Ribbentrop

Of all the bizarre individuals projected into high office by Hitler's revolution, none was more improbable than Joachim von Ribbentrop. Universally regarded by his peers as foolish, incompetent, and arrogant, Ribbentrop advanced in only a few short years to the position of Hitler's Foreign Minister. A successful middle-class merchant of mediocre intellect, Ribbentrop owed his position largely to the fact that he was deeply in thrall to two people--an ambitious, dominating wife and the demonic Fuhrer, who saw in him a spineless creature he might bend totally to his will. In 1936 Hitler appointed Ribbentrop, then only in his early forties, Ambassador to London. Having become a laughingstock in England, Ribbentrop returned home eighteen months later determined to plot a war against England. After less than two years, Ribbentrop forged the notorious nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union, clearing the way for Hitler to attack Poland and launch World War II. Ribbentrop spent the war years trying to solidify the Axis alliance. Although he was the only Nazi to have moved in Jewish circles before the Third Reich, he became deeply implicated in the "final solution." In the wake of German defeat, Ribbentrop was convicted as a war criminal and hanged at Nuremberg. Michael Bloch vividly portrays this tragicomic and historically neglected figure.--Adapted from book jacket.