English source-aligned edition
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop served as Reich Foreign Minister and diplomatic agent of German expansion. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in German foreign policy and relations with occupied, allied and satellite states through documented office, decisions, supervision or operational conduct. It does not assign every crime committed by an institution or region to one individual.
Confirmed findings
- Ribbentrop became foreign minister in February 1938 and used the ministry to prepare and legitimise German territorial expansion and aggressive war.
- He negotiated the German-Soviet pact of August 1939 and its secret protocol dividing parts of central and eastern Europe into spheres of influence before the attack on Poland.
- Under his authority the Foreign Ministry pressed allied and satellite governments and coordinated with German agencies over the surrender and deportation of Jewish populations.
Place in the chain of responsibility
Ribbentrop's agency lay in diplomatic preparation, coercion and intergovernmental coordination. The profile distinguishes this role from military invasion and the police execution of deportations while showing how they formed one chain.
Key events and mechanisms
- appointment as Reich Foreign Minister, February 1938
- signature of the German-Soviet non-aggression pact and secret protocol, August 1939
- diplomatic pressure supporting deportations of Jews from allied and satellite states
The circle records authority, function and agency. Several profiles may describe different parts of the same persecution chain, so profile-level totals must not be added together.
Postwar accountability
The International Military Tribunal convicted Ribbentrop on all four counts and sentenced him to death on 1 October 1946. He was hanged in Nuremberg on 16 October 1946.
Limits of the evidence
The profile attributes only the documented policies and diplomacy of Ribbentrop's ministry, not every decision made independently by foreign governments, military commands or the SS.
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.
