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Franz von Papen

Geburtstag: 29. Oktober 1879
Todesdatum: 2. Mai 1969

Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen, Erbsälzer zu Werl und Neuwerk war ein deutscher Politiker . Nach einer Karriere als Berufsoffizier und längerer Abgeordnetentätigkeit im Preußischen Landtag amtierte Papen von Juni bis Dezember 1932 als Reichskanzler und von Januar 1933 bis Juli 1934 als Vizekanzler im Kabinett Hitler. Anschließend war er Gesandter und Botschafter des Deutschen Reiches in Wien und Ankara. Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg wurde er im Nürnberger Prozess gegen die Hauptkriegsverbrecher vor dem Internationalen Militärgerichtshof angeklagt und zunächst freigesprochen. Am 24. Februar 1947 wurde er jedoch in einem Spruchkammerverfahren im Rahmen der Entnazifizierung als „Hauptschuldiger“ eingestuft und zu acht Jahren Arbeitslager verurteilt.

Zitate Franz von Papen

„In zwei Monaten haben wir Hitler in die Ecke gedrückt, daß er quietscht!“

— Franz von Papen
Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin: "Die letzte Möglichkeit. Zur Ernennung Hitlers zum Reichskanzler am 30. Januar 1933", postum veröffentlicht in: Politische Studien 10 (1959), S. 89-92, 92

„Die Entfesselung des Elementaren war notwendig, um einen lähmenden und hemmenden Mechanismus zu sprengen. Der Ungeist der Demokratie, der jeden wahren Wert zu vernichten drohte, mußte wohl mit seinen eigenen Waffen geschlagen werden.“

— Franz von Papen
"Appell an das deutsche Gewissen. Reden zur nationalen Revolution." Oldenburg 1933. S. 7

„But Hitler didn't strive for the annihilation of the Jews - he stressed that fact in public life and in the newspapers. Hitler merely said at the beginning that Jewish influence was too great, that of all the lawyers in Berlin, eighty percent were Jewish. Hitler thought that a small percentage of the people, the Jews, should not be allowed to control the theater, cinema, radio, et cetera.“

— Franz von Papen
To Leon Goldensohn (30 March 1946). Quoted in "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004.

„The hope in the hearts of millions of national socialists can be fulfilled only by an authoritarian government.“

— Franz von Papen
Quoted in "Nazi conspiracy and aggression, Vol. 2" - Page 919 - 1946.

„In the interest of the entire nation we decline the claim to power by parties which want to own their followers body and soul, and which want to put themselves, as a party or a movement, over and above the whole nation.“

— Franz von Papen
Quoted in "Nazi conspiracy and aggression, Vol. 6" - Page 3 - 1946

„Names and individuals are unimportant when Germany's final fate is at stake.“

— Franz von Papen
Quoted in "Nazi conspiracy and aggression, Vol. 2" - Page 919 - 1946.

„Allow me to say how manly and humanly great of you I think this is. Your courageous and firm intervention have met with nothing but recognition throughout the entire world. I congratulate you for all you have given anew to the German nation by crushing the intended second revolution.“

— Franz von Papen
Letter sent to Adolf Hitler praising his firm action against the Sturm Abteilung on the Night of the Long Knives (12 July 1934). Quoted in "Nazi conspiracy and aggression" - Page 940 - 1946.

„It is to be hoped that the leaders of this movement will place the nation above the party.“

— Franz von Papen
Quoted in "Nazi conspiracy and aggression, Vol. 2" - Page 918 - 1946.

„Himmler hated the church. He and Bormann were the two people who influenced Hitler most. When I spoke to Hitler in the beginning he agreed with me and said that no state could be governed without religion. In Mein Kampf he said that a man was a fool if he destroyed the religion of the people. Hitler also made the statement that the political reform should not be a religious reform.“

— Franz von Papen
To Leon Goldensohn (30 March 1946). Quoted in "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004.

„The events of the past one and one-half years have gripped the whole German people and affected them deeply. It seems almost like a dream that out of the valley of misery, hopelessness, hate, and fragmentation we have found our way back to a German national community. The horrendous tensions in which we have lived since the August days of 1914 have dissolved, and out of this discord, the German soul has emerged once again, before which the glorious and yet so painful history of our people pass in review, from the sagas of the German heroes to the trenches of Verdun, and even to the street fights of our time.“

— Franz von Papen
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marburg_speech Marburg speech] (June 1934), as quoted in The Nazi Germany Sourcebook: An Anthology of Texts. p. 170. Editors Roderick Stackelberg, Sally A. Winkle. Editor Routledge, 2013 ISBN 1134596936.