Unterstaatssekretaer Martin Luther and the Ribbentrop Foreign Office

Abstract

In the struggle of Nazi internal politics, the chieftains of the Third Reich were in perpetual competition to out-perform each other. Like a feudal monarch, Hitler stood as arbiter over his squabbling vassals. The able use of power to accomplish the tasks most appreciated by the Fiihrer led to further grants of power to enhance the private fiefs of the most successful lieutenants. To perpetrate this struggle for power, each Nazi chieftain needed his own 'private army' led by a sub-vassal, directly loyal to him, who constantly guarded the domain from encroachment by others and expanded it when possible.l This system of government provided fertile soil for many spectacular careers. Each chieftain recruited sub-vassals to strengthen his own position, but these men could also exploit their roles to build up domains of their own. The conflict between the two could remain latent as long as they mutually profited from the partnership at others' expense, as was the case with Himmler and Heydrich. Joachim von Ribbentrop, the Nazi Foreign Minister and one of the less successful competitors in this internal struggle for power, was particularly in need of an able subvassal, an effective political infighter, and found him in Martin Luther. At first the arrangement was mutually beneficial, but Ribbentrop's weakness finally endangered Luther's position as well. The latent conflict came into the open, and revolt broke out in the German Foreign Office.