19 16 During the Irish Easter Uprising, Papen acted as an intermediary between Germany and Irish Republicans, supplying and transporting arms to the latter to resist Britain. 19 18 obtained the rank of lieutenant colonel, returned to Germany and left the army. Later, he joined politics and joined the Catholic Central Party. He is the right-wing representative of royalism. From 192 1 to 32, he was a member of the Prussian Free State Parliament.
In the German presidential election of 1925, Papen actually supported the right-wing candidate Paul von Hindenburg instead of wilhelm marx of the Central Party, which made the Central Party very amazed. In June 1932, 1, he was appointed as German Chancellor by Hindenburg, and his position became very important, replacing Heinrich Broening of the same party.
However, a day ago in Bruening, Ludwig Kass, chairman of his party in PaXiang Peng, promised that he would not accept any post. Cass criticized him as "Ephialtes of the Central Party". In order to avoid being expelled, Papon quit the party on June 3rd.
For Hindenburg's appointment of Papen as Prime Minister, Andre Fran &; CcedilOis-Poncet) is very skeptical. He pointed out that the beauty of Papon is that he has never been noticed by allies or enemies. Papen is considered superficial, impetuous, hypocritical, ambitious, vain and cunning [1]. Papen set up a cabinet with the help of General Kurt Von Schleicher, which was derided by some Germans as "Baron Cabinet".
In parliament, Papen was only supported by the conservative German National People's Party. He has never been a member of parliament.
Papen launched a Prussian coup, attacked the Prussian government led by the German Social Democratic Party, and ruled the country by autocratic means. He also lifted Bruening's ban on stormtroopers to attract the Nazi Party to support his government.
General elections were held in July 1932 and in October 165438+. The Nazi party won the most seats twice, but Papen did not get parliamentary support. On June 1 17, he resigned and was replaced by Schleicher on February 2, 65438. After Schleicher came to power, he hoped to establish a ruling coalition and win the support of the trade union forces of the Nazi Party and the Social Democratic Party. However, his plan failed and he failed to get a majority in parliament, so Papen decided to let him step down. Papen, Adolf Hitler and Alfred Schugenberg, chairman of the National People's Party, reached an agreement, with Hitler as prime minister, Papen as deputy prime minister and the National People's Party as the ruling party.
1October 23rd,1933,65438+Schleicher told President Hindenburg that he failed to obtain a parliamentary majority and asked him to dissolve the parliament and give him executive power by emergency decree. However, the policies of Schleicher's cabinet influenced the wealthy landlords and industrialists, which made Hindenburg very disgusted.
At this time, Papen used his friendship with Hindenburg behind his back to assure the latter that he could control Hitler and establish a government supported by the parliamentary majority.
Hindenburg rejected Schleicher and asked him to resign on October 28th, 65438/KLOC-0. Papen had roughly considered not letting Hitler join the cabinet and becoming prime minister himself. Hindenburg initially announced that Hitler would never be appointed as Prime Minister, but this was changed on June 30th, 65438.
The contest between Hitler and Papen
Hitler's Cabinet was established on130, with 65,438 people-3 members of the Nazi Party and 8 conservatives. Deputy Prime Minister Papen believes that this advantage, coupled with his friendship with the President, he expects to contain Hitler. He even threatened, "Within two months, we will drive him crazy." In less than two months, we will corner Hitler and let him die a natural death. )
However, Hitler and his allies quickly rejected Papen and other cabinet members. Papen and conservatives failed to prevent parliament from passing arson laws and authorization bills.
On April 8, Papen arrived at the Vatican to reach a political and religious agreement with the Roman Catholic Church on behalf of Germany. At this time, under the integration, Hermann G?ring succeeded Papen as Chancellor of Prussia (Reichskommissar) in April 10, and managed the largest province in Germany.
Papen knew he was isolated, so he secretly consulted with conservatives, hoping to persuade Hindenburg to fire Hitler. During the negotiation, there were more and more conflicts between the German army and the stormtroopers led by Ernst Julius Rohm. At the beginning of 1934, Rome continued to demand that the stormtroopers become the new core of the German army. The stormtroopers lacked military discipline and were revolutionary, which made Hindenburg and other conservatives very uneasy about their demands.
Later, the Wehrmacht hinted that Hitler was needed to control the stormtroopers. Papen delivered a speech at Phillips University in Marburg on June 17, saying that some civil liberties would be restored, calling on the stormtroopers to launch a "second revolution" and demanding that the Nazi Party stop street violence.
He said: "The government (must) remember an old adage: only the weak are not afraid of criticism. In the long run, even the best organization and political propaganda can't keep secrets. " The government (must) remember the old adage that only the weak will not be criticized. No organization, no publicity, no matter how excellent, can maintain confidence alone for a long time. ) was written by Edgar Julius Jung, Papen's speech editor, Herbert von Bose, Papen's secretary, and erich klausen, a Catholic leader.
Papen's bold remarks angered Hitler, and his speech was banned by the Propaganda Department. Papen was deeply dissatisfied, saying that he was speaking for the president and resigned from Hitler. Hitler thought that when Hindenburg was upset, accepting his friend Papen's resignation would anger the frail old president.
Two weeks after Marburg's speech, Hitler responded to the request of the national defense forces and suppressed the leadership of the stormtroopers from June 30 to July 2 1934, which was called Long Dao Night. Ernst Julius Rohm and several stormtroopers were killed. Schleicher had planned to split the Nazi Party with some of Hitler's opponents in the Nazi Party. As a result, he and his wife were killed.
Papen's criticism of Nazi atrocities really angered Hitler, but because Papen had close ties with Hindenburg, Hitler was afraid to deal with him rashly. So Hitler sent SS to search Papen's office and shot von Bossa and klausen at their desks. Edgar Julius Jung fled to Austria and was later killed after the Nazi party ruled Austria.
Some of Papen's subordinates were sent to concentration camps for detention. Papen was placed under house arrest in his villa and his telephone line was cut off. Some studies have pointed out that Goering deliberately planned Papen's house arrest, hoping to use the former diplomat in the future. The next day, the government accepted Papon's resignation. Papen was appointed as the German ambassador to Austria within one month after the Long Knife Night incident. At that time, the Austrian Nazi coup failed, and only Prime Minister Engelbert Dolves was assassinated.
According to Hitler, Papen's task is to maintain normal and friendly relations between Germany and Austria. Papen also helped Hitler destroy Austria's sovereignty and made the Nazi party realize its dream of annexation. Ironically, one of the Nazi Party's plans was that supporters of the Austrian Nazi Party assassinated Papen and let Germany invade Austria as revenge.
1On February 4th, 938, Papen was dismissed, but Hitler still ordered him to arrange a meeting with Austrian Prime Minister Kurt Schusniger in Berchtesgaden. 12 In February, Hitler issued an ultimatum to Schusniger, which made the Austrian government succumb to the threat and pressure of Germany, and created the German merger on March 13.
Later, Papen served as minister in Turkey from 1939 to 44. Joseph Stalin sent someone to assassinate him in that country, but it didn't work.
During World War II, the Germans considered appointing Papen as the Pope's special envoy, but Pope pope pius xii rejected the proposal after consulting the Bishop of Berlin, Connard Graf von Plessinger.