Hitler's Diplomat: Joachim von Ribbentrop, by John Weitz (Phoenix, Pounds 12.99 in UK)

It is hard to connect the Ribbentrop of the 1920s, a bright young man-about- town in Jazz Age Berlin with the later supporter…

It is hard to connect the Ribbentrop of the 1920s, a bright young man-about- town in Jazz Age Berlin with the later supporter of Hitler, but in minuscule that amounts to a whole chapter of German history. Ribbentrop had good connections, made many (in the champagne business) and married much more, was socially ambitious and, seemed an archetype of the rising businessman of the time.due to the impact of Hitler's demonic personality and not of his ideas. As is well known, Ribbentrop proved an inept diplomat in England and elsewhere, although he played a leading role in the Nazi- Soviet pact. He protested to the end that he was not an anti-Semite, though the Nuremberg Trials convicted him of atrocities in the occupied countries and of having an important role in the rape of Poland. In the end. though a broken man, Ribbentrop walked with some dignity to a botched execution in which he, took at least ten minutes to die.