| At the Hotel Kaiserhof, left to right: German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop (April 30, 1893 – October 16, 1946); Soviet People‘s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (March 9, 1890 – November 8, 1986); Chef des Wehrwirtschafts und Rss∫stungsamtes (“Head of the Defense and Economic Office“) Georg Thomas (February 29, 1890 – December 29, 1946); Staatsminister im Rang eines Reichsministers und Chef des Prssßsidialkanzlei des Fss∫hrers und Reichskanzlers (“State Minister of the Rank of a Federal Minister and Chief of the Presidential Chancellery of the Fss∫hrer and Reich Chancellor“) Doctor Otto Meissner (March 13, 1880 – May 27, 1953). Ribeentrop threw a lavish reception for the Soviet delegation at the Hotel Kaiserhof, just down Wilhelmstrasse from the German Foreign Ministry. Molotov was in Berlin to discuss joining the Axis Powers. the day before, Reichkanzler Adolf Hitler could not convince Molotov to give up Soviet interests in the Balkans. Hitler did not even attend the Kaiserhof reception or the Soviet reception at their embassy the next day. Molotov left Berlin without the Soviet Union joining the Axis. General Thomas, in charge of economic cooperation with the Soviet Union, wrote after the war, “The Russians executed their deliveries up to the eve of the attack, and in the last days the transport of rubber from the Far East was expedited by express trains.“ After being implicated in the July 20 plot, Thomas survived a concentration camp. He died in American captivity in 1946. Ribbentrop was hung as a war criminal. Meissner survived the war and wrote his memoirs. The Hotel Kaiserhof was leveled by British bombs in 1943; the North Korean Embassy stands there today. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0244.jpg |
| Image Size | 75.54 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 500 x 348 |
| Photographer | Unknown |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | November 13, 1940 |
| Location | Hotel Kaiserhof |
| City | Berlin |
| State or Province | Berlin |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2009, ©2024 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission |
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