Konstantin von Neurath (2 February 1873 – 14 August 1956) was the Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany from 1 June 1932 to 4 February 1938, succeeding Heinrich Bruning and preceding Joachim von Ribbentrop and Protector of Bohemia and Moravia from 21 March 1939 to 24 August 1943, preceding Wilhelm Frick.
Biography[]
Konstantin von Neurath was born on 2 February 1873 in Kleinglattbach, Württemberg, German Empire. Von Neurath studied as a lawyer and was an embassy officer in the Ottoman Empire, and World War I saw Von Neurath serve in an infantry regiment and earn an Iron Cross in 1914. From 1921 to 1930 he served as ambassador to Fascist Italy in Rome, and he was unimpressed by fascism under Benito Mussolini. In 1932, he was recalled to Germany and was appointed Foreign Minister of the Weimar Republic as an independent; he resumed the post under Nazi Germany and joined the Nazi Party in 1937, having previously been a member of the German Voelkisch Freedom Party (DVFP). In 1939, his role was switched to the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia's head-of-government, but his rule was too lenient and Reinhard Heydrich was appointed as his deputy in 1941. In August 1943, his 1941 resignation was accepted and was replaced by Wilhelm Frick, and he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison after the end of World War II by the Allied Powers for war crimes against university students and the government-in-exile of occupied Czechoslovakia. He was released in 1954 after a heart attack and died in 1956.
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