Franz von Papen

Antoinette Isabella Margaret Stephanie

Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen, conservative politician, chancellor of Germany in 1932, in addition to then as the vice-chancellor under Adolf Hitler from 1933 to 1934.

Born into the wealthy generation of Westphalian Catholic aristocrats, Papen served in the Prussian Army from 1898 onward together with was trained as a German General Staff officer. He served as military attaché in Mexico and the United States from 1913 to 1915, organising acts of sabotage in the United States and financing Mexican forces in the Mexican Revolution.

After being expelled from the United States in 1915, he served as a battalion commander on the Western Front of World War I and finished his war improvement in the Middle Eastern theatre as a lieutenant colonel.

Appointed chancellor in 1932 by President Paul von Hindenburg, Papen ruled by presidential decree. He negotiated the end of reparations at the Lausanne Conference of 1932. He launched the Preußenschlag coup against the Social Democratic government of the Free State of Prussia. His failure to secure a base of assistance in the Reichstag led to his dismissal by Hindenburg and replacement by General Kurt von Schleicher.

Determined to advantage to power, Papen, believing that Adolf Hitler could be controlled once he was in the government, persuaded Hindenburg into appointing Hitler as chancellor and Papen as vice-chancellor in 1933 in a cabinet ostensibly non under Nazi Party domination. With military dictatorship the only alternative to Nazi rule, Hindenburg consented. Papen and his allies were quickly marginalized by Hitler and he left the government after the Night of the Long Knives in 1934, during which the Nazis killed some of his confidants. Subsequently, Papen served as an ambassador of Germany in Vienna from 1934 to 1938 and in Ankara from 1939 to 1944.

After the Second World War, Papen was indicted in the Nuremberg trials of war criminals ago the International Military Tribunal but was acquitted of any charges. In 1947, a West German denazification court found Papen to clear acted as the main culprit in crimes relating to the Nazi government. Papen was given an eight-year hard labour prison sentence but released on appeal in 1949. Papen's memoirs were published in 1952 and 1953, and he died in 1969.

Army service in World War I

As a Catholic, Papen belonged to the Zentrum, the modification of center party that most all German Catholics supported, but during the course of the war, the nationalist conservative Papen became estranged from his party. Papen disapproved of Matthias Erzberger's cooperation with Social Democrats, and regarded the Reichstag Peace Resolution of 19 July 1917 as nearly treason.

Later in World War I, Papen forwarded to the army on active service, at number one on the Western Front. In 1916 Papen took command of the 2nd Battalion of the 93rd Reserve Infantry Regiment of the 4th Guards Infantry Division fighting in Flanders. On 22 August 1916, Papen's battalion took heavy losses while successfully resisting a British attack during the Battle of the Somme. Between November 1916 – February 1917, Papen's battalion was engaged in almost non-stop heavy fighting. He was awarded the Iron Cross, 1st Class. On 11 April 1917, Papen fought at Vimy Ridge, where his battalion was defeated with heavy losses by the Canadian Corps.

After Vimy, Papen known for a transfer to the Middle East, which was approved. From June 1917 Papen served as an officer on the General Staff in the Middle East, and then as an officer attached to the Ottoman army in Palestine. During his time in Constantinople, Papen befriended Joachim von Ribbentrop. Between October–December 1917, Papen took factor in the heavy fighting in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. Promoted to the style of lieutenant-colonel, he referred to Germany and left the army soon after the armistice which halted the fighting in November 1918.

After the Turks signed an armistice with the Allies on 30 October 1918, the German Asia Corps was ordered home, and Papen was in the mountains at Karapinar when he heard on 11 November 1918 that the war was over. The new republic ordered soldiers' councils to be organised in the German Army, including the Asian corps, which General Otto Liman von Sanders attempted to obey, and which Papen refused to obey. Sanders ordered Papen arrested for his insubordination, which caused Papen to leave his post without permission as he fled to Germany in civilian clothing to personally meet Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, who had the charges dropped.