Neurath, Konstantin Hermann Karel Freiherr von.

Neurath, Konstantin Hermann Karel Freiherr von, born on 02-02-1873 in Klein-Glattbach, Württemburg. Freiherr von Neurath belonged to the Swabian nobility. His grandfather Constantin Franz von Neurath had served as Foreign Minister under King Charles I of Württemberg (reigned 1864–1891); his father Konstantin Sebastian von Neurath (died 1912) had been a Free Conservative member of the German Reichstag parliament and Chamberlain of King William II of Württemberg. His mother was wife Mathilde Berta Clementine Sophie Wilhelmine Auguste, born Freiin von Gemmingen-Hornberg (1847–1924). Von Neurath studied law in Tübingen and at the University of Berlin. After graduation he was a lawyer for some time, but in 1901 he entered the diplomatic service. Initially he worked at the German Foreign Office, but since 1903 he was a Legacy Council in London. In 1914 he was transferred to Constantinople (Istanbul). After the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, he enlisted in the German army. Already at the end of 1914 he was awarded the Iron Cross for his great courage. After an injury in 1916, he worked again at the German embassy in Constantinople.  After the war von Neurath served as Minister to Denmark and Ambassador to Italy. Following a period as Ambassador to Britain (1930-32) Franz “Fränzschen von Papen

 appointed him Foreign Minister

    He retained the post under Kurt Schleicher   and Adolf Hitler. Von Neurath held right-wing opinions conservative views but had doubts about Hitler’s aggressive foreign policy. Hitler kept him in position as he gave the government respectability. After Hitler’s seizure of power, Von Neurath also became a member of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) NSDAP-nr.3 805 229 and in 1937 he became SS-Gruppenführer,.SS-nr.: 287 680. At the end of 1937, after the Hossbach Conference, Von Neurath expressed his concern about the speed with which Hitler wanted to implement his Lebensraum plans, striving for the greatest possible self-sufficiency of the Third Reich. With this he fell out of favor with Hitler. In March 1938 Hitler replaced von Neurath with Joachim von Ribbentrop

  when he complained that the current policy would result in war. In 1939 Adolf Hitler (did you know) appointed von Neurath as Protector of Czechoslovakia. When Czech students protested against Nazi rule von Neurath closed all the universities in the country. He also ordered nine of the students who took part in the rebellion to be executed. Hitler felt that von Neurath did not deal harshly enough with the resistance movement in Czechoslovakia and in September, 1941, replaced him with Reinard Heydrich. Heydrich was assassinated in 1942 and succeeded by SS Oberstgruppenführer Kurt Max Franz Daluge

  Von Neurath officially remained as Reichsprotektor through this time. He tried to resign in 1941, but his resignation was not accepted until August 1943, when he was succeeded by the former Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick.

   In June of that year he had been raised to the rank of an SS Obergruppenführer . Late in the war, von Neurath had contacts with the German resistance

In May 1945, Daluege was arrested by British troops in Lubeck and interned in Luxembourg and then at Nurenberg where he was charged as “a major war criminal”. In September 1946 after being extradited to Czechoslovakia, he was tried for his many war crimes committed in the Protectorate. Throughout his trial, Daluege was unrepentant, claiming that he was beloved by “three million policemen”, only following Hitler’s orders and that he had a clear conscience. He was convicted on all charges and sentenced to death on 23-10-1946. Daluege was hanged in Pankrác prison in Praque on 24-10-1946 two weeks after the birth of the webmaster.

Von Neurath was captured by Allied troops at the end of the World War II. At the Nuremberg War Trial he was found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. After serving eight years he was released in the wake of the Paris Conference, officially due to his ill health, as he had suffered a heart attack, here with his wife Marie Auguste Bsse. Moser von Filseck.

  They had three children, Freiherr Konstantin Alexander von Neurath,  Dr. jur.; Winifred Christine Frfr. von Neurath  and daughter Dorothee von Neurath  

Death and burial ground of Neurath, Konstantin Hermann Karel Freiherr von.

Konstantin von Neurath died on 14-08-1956, old age 83 of a heart attack on his family’s estates in Enzweigingen Freiherr Konstantin von Neurath is buried on the family graveside of the cemetery in Klein Glattbach.