Joachim von Ribbentrop

Joachim von Ribbentrop in 1938 as a SS officer while a Nazi ambassador and foreign minister

Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (30 April 1893 - 16 October 1946) was the foreign minister of the German Third Reich in Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1945. He was found guilty of war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials and executed by hanging.

Early life

Ribbentrop ("von" was added only later) was born in Wesel, Rhine Province, Prussia, German Epire.

He served as an infantry soldier in the Imperial German Army of the German Empire from 1914-1918 in Europe.

Ribbentrop joined the National Socialist German Workers Party in 1932. He became an SS officer in 1933 and held the following ranks:

He remained a member of the SS, run by Heinrich Himmler, until World War II ended in 1945.

Ribbentrop was found guilty of war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials. He was executed on 16 October 1946 in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany.

SS Officer rank dates of Ribbentrop
SS Rank equivalent	German Army Officer Rank Equivalent
SS-Standartenfuhrer	Colonel (1933-1934)
SS-Oberfuhrer	Colonel/Brigadier-General (1934-1935)
SS-Obergruppenfuhrer	General (1935-1945)

Ribbentrop and the Japanese ambassador to Germany, Kintomo Mushakoji, sign the Anti-Comintern Pact on 25 November 1936.
Ribbentrop as SS-Gruppenführer, 1938
The French Premier Édouard Daladier (centre) with Ribbentrop at the Munich Summit, 1938
Neville Chamberlain with Ribbentrop at the Munich Summit, 1938
Ernst von Weizsäcker, the Secretary of State at the German Foreign Office, 1938–1943
Stalin and Ribbentrop at the signing of the Non-Aggression Pact, 23 August 1939
Ribbentrop during the signing of the German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship in Moscow, 1939
The British Ambassador to Germany, Sir Nevile Henderson, in 1937. Though Henderson was a leading supporter of appeasement, his relations with Ribbentrop were extremely poor throughout his ambassadorship. On the night of 30–31 August 1939, he and Ribbentrop almost came to blows.
Clockwise from top left: Funk, Krosigk, Goebbels, Ribbentrop and Neurath during a Reichstag session, 1941
Poglavnik Ante Pavelić (left) of the Independent State of Croatia and Ribbentrop in Salzburg, 6 June 1941
17 October 1946 newsreel of Nuremberg trials sentencing