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KONSTANTIN VON NEURATH, BOLDLY SIGNED DOCUMENT, RARE
NEURATH KONSTANTIN VON: (1873-1956) German diplomat who served as Foreign Minister of Germany 1932-38. Berlin, 11th January 1937, in German. The partially printed document, completed in calligraphic manuscript, appoints the Government Inspector Alfred Blank to Senior Government Inspector in the Reich Service, and states ´I execute this certificate in the expectation that the appointee, faithful to his oath of office, will conscientiously fulfill his official duties and justify the trust shown to him by this appointment. At the same time, he may be assured of the special protection of the Führer and Reich Chancellor´. Signed by Neurath at the conclusion alongside a circular blind embossed seal featuring

Konstantin Hermann Karl Freiherr[a] von Neurath (2 February 1873 – 14 August 1956) was a German politician, diplomat and convicted Nazi war criminal who served as Foreign Minister of Germany between 1932 and 1938.

Born to a Swabian noble family, Neurath began his diplomatic career in 1901. He fought in World War I and was awarded the Iron Cross for his service. After the war, Neurath served as minister to Denmark, ambassador to Italy and ambassador to Britain. In 1932, he was appointed Foreign Minister by Chancellor Franz von Papen, and he continued to hold the post under Adolf Hitler.

In the early years of the Nazi regime, Neurath was regarded as playing a key role in Hitler’s foreign policy pursuits in undermining the Treaty of Versailles and in territorial expansion in the prelude to World War II. However, he was often averse to Hitler’s aims for tactical, not necessarily ideological, reasons. That aversion eventually induced Hitler to replace Neurath in 1938 with the more compliant Joachim von Ribbentrop, a fervent Nazi. Neurath served as Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia between 1939 and 1943, but his authority was only nominal after September 1941.

Neurath was tried as a war criminal at the Nuremberg trials and was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his compliance and actions in Nazi Germany. He received an early release in 1954 and then retired to his family estate, where he died two years later.