolute power. He was content to leave final decisions to his Emperor and King."
  • Hitler and Flunkies
  • "Wasn't Hitler compleed to rely on incompetent Party flunkies whose loyalty at least, was never in doubt? There were few outsiders on whom he could rely as he relied on you."
  • Papen smiled. "The party demanded my liquidation repeatedly, but hitler cited my popularity among German catholics and with the army.
  • "Perhaps," Papen added doubtfully, "the fueher valued my independent judgment, because, unlike many others, i never asked for a material reward. i could not be bought."
  • Many people were puzzled by your adherance to hitler's goverment after the atrocious treatmend meted out to you by his partisans," I remarked.
  • Von papen smiled. "I worked for my country irrespecive of its government, when I felt that I could be of service. I served the empire, the republic, and the third reich. I would place whatever small gifts I may possess at the disposal of the present government. Unfortunately it is controlled by men who opposed not only hitler but me, since 1932."
  • "To what extent did you bring about the reunion of the saar with the motherland?"
  • "I prepared the first plebecite in 1934, when 98% of the Saalanders voted for reunion with germany. I have not faltered in my allegiance to the Saar where so many of my ancestors lived and died. After World War II, I took the position that the brazen annexation of the Saar by the French would prejudice the rapprochment between germany and France, for which I had labored all my life. The reconstruction of Europe could not begin with a new mutilation of the kaiser's and Hitler's reich. I expressed these views in the Spanish press since German newpapers were closed to me."
  • German unity?
  • "Do you believe in the speedy reunion of the two germanies?"
  • Papen sadly shook his head. "I am afraid not in the foreseeable future."
  • Do you agree with my theory that Hitler would have won his place in history as one of the greatest of all Germans if he had departed from the scene before world war II?"
  • "Hitler,#" Papen replied could have won a greater place in history, even afte 1939, if he had acted with statemanlike wisom."
  • what should he have done?"
  • offered and honorable peace to France, reconstitued Poland and the batlic states, granted full autonomy to Czechoslovakia within the framework of the reich, withdraw his armies of occupation form Norway and Denmark etc. and amditted that Europe would not fulfill its historic mission as the guardian of western civilization except in conert with england."
  • "Do you consider it politically sound for the present German government to negotiate with the de facto regime of the german democratic rpeublicß"
  • "I would negotiate with Pankow, but I would not recognize its government as such. The Holy see takes a similar attitude in such cases, if conversations serve any purpose.' ** Similarly, i would not recognize the satellite states. Poland, for instance, occupies our povinces in the East. In those regions the poles are no more than an occupying power, not a legitimate governemnt. The final demarcation of Germany's borders will be dtmiend by the peace treat.y"
  • "why did you and other so-called war ciriminals recognize the kangaroo court of nuremberg?"
  • The defendants never recignized the competency of the so-called international tribunal. In spite of the stern admonitions to the contrary, our attorneys rejected the jurisdiction of the court where the dice was loaded against us."
  • Then why did you plead to the indicment in such a court?"
  • "According to the anglo Saxon code, a defendant need not testify, but he cannot speak for himself at all except under cross-examination. We all availed ourselves of the opportunity to state our case. All, that is, with the exception of Frick, Hitler's Secretary of the interior. Frick was hanged."
  • "It seems to me that you should have demanded a netural or a German court."
  • Papen agreed. "Some of the defendants may have deserved to be hanged, but not by the verdict of a four-ringed legal circus. Both the neutral nations and germany had ample laws to try and crime more adequately than your Mr. Jackson. But in the interest of fair-play, and in accordance with every judicial tradition, no one can be tried for an act that was no prescribed by law.
  • "The ex post facto statutes employed in Nuremberg were a hypocritical contrivance invented by the Allies."
  • "Nuremberg created a monstrous precedent that will plague any nation that ever loses a war."
  • "No fear of that," he interrupted. "After the next world war," Papen concluded, with a ghost of a smile, "no nation will sit in judgement over another. Nuclear warfare will destroy them all. There will be nothing left."

Ablegungen

• Annexion Saar nach 1945 abgelehnt, weil rapprochment zw. dt und Fr. erschweren würde
• Viereck: Nürnberg Präzedenzfall all nation plag die krieg verlieren
• symbolizes person ups and downs (triumphs and humiliations) people Kaiser to Adenauer
• Spruchkammern manned by brutish and ignorant men; vengeful immigrants assiduously exploited every opportunity maltreat their intellectual and social superior
• Partei habe wiederholt Liquidierung verlang, aber Hil habe Popularität Armee verwiesen
• gallows-proof
• schätzte unabhängiges Urteil u nie materiellen Lohn erstrebte
• Genius with pathological strain
• several trusted but less prudent associates slain or jailed
• kangaroo court

ddr verhnadeln aber reg ni anerkenn/ pol reg üost geb ni anerkennen/ triun zustä u begu ni anerkann, jurisdik ni anerkann/ nä welkri kei la an geri sitz, nuk kri all zerstör/ statu ex po fa verlo hervorbr/ twi an brok mi an body aug 44/ ruhm wär staamä han 40 zutr, dä u nor räum, tsch uauto, fri pol u frank/ neutr u dt ge um verbr verfol, bess als siemä zirkus auf, zrk ge / ironie hi leg mach hin abl illeg sta ausr( pol besatzumach gebieten/ verein zwei dt forsee fu ni erwarten/ hit for legal konsti tribunal gestellt/ kei andere mögli, hin 2 dez vor cou et abgelehnt/ drang valand dien zwan alliier mi frag fraktio/ slim with excellent manners and jovial bearing/ 44 refused desert stricken fatherland involved, positively or negatively, in every important step of the Third Reic/ eur guar west vivilization

met out, froclo posibil, abstention