1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. Joachim von Ribbentrop

Joachim von Ribbentrop Quotes

Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop , better known as simply Joachim von Ribbentrop, was Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany from 1938 until 1945.

Ribbentrop first came to Adolf Hitler's notice as a well-travelled businessman with more knowledge of the outside world than most senior national socialists and as a perceived authority on foreign affairs. He offered his house Schloss Fuschl for the secret meetings in January 1933 that resulted in Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany. He became a close confidant of Hitler, to the disgust of some party members, who thought him superficial and lacking in talent. He was appointed ambassador to the Court of St James's, the royal court of the United Kingdom, in 1936 and then Foreign Minister of Germany in February 1938.

Before World War II, he played a key role in brokering the Pact of Steel and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact . He favoured retaining good relations with the Soviets, and opposed the invasion of the Soviet Union. In the autumn of 1941, due to American aid to Britain and the increasingly frequent "incidents" in the North Atlantic between U-boats and American warships guarding convoys to Britain, Ribbentrop worked for the failure of the Japanese-American talks in Washington and for Japan to attack the United States. He did his utmost to support a declaration of war on the United States after the attack on Pearl Harbor. From 1941 onwards, Ribbentrop's influence declined.

Arrested in June 1945, Ribbentrop was tried at the Nuremberg trials and convicted for his role in starting World War II in Europe and enabling the Holocaust. On 16 October 1946, he became the first of those sentenced to death by hanging to be executed. Wikipedia  

✵ 30. April 1893 – 16. October 1946
Joachim von Ribbentrop photo
Joachim von Ribbentrop: 13   quotes 2   likes

Famous Joachim von Ribbentrop Quotes

“My last wish is that Germany realize its entity and that an understanding be reached between East and West. I wish peace to the world.”

Joachim von Ribbentrop

Last words, 10/16/46. Quoted in "The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness World War II" - Page 562 - by Jon E. Lewis - History - 2002

“I was truly under Hitler's spell, that cannot be denied. I was impressed with him from the moment I first met him, in 1932. He had terrific power, especially in his eyes. Now the tribunal accuses us of conspiracy. I say, how can one have a conspiracy in a dictatorship government? One man and one man only made all the crucial decisions. That was the Fuhrer. In all my dealings with him I never discussed the exterminations or anything of that sort. What I shall never comprehend is that six weeks before the end of the war he assured me we'd win by a nose. I left his presence then and said that from that time forth I was completely at a loss — that I didn't understand a thing. Hitler always, until the end, and even now, had a strange fascination over me. Would you call it abnormal of me? Sometimes, in his presence, when he spoke of all his plans, the good things he would do for the Volk, vacations, highways, new buildings, cultural advantages and so forth, tears would come to my eyes. Would that be because I'm a hysterical weak man?”

Joachim von Ribbentrop

To Leon Goldensohn, July 15, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004

“I rather liked Stalin and Molotov, got along fine with them.”

Joachim von Ribbentrop

To Leon Goldensohn, February 16, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004

“I think the only way one can arrive at an understanding of his anti-Semitism growing all the time is because in America your Mr. Roosevelt had his brain trust which was made up of so many Jews, Felix Frankfurter, Claude Pepper - was it Pepper? I can't recall the other names. Oh yes, Morgenthau. It made Hitler feel more and more that an international conspiracy had caused the war, with the Jews behind it.”

Joachim von Ribbentrop

To Leon Goldensohn, January 27, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004

“Death, death. Now I won't be able to write my beautiful memoirs.”

Joachim von Ribbentrop

To Dr. G. M. Gilbert, after receiving the death sentence. Quoted in "Nuremberg Diary" - by G. M. Gilbert - History - 1995

“I know for a fact that this idea of the Jews causing the war and the Jews being so all important is nonsense. But that was Hitler's idea, and…was pure fantasy. As I say, Hitler is a riddle to me and will always remain so.”

Joachim von Ribbentrop

To Leon Goldensohn. From "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn - Page 190

Joachim von Ribbentrop Quotes

“I don't mean that it is important whether a few of us like Goering, myself, or the others are sentenced to death or hard labor or whatever, but to the German people we will always remain their leaders, right or wrong, and in a few years even you Americans and the rest of the world will see this trial as a mistake. The German people will learn to hate the Americans, distrust the British and French, and unfortunately, perhaps be taken in by the Russians. That will be the worst calamity of all. I hate to think of Moscow ruling Germany or Germany becoming a territorial possession of the Soviet Union. The Allies should take the attitude, now that the war is over, that mistakes have been made on both sides, that those of us here on trial are German patriots, and that though we may have been misled and gone too far with Hitler, we did it in good faith and as German citizens. Furthermore, the German people will always regard our condemnation by a foreign court as unjust and will consider us martyrs.”

Joachim von Ribbentrop

To Leon Goldensohn, June 23, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004

Death , Hate , War , People

“Last words: God protect Germany!”

Joachim von Ribbentrop

Original: (de) Gott schützt Deutschland!
Source: http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Joachim_von_Ribbentrop

God

“Need one comment on that fool? He is not a foreign minister but a blind adherent of Hitler. He is also personally disagreeable and vain.”

Joachim von Ribbentrop

Erhard Milch to Leon Goldensohn, March 13, 1946.

Personality , Fools

“That man always made it a point to speak German, although he spoke English well enough. That was because he imitated Hitler to the last degree. He would say that his reason for speaking German instead of English during conferences with English-speaking representatives was that he wanted to concentrate on the subject in hand, and not on the language. Ribbentrop was a complete imitator of Hitler - even to the design of his cap. Originally he had a nice cap, but then he imitated the stationmaster type of cap preferred by Hitler.”

Joachim von Ribbentrop

Paul O. Schmidt to Leon Goldensohn, March 13, 1946.

“When apprehensions abroad threatened the success of the Nazi regime for conquest, it was the duplicitous Ribbentrop, the salesman of deception, who was detailed to pour wine on the troubled waters of suspicion by preaching the gospel of limited and peaceful intentions.”

Joachim von Ribbentrop

Robert H. Jackson

Water , Peace , Wine , Success

“A foreign minister who knew little of foreign affairs and nothing of foreign policy.”

Joachim von Ribbentrop

Robert H. Jackson

“God protect Germany. God have mercy on my soul. My final wish is that Germany should recover her unity and that, for the sake of peace, there should be an understanding between East and West. I wish peace to the world.”

Joachim von Ribbentrop

Last words as quoted in The Execution of Nazi War Criminals (1946) by Kingsbury Smith of the International News Service

Soul , God , Peace , Understanding

Similar authors

Erich von Manstein photo
Erich von Manstein 8
German general
Otto Stern photo
Otto Stern 2
German physicist
Erich Maria Remarque photo
Erich Maria Remarque 63
German novelist
Christian Morgenstern photo
Christian Morgenstern 21
German author
Ernst Ruska photo
Ernst Ruska 2
German physicist
Werner Heisenberg photo
Werner Heisenberg 42
German theoretical physicist
Francisco Franco photo
Francisco Franco 14
Spanish general and dictator
Ernst Jünger photo
Ernst Jünger 16
German writer
Hermann Hesse photo
Hermann Hesse 168
German writer
Herta Müller photo
Herta Müller 28
German-Romanian novelist, poet and essayist