By Ribbentrop: Escape and arrest - a dark chapter of history

On June 14, 1945, Joachim von Ribbentrop, former Reich Foreign Minister, was arrested in Hamburg and later executed.
On June 14, 1945, Joachim von Ribbentrop, former Reich Foreign Minister, was arrested in Hamburg and later executed. (Symbolbild/MND)

By Ribbentrop: Escape and arrest - a dark chapter of history

Flensburg, Deutschland - On June 14, 2025, a striking turning point in world history marks. Exactly 80 years ago, on June 14, 1945, Joachim von Ribbentrop, the then Reich Foreign Minister, was arrested. Born on April 30, 1893 in Wesel, Ribbentrop left imperial traces as a Nazi politician, which are still being discussed today. After his successful commitment in the First World War, he opened a wine trade company after 1919 before entering the NSDAP and quickly entered Adolf Hitler's favor. This connection ensured that Ribbentrop was subsequently appointed many influential posts and finally in 1938 as Reich Foreign Minister, which earned him a central role in National Socialist foreign policy. ndr reports that historian Lu Seegers is as ideologically to Hitler and as shared for the aggression and classification policy classified.

But how did his arrest came about? At the end of the war in 1945, Ribbentrop planned his escape from Berlin. He was in the situation when he had significant values ​​in the form of gold bars, which were later estimated as five million Reichsmarks, transported to Schleswig-Holstein. He also had two wagons sent to Hamburg with valuable cognac. With the help of these goods, Ribbentrop wanted to finance his escape to South America by escaping through the so -called “Ratsin line north” to Flensburg. However, on June 14, 1945, he was revealed by the son of a friend who turned to the British military police.

ribbentrop: The way to arrest

On the said day, Ribbentrop was finally arrested in Hamburg by the British military police and the British secret service. Interestingly, when he was arrested, he had a poison capsule with him, but of which he was looking for. In order to confirm his identity, a fictitious meeting was arranged with his sister Ingeborg, which gave the officials additional security. On October 1, 1946, he was guilty of the main war criminals in the Nuremberg trial. His punishment: death by the strand, which was executed on October 16, 1946. After the execution, Ribbentrop's body was crowned and the ashes scattered in the Wenzbach, which ends its end in an ominous way with a symbol of expiry. wikipedia leads from the fact that Ribbentrop was not only one of the 24 defendants in front of the Nuremberg Tribunal, but also as one of the few who showed no repentance during the procedure.

a life between ups and downs

In retrospect, Ribbentrop was more than a minister. Numerous countries and cultures already shaped him in youth: his family lived in Kassel and Metz, and he learned the French language. The family later moved to Switzerland, where Josef received private lessons and even studied in England. After moving to Canada, he was active in sports and even on the Canadian ice hockey national team before becoming a volunteer in 1914. These diverse experiences contributed to his complex personality, who finally exposed itself in a departure of moral values ​​and an unimpressed, power -hungry behavior.

not only remain the memory of his role in the NSDAP and the atrocities of the regime, but also the constant examination of the consequences of his deeds. Including the high responsibility he was wearing, and the way he did not seem to be recognized until the end of his days that he caused. wikipedia emphasized that the underlings of the Reich Foreign Minister were jointly responsible for many terrible political decisions, and his story remains a warning example of the abuse of power and the case of man created from himself Height.

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OrtFlensburg, Deutschland
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