ONE OF THE LAST ICONS GERMAN AUTOMOTIVE TRADITIONS
FROM PRIVATE COLLECTION FOR SALE TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER
THE MOST EXCLUSIVE GERMAN TOP CARS OF KINGS, REGENTS and BUSINESS
TYCOONS
Maybach SW38 Pullman Transformation Cabriolet Year 1938
Chassis-No. 1875
Engine No. 11750 4.199 Ltr., 10. April 1946
Condition: as new, restored and reconstructed in two decades in Germany in one of the
specialist company.
It is one car of ten vehicles were built at the German Factory Spohn in Ravensburg, of
which this, almost certainly, one of the last, if is not even the only remaining example.
Please only absolutely reliable and confidential inquiries.
We ask that you keep this information strictly confidential and without our knowledge
and written consent, either in part or even in modified form, to any third party.
Vehicle details and photos can be sent if interested and present bid with proof of funds.
The car is near Frankfurt positioned and can only be visited by prior written agreement,
provided us a binding letter of intent is present.
We hope to have generated your interest and we look forward to a very serious
reaction.
P:O:R
HISTORY OF THE MAYBACH SW 38
Pullman Transformation Cabriole
First Owner:
Konstantin von Neurath
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Konstantin von Neurath
Reichsprotektor von Neurath, 1939
Reich Minister of Foreign Affairs
Weimar Republic
Nazi Germany
In office
1 June 1932 – 4 February 1938
President Paul von Hindenburg (1932–1934)
Adolf Hitler Führer (1934–1938)
Chancellor Franz von Papen (1932)
Kurt von Schleicher (1932–1933)
Adolf Hitler (1933–1938)
Preceded by Heinrich Brüning
Succeeded by Joachim von Ribbentrop
Protector of Bohemia and Moravia
In office
21 March 1939 – 24 August 1943
Appointed by Adolf Hitler
Preceded by New post
Succeeded by
Wilhelm Frick (de iure)
Personal details
Born 2 February 1873
Kleinglattbach
German Empire
Died 14 August 1956 (aged 83)
Enzweihingen
West Germany
Political party Independent (1932–1937)
Nazi (1937–1945)
Spouse(s) Marie Auguste Moser von Filseck
Children 2
Konstantin Freiherr[1] von Neurath (2 February 1873 – 14 August 1956) was a German diplomat remembered mostly
for having served as Foreign minister of Germany between 1932 and 1938. Holding this post in the early years of Adolf
Hitler's regime, Neurath was regarded as playing a key role in the foreign policy pursuits of the Nazi dictator in
undermining the Treaty of Versailles and territorial expansion in the prelude to World War II, although he was often
averse tactically if not necessarily ideologically. This aversion would result in Hitler replacing Neurath with the more
compliant and fervent Nazi Joachim von Ribbentrop.
Neurath served as "Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia" between 1939 and 1943, though his authority was only
nominal after September 1941. He was tried as a major war criminal in Nuremberg and sentenced to fifteen years
imprisonment for his compliance and actions in the Nazi regime.
Contents
[hide]
• 1 Early life
• 2 Political career
• 3 Trial and imprisonment
• 4 See also
• 5 Endnotes
• 6 References
• 7 External links
Early life [edit]
Neurath was born at the manor of Kleinglattbach (since 1872 part of Vaihingen an der Enz) in Württemberg, the scion of
aSwabian dynasty of Freiherren. His grandfather Constantin Franz von Neurath had served as Foreign Minister under
King Charles I of Württemberg (reigned 1864–1891); his father Konstantin Sebastian von Neurath (d. 1912) had been
a Free Conservativemember of the German Reichstag parliament and Chamberlain of King William II of Württemberg.
Konstantin von Neurath during his military service, 1893
He studied law in Tübingen and in Berlin. After graduating in 1897 he initially joined a local law firm in his home town. In
1901 he entered into civil service and worked for the Foreign Office in Berlin. In 1903 he was assigned to the German
embassy in London, at first as Vice-Consul and from 1909 as Legationsrat (legation counsel). Following the visit of
the Prince of Wales to the Kingdom of Württemberg in 1904, as Lord Chamberlain to King William II, he was created
an Honorary Knight Grand Crossof the Royal Victorian Order.[2] Neurath's career was decisively advanced by Secretary
of State Alfred von Kiderlen-Waechter. In 1914 he was sent to the embassy in Constantinople.
On 30 May 1901 Neurath married Marie Auguste Moser von Filseck (1875–1960) inStuttgart. His son Konstantin was
born in 1902, followed by his daughter Winifred in 1904.
During World War I he served as an officer with an infantry regiment until 1916 when he was badly wounded. In
December 1914 he was awarded the Iron Cross. He returned to the German diplomatic service in the Ottoman
Empire (1914–1916), where he witnessed the Armenian Genocide. In 1917 he temporarily quit the diplomatic service to
succeed his uncle Julius von Soden as head of the royal Württemberg government.
Political career[edit]
von Neurath in 1920
In 1919 Neurath with approval by president Friedrich Ebert returned to diplomacy, joining the embassy
in Copenhagen as Minister to Denmark. From 1921 until 1930 he was the ambassador to Rome; he was not overly
impressed with Italian Fascism. After the death of Gustav Stresemann in 1929, he was already considered for the post of
Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Chancellor Hermann Müller by president Paul von Hindenburg, but his appointment
failed due to the objections raised by the governing parties. In 1930 he returned to head the embassy in London.
Neurath was recalled to Germany in 1932 and became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the "Cabinet of Barons" under
ChancellorFranz von Papen in June. He continued to hold that position under Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and then
under Adolf Hitler from the Machtergreifung on 30 January 1933. During the early days of Hitler's rule, Neurath lent an
aura of respectability to Hitler's expansionist foreign policy.
In May 1933, the American chargé d'affaires reported that "Baron von Neurath has shown such a remarkable capacity for
submitting to what in normal times could only be considered as affronts and indignities on the part of the Nazis, that it is
still quite a possibility that the latter should be content to have him remain as a figurehead for some time yet".[3] He was
involved in the German withdrawal from the League of Nations in 1933, the negotiations of the Anglo-German Naval
Accord (1935) and theremilitarization of the Rhineland. In 1937, Neurath joined the Nazi Party. He was awarded
the Golden Party Badge and was given the honorary rank of a Gruppenführer in the SS—equivalent in Wehrmacht rank
to a major general.
Nevertheless on 4 February 1938, Neurath was sacked as Foreign Minister in the course of the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair.
He felt his office was marginalised and was not in favour of Hitler's aggressive war plans, which were detailed in
the Hossbach Memorandumof 5 November 1937. He was succeeded by Joachim von Ribbentrop, but remained in
government as a minister without portfolio. He was also named as president of the "Secret Cabinet Council", a purported
super-cabinet to advise Hitler on foreign affairs. However, this body only existed on paper.
In March 1939, Neurath was appointed Reichsprotektor of occupied Bohemia and Moravia, serving as Hitler's personal
representative in the protectorate. Hitler chose Neurath in part to pacify the international outrage over the German
occupation of Czechoslovakia.[4] Soon after his arrival at Prague Castle, Neurath instituted harsh press censorship and
banned political parties and trade unions. He ordered a harsh crackdown on protesting students in October and
November 1939 (1200 student protesters went to concentration camps and nine were executed). He also supervised the
persecution of Jews according to the Nuremberg Laws. Draconian as these measures were, Neurath's rule overall was
fairly mild by Nazi standards. Notably, he tried to restrain the excesses of his police chief, Karl Hermann Frank.
However, in September 1941, Hitler decided that Neurath's rule was too lenient, and stripped him of his day-to-day
powers. Reinhard Heydrich was named as his deputy, but in truth held the real power. Heydrich was assassinated in
1942 and succeeded by Kurt Daluege. Neurath officially remained as Reichsprotektor through this time. He tried to resign
in 1941, but his resignation was not accepted until August 1943, when he was succeeded by the former Minister of the
Interior Wilhelm Frick. In June of that year he had been raised to the rank of an SS-Obergruppenführer--equivalent to a
three-star general.
Late in the war, Neurath had contacts with the German resistance.[4]
Neurath as defendant in Nuremberg, 1946
Trial and imprisonment[edit]
The Allies of World War II prosecuted Neurath at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946. Otto von Lüdinghausen appeared for his
defence. The prosecution accused him of "conspiracy to commit crimes against peace; planning, initiating and waging
wars of aggression; war crimes andcrimes against humanity". Neurath's chief defence strategy was predicated on the
fact that his successor and fellow defendant, Joachim von Ribbentrop, was more culpable for the atrocities committed in
the Nazi state. The International Military Tribunal acknowledged the fact that Neurath's crimes against humanity were
mostly conducted during his short tenure as actual Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, especially in quelling Czech
resistance and the summary execution of several university students. The tribunal came to the consensus that Neurath,
though a willing and active participant in war crimes, held no such prominent position during the height of the Third
Reich's tyranny and was therefore only a minor adherent to the atrocities committed. He was found guilty by the Allied
powers on all four counts and was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment.
Neurath was held as a war criminal in Spandau Prison until November 1954, when he was released in the wake of
the Paris Conference, officially due to his ill health – he had suffered a heart attack. He retired to his family's estates
in Enzweihingen, where he died two years later, aged 83.