A CONSERVATIVE AGAINST IDTLER A Conservative Against Hitler Ulrich von Hassell: Diplomat in Imperial Germany, the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich, 1881-1944 GREGOR SCHOLLGEN Professor of Modern History University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Translated by Louise Willmot Foreword by Michael Balfour Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978-1-349-21759-5 ISBN 978-1-349-21757-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-21757-1 English translation© Louise Willmot 1991 Foreword© Michael Balfour 1991 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1991 All rights reserved. For information, write: Scholarly and Reference Division, St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, NewYork,N.Y.lOOlO First published as Ulrich von Hassell, 1881-1944 by Verlag C. H. Beck, Miinchen, 1990. First published in the United States of America in 1991 ISBN 978-0-312-05784-8 Ubrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Schollgen, Gregor [Ulrich von Hassell, 1881-1944. English] A conservative against Hitler : Ulrich von Hassell, diplomat in imperial Germany, the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich, 1881-1944 I Gregor Schollgen; translated by Louise Willmot; foreword by Michael Balfour. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-05784-8 1. Hassell, Ulrich von, 1881-1944. 2. Ant-Nazi movement­ Germany-Biography. 3. Statesmen-Germany-Biography. 4. Germany-Politics and govemment-1933-1945. I. Title. DD247.H33S3613 1991 943.086'092---dc20 [B] 90-48824 CIP Contents ~~~~ ~ List of Abbreviations ~i Foreword by Michael Balfour viii ~~ ~ Introduction 1 PART I THE YOUNG CONSERVATIVE (1881-1919) 5 1 Background, Education and Early Diplomatic Experiences 7 2 In the Prussian Administration 14 PART II THE DIPLOMAT (1919-1938) 27 3 Preparing a Career 29 4 Envoy of the Weimar Republic 35 5 Ambassador of the Third Reich 44 PART III THE OPPONENT (1938-1944) 65 6 Activities and Occupations 67 7 Foreign Contacts and Peace-feelers 78 8 The State of the Future: Visions in Wartime 95 9 Failure 116 Conclusion 122 Appendix: 128 Document I Ulrich von Hassell, We Young Conservatives. An Appeal (1918) 129 Document II Press Declaration of Envoy Ulrich von Hassell on the Tensions in Germany and the Questions of Reparations and Disarmament (1932) 133 Document III Ulrich von Hassell, Germany Between West and East (1944) 136 Not~ 147 Bibliography 173 Index 185 v List of Plates 1. The student at Prinz-Heinrich-High-School in Berlin. 2. The father-in-law, Alfred von Tirpitz, with his daughter Ilse, Ulrich von Hassell's wife, 1914, in Karlsbad. 3. The envoy Ulrich von Hassell and his family, 1926, in Kopenhagen. 4. Ulrich von Hassell and Benito Mussolini in the garden of Villa Massimo in Rome. 5. Mussolini welcoming Hitler upon his arrival in Venice, 14 June 1934. Behind the 'duce' the pensive Ulrich von Hassell, who was largely responsible for arranging this meeting. 6. Ambassador von Hassell, Chancellor Hitler and Foreign Min- ister von Neurath, June 1934, in Venice. 7. Ilse von Hassell, in the mid-1930s. 8. Ulrich von Hassell, in the early 1940s. 9. Ulrich von Hassell and Carl Goerdeler standing trial in the Volksgerichtshof, 7 September 1944. 10. Ulrich von Hassell, trying to get a word in with the screaming president of the Volksgerichtshof, Roland Preisler. vi List of Abbreviations AA Auswartiges Amt ADAP Akten zur deutschen auswiirtigen Politik AP Auswiirtige Politik. Monatshefte des Deutschen Instituts fiir Aussenpolitische Forschung [etc.] BA Bundesarchiv Koblenz DBFP Documents on British Foreign Policy DGFP Documents on German Foreign Policy FDLR Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Hyde Park (New York) FO Foreign Office FRUS Foreign Relations of the United States HZ Historische Zeitschrift HZ Institut fiir Zeitgeschichte Munich MWT Mitteleuropaischer Wirtschaftstag NA National Archives Washington, D.C. PA/AA Politisches Archiv des Auswartigen Amtes Bonn PRO Public Record Office London Tagebiicher Die Hassell-Tagrbiicher 1938-1944 VfZG Vierteljahrshefte fiir Zeitgeschichte vii Foreword by Michael Balfour I am delighted that a biography of Ulrich von Hassell should be published in English. At first sight Hassell's influence upon events may not seem great enough to justify devoting a whole book to his career. The highest post which he reached was that of German Ambassador to Italy at the time when the Axis Pact was concluded between the two coun­ tries. But he disapproved of the policy which the pact represented and for that reason was sacked by Hitler and Ribbentrop. He was executed for taking part in the conspiracy against Hitler but was not directly involved in any of the attempts on the Fuhrer's life for the good reason that he did not have access either to the target or to the explosives which were indispensable for such an attempt. His plans for a post-Hitler Germany were not exclusive to him and were not in fact adopted. There are, however, two reasons why I consider him to be an interesting subject of study for British readers. Firstly, while his personality and ideas embodied the German conservative outlook at its best, they also demonstrated the limitations of that outlook. For it gave pride of place to 'heroic' virtues such as courage, discipline, loyalty, industry and self-denial, qualities whose merit depends on the ends which they are exerted to serve. The overriding importance of such ends as respect for the individual personality and for truth tended to be put second. The claims of the sovereign national state were exalted, the counter-claims of humanity overlooked and even ridiculed. Hitler's access to power was in the last analysis due to his exploitation of the false balance between these two groups of values. Many Germans who helped him to power, or at least acquiesced in his acquisition, of it were horrified at the result but found it hard to understand how they had contributed. Most of them managed in one way or another to avoid facing the issue or were inhibited by loyalty to their country from supporting action to change the regime at the risk of losing the war. Von Hassell was one of the few whose consciences convinced them that, for the sake of Germany's viii Foreword by Michael Balfour ix reputation in history, such a risk ought to be run, although he hoped that the Anglo-Americans would have enough vision to deal gently with a defeated foe. One almost inevitable result of this German conservative out­ look was the antagonism which dominated Anglo-German relations between 1870 and 1945. This is the second reason why von Hassell has a claim to British interest. At first sight there may not seem to be much difference between him and his counterparts among British diplomats. He was a cultured man with a wide knowledge of history and European literature, articulate and thoughtful, who could have had a distinguished academic career had he so desired. He may have been deaf to the claim of ordinary men to have a say as to how the world they live in should be run. But his sincere protestant faith (possibly underemphasised in this book) made natural to him a benevolent attitude towards his fellow-men. Although he could talk in 1920 about the need for protection against an excess of harmful foreign and particularly Jewish influences (19), he was appalled by the Final Solution. Yet von Hassell's thinking was based upon a principle which would have been firmly repudiated by his opposite numbers in Brit­ ain. He believed fundamentally that Germany's genius for organi­ sation, along with her culture and inventiveness, made it in the common interest of Europe for her to dominate that continent. 'A healthy Europe never has and never .will exist without Germany as its healthy and strong heart' (145). He venerated Bismarck above all other statesmen for having realised the potentialities of German resources by ending the age-old division into small weak units. In the years before 1914 he felt that only by becoming a Great Power and winning world stature could Germany have a chance of maintaining herself among the other Powers and survive (24). His father had regarded England as Germany's chief enemy (10) and it is now clear that his father-in-law Admiral von Tirpitz took it as a fundamental if unspoken assumption that German ambitions could not be realised without war with Britain. Not only would his elders have justified this attitude by arguing that war was the traditional method by which the international status of nations was adjusted to changes in their relative strength but they would also have claimed that, if other states joined together in encircling Germany with a view to preventing her from obtaining her desires, they were as much to blame as she for any consequent conflict. They might further have argued that Germany could not X Foreword by Michael Balfour afford to let Austria-Hungary be beaten by Russia (as she would have been if left unaided) because Germany would then have to face a Franco-Russian Alliance and a two-front war on her own. The solution of relying on British friendship would be ruled out by the fact that Britain's price would be Germany's abandonment of her World Power ambitions. The flaw in this outlook became evident when Germany lost the war. As Schiller said, 'World History is the World's Court of Judgement'. Ulrich von Hassell would seem to have taken the Court's ruling to heart. As Hitler for long did himself, he made it a basic pdnciple of German policy after 1919 to maintain good relations with Britain. He ceased to emphasise the need for Germany to become a World Power. He did not ask for the return of German colonies.