Hans-Adolph Jacobsen - The Nazi Party and the German Foreign Office

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11. The Nazi Party and the German Foreign Office

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Hans-Adolf Jacobsen and Arthur L. Smith, Jr.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Jacobsen, Hans Adolf.

The Nazi Party and the German Foreign Office / Hans-Adolf Jacobsen and Arthur L. Smith, Jr.

p. cm. -- (Routledge studies in modern European history ; 11)
Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-415-95771-7 (hardback : alk. paper)

1. Bohle, Ernst Wilhelm, 1903-1960. 2. Auslands-Organisation der NSDAP. 3. Germany. Auswrtiges Amt--History--20th century. 4. Ribbentrop, Joachim von, 1893-1946. 5. Germany--Politics and government--1933-1945. 6. Germany--Foreign relations--1933-1945. I. Smith, Arthur Lee, 1927- II. Title.

DD256.7.J336 2007

327.1243009043--dc22 2007000117

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This is the story of a young, ambitious German who wanted to become Adolf Hitlers foreign minister. His name was Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, and by the age of thirty he already occupied an important position within the Nazi hierarchy as the leader (Gauleiter) of the Nazi Partys foreign section (Auslandsorganisation der NSDAP, or AO). As originally conceived, the office was responsible for members of the party who resided abroad, and, after Hitlers assumption of power, distributed National Socialist propaganda materials via Germanys commercial shipping. The primary focus of the study is the examination of a period in the 1930s, when the AO, under Bohles leadership, sought to expand its role beyond its original mission by seeking direct participation in the conduct of German foreign policy. It illuminates a dimension of Nazi state history often neglected in accounts of the Third Reich by emphasizing the internal battles that erupted over the question of Party authority versus established state institutions. To this extent, it is a revisionist work.

In attempting to ultimately transform the AO into a real Nazi Party foreign office for a German nation under National Socialism, Bohle fully intended to supplant the traditional diplomatic body that historically had functioned as the Foreign Office (Auswrtiges Amt, or AA). While Hitler did not actually endorse Bohles encroachment upon the duties of the Foreign Office, neither did he expressly forbid it. There was also a certain amount of support for Bohle from some old line party members who not only harbored resentment against the entrenched diplomatic clique that had managed foreign policy before Hitler, but viewed the replacement of all federal institutions of the Weimar Republic with National Socialist creations as the logical result of instituting the new regime.

In not too many years, the history of the Hitler movement will be nearing the century mark, and with the elapse of time there will be the inevitable revision of certain aspects of that era based upon new interpretations made by a fresh generation of historians. This does not necessarily mean any radical departures from currently held views, but perhaps a re-examination aimed at providing more balance in understanding the workings of the National Socialist German Workers Party against a background not entirely dominated by World War II and the Holocaust.

In examining the career of Ernst Wilhelm Bohle and the history of the Auslandsorganisation der NSDAP, the intent is not to suggest a departure from the generally held interpretations of Nazi foreign policy during the 1930s, but to point out the very bitter fight for control of implementing that policy. Bohles goal was to make the Foreign Office and its highly trained diplomatic personnel clearly subordinate to the aims of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Hopefully, he and the AO, as the designated party foreign office, would play a central role in the process. The precise history of how Bohle tried to accomplish this and the reasons he did no succeed, even though he had strong support at times from powerful party leaders, provides a look at one of the early battles for power in the Third Reich that is relatively unknown.

This work is based upon three large collections of unpublished materials, each encompassing a different time-frame. The collections are: records of Bohles life and career found in party files; Allied court trial materials, and interrogations between 1945 and 1948; and, numerous personal interviews and correspondence of persons who worked with Bohle (including his wife, Gertrud). The fact that some of the documents relating to the same subject were recorded many years apart is very relevant to the overall theme. In some instances, documentary descriptions of the same events are separated by more than thirty years. This does not necessarily mean that a more accurate account emerged in the process of examining them, but an opportunity was provided to make a comparison and develop a new perspective.

Note

. The most important published studies of the AO are Hans-Adolf Jascobsen, Nationalsozialistische Aussenpolitik, 19331938 (Frankfurt/M.: Alfred Metzner Verlag, 1968), and Donald McKale, The Swastika Outside (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1977).