Editing Joachim von Ribbentrop (section)

==Early career==
In 1928, Ribbentrop was introduced to [[Adolf Hitler]] as a businessman with foreign connections who "gets the same price for German champagne as others get for French champagne".<ref name="current 708"/> [[Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff]], with whom Ribbentrop had served in the 12th Torgau Hussars in the First World War, arranged the introduction.<ref>Weitz, p. 38.</ref> Ribbentrop and his wife joined the [[Nazi Party]] on 1 May 1932.<ref>Bloch, p. 26.</ref> Ribbentrop began his political career by offering to be a secret emissary between Chancellor of Germany [[Franz von Papen]], his old wartime friend, and Hitler.<ref name="Turner, p. 70">Turner, p. 70.</ref> His offer was initially refused. Six months later, however, Hitler and Papen accepted his help.<ref name="Turner, p. 70"/>

Their change of heart occurred after General [[Kurt von Schleicher]] ousted Papen in December 1932. This led to a complex set of intrigues in which Papen and various friends of president [[Paul von Hindenburg]] negotiated with Hitler to oust Schleicher. On 22 January 1933, State Secretary [[Otto Meissner]] and Hindenburg's son [[Oskar von Hindenburg|Oskar]] met Hitler, [[Hermann Göring]], and [[Wilhelm Frick]] at Ribbentrop's home in Berlin's exclusive [[Dahlem (Berlin)|Dahlem]] district.<ref name="Turner, p. 70"/> Over dinner, Papen made the fateful concession that if Schleicher's government were to fall, he would abandon his demand for the Chancellorship and instead use his influence with President Hindenburg to ensure Hitler got the Chancellorship.<ref>Turner, p. 116.</ref>

Ribbentrop was not popular with the Nazi Party's ''[[Alte Kämpfer]]'' (Old Fighters); they nearly all disliked him.<ref>Watt, p. 329.</ref> British historian [[Laurence Rees]] described Ribbentrop as "the Nazi almost all the other leading Nazis hated".<ref>Rees, p. 243.</ref> [[Joseph Goebbels]] expressed a common view when he [[Goebbels diaries|confided to his diary]] that "Von Ribbentrop bought his name, he married his money and he swindled his way into office".<ref>Snyder, p. 295.</ref> Ribbentrop was among the few who could meet with Hitler at any time without an appointment, however, unlike Goebbels or Göring.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.149663/2015.149663.Inside-Europe#page/n27/mode/2up |title=Inside Europe |publisher=Harper & Brothers |author=Gunther, John |location=New York |author-link=John Gunther |year=1940 |page=6}}</ref>{{dubious|date=August 2022}}

During most of the [[Weimar Republic]] era, Ribbentrop was apolitical and displayed no [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] prejudices.<ref name="Bloch 16">Bloch, pp. 16, 20–21.</ref> A visitor to a party Ribbentrop threw in 1928 recorded that Ribbentrop had no political views beyond a vague admiration for [[Gustav Stresemann]], fear of Communism, and a wish to restore the monarchy.<ref name="Bloch 16"/> Several [[Berlin]] Jewish businessmen who did business with Ribbentrop in the 1920s and knew him well later expressed astonishment at the vicious antisemitism he later displayed in the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi era]], saying that they did not see any indications he had held such views.<ref name="Bloch 16"/> As a partner in his father-in-law's champagne firm, Ribbentrop did business with Jewish bankers and organised the Impegroma Importing Company ("Import und Export großer Marken") with Jewish financing.<ref name="current 708">[https://books.google.com/books?id=Lv5MugAACAAJ ''Current Biography 1941''], p. 708 {{dead link|date=November 2015}}</ref>

Ten months after the [[Nazi seizure of power]], Ribbentrop secured a seat as a deputy to the ''[[Reichstag (Nazi Germany)|Reichstag]]'' from electoral constituency 4 ([[Potsdam I (electoral district)|Potsdam I]]) at the [[November 1933 German parliamentary election|November 1933 parliamentary election]]. He was reelected in 1936 and 1938, holding this seat until the fall of the Nazi regime.<ref>[https://www.reichstag-abgeordnetendatenbank.de/selectmaske.html?name=Joachim+von+Ribbentrop&geschlecht=&ort=&beruforg=&BERUF=&BERUFSFELDER%5B%5D=&KONFESSION%5B%5D=&WP%5B%5D=&PARTEI%5B%5D=&schlu=reichstag24&recherche=ja Joaquim von Ribbentrop entry] in the [https://www.reichstag-abgeordnetendatenbank.de/ ''Reichstag'' Members Database]</ref>