Von Papen
Papen, Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria Von.
ACHIEVEMENT(S): German Chancellor who helped Adolf Hitler to power in 1933.
NICKNAME/ALIAS:
DATE/PLACE OF BIRTH: 29th October 1879, in Werl, Germany.
DATE/PLACE/AGE AT DEATH: 2nd May 1969, at Obersasbach, Germany. Aged 90.
DISCIPLINE: Statesman/diplomat.
FIELD: Politics
LANGUAGE: German.
PARENTS: Friedrich Franz Michael Von Papen and Anna Laura Von Steffens.
SIBLINGS: 4.
SPOUSE: Martha Von Boch-Galhau.
CHILDREN: Antoinette, Isabella, Margaret, Friedrich Franz,
Stephanie Marie Antoinette.
EDUCATION: Bensberg Cadet Academy, 1891-95; Lichtenfelder Military Academy,
1895-98; Dusseldorf & Hanover Cavalry Schools, 1898-1908; Berlin Staff
Academy, 1908-13.
MAJOR WORK: Memoirs (1952)
LIFE AND TIMES:
On 15th March 1898 Von Papen was commissioned in the 5th Westphalian Uhlan regiment, his father's old regiment, stationed in Dusseldorf. He trained as a lancer and in October 1902, went to the Cavalry Riding School in Hanover. During his time there, he also spent several months in England.
Back in Germany, Von Papen regularly visited the home of the wealthy industrialist,
Rene Von Boch-Galhau and in May 1905, he married Boch-Galhau's youngest daughter, Martha. For a time, the couple lived in Dusseldorf, where their first child was born in 1906. Von Papen continued to pursue his great ambition to become a General Staff officer. Finally, in 1908, at the age of 28, he passed the tough qualifying examinations and went to Berlin to begin his training.
He spent the next three years studying military science, with summer assignments in both Germany and France, and was finally selected along with 150 other officers to serve on the General Staff for a trial period to April 1911. He was then given a further two years' training in intelligence operations, during which time he was exposed to the ideas of the military writer Friedrich Von Bernhardi.
Bernhardi believed that war was "not only an integral part of humanity, but the great civilizing influence of the world." He and his followers preached unquestioning loyalty to the Fatherland and a moral and religious duty to the Kaiser.
By 1913, Von Papen had completed his training and was promoted Captain. Soon afterwards, he was made military attaché to the USA and Mexico, arriving in the United States in January 1914. After less than two years, he was expelled by the US government for offences against their neutrality laws.
Von Papen returned to Germany in January 1916 and was sent to the Western front, where he distinguished himself, was personally noticed by Ludendorff* and Hindenburg*, and by mid-1917 had been promoted major.
He immediately joined his superior, General Erich Von Falkenhayn and together with a small staff, went to Constantinople to lead the German Asia Corps, combined with the 7th Turkish Army, as chief of staff against the British in Palestine.
In November 1918, Germany surrendered and the Kaiser abdicated. Returning, in January 1919, to a Republic in chaos, Von Papen chose to resign from the army, after almost 29 years of service, as he had no wish to defend a Republic for which he had no regard or loyalty.
For two years, Von Papen devoted himself to his estate, in a socialist Weimar Republic forced to accept the economically-devastating terms of the Versailles Treaty of 1919, a national humiliation which fostered right-wing ultra-nationalism.
Von Papen, alarmed by what he saw as a damaging political situation, entered politics in late 1920. He joined the ultra-conservative wing of the Catholic Centre Party, with the main aim of defending the interests of landowners against the socialists and communists, and of moving his party increasingly towards the right.
Later that year, he was elected to a seat in the Westphalian Parliament. In 1925, after a campaign led by Von Papen and the right-wing nationalists, Germany's wartime supreme commander, Von Hindenburg was narrowly elected President of the Republic.
Although Von Papen was politically unknown, Von Hindenburg made him Chancellor in June 1932. One of his first actions was to lift a ban on Adolf Hitler's paramilitary force, the Sturmabteilung (SA), in an attempt to appease the Nazis, now the second biggest parliamentary party. On 20th July, he removed the Social Democratic government of Prussia. Both actions contributed greatly to the rising strength of the Nazis.
Meanwhile Von Papen attended the Lausanne Conference and achieved the main positive result in his time as Chancellor the cancellation of Germany's post-war reparations.
After only seven months in power, manipulated by Goering* he persuaded Von Hindenburg to transfer the Chancellorship to Hitler*, with himself as Vice-Chancellor, in the mistaken belief that this would make Hitler more controllable. On 4th January 1933 took power and immediately sacked Von Papen's conservative Cabinet allies, replacing them with Nazis. In 1936, Von Papen became ambassador in Vienna and spent the next two years organizing the March 1938 annexation of Austria.
After a year spent at home, on the outbreak of World War II in 1939 he was appointed ambassador to Turkey, where he was instrumental in keeping Turkey from joining the Allies. He remained in Ankara until 1944.
The British arrested Von Papen in April 1945, but the International War Crimes Tribunal found him not guilty of conspiracy to prepare for aggressive war. Instead, he was sentenced to eight years by a German court, for being a major Nazi figure. He successfully appealed against the sentence and was released in 1949.
His memoirs appeared in 1952 and were translated into English the following year. During his last years, Von Papen settled at a new home in Obersasbach, on the edge of the Black Forest, where he spent most of his time defending his position during Hitler's twelve-year reign of terror and violence, claiming that he "served the Fatherland not the Nazis".
ASSESSMENT: Franz Von Papen was either masterful at political intrigue, a devious and unreliable diplomat, or an incompetent front man for Hitler.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None
ONELINER: Von Papen, pro-Hitler German Chancellor
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Rolfs, Richard W., The Sorcerer's Apprentice: The Life of Franz Von Papen, Lanham & London: University Press of America, 1996.