In 1919, Neurath, with the approval by President
Friedrich Ebert, returned to diplomacy and joined the embassy in
Copenhagen as
Minister to
Denmark. From 1921 to 1930, he was the ambassador to Rome and was not overly impressed with
Italian fascism. After the death of Chancellor
Gustav Stresemann in 1929, Neurath 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 because of the objections raised by the governing parties. In 1930, Neurath returned to head the embassy in London. Neurath was recalled to Germany in 1932 and became
Reichsminister of Foreign Affairs as an
independent politician in the "Cabinet of Barons" under Chancellor
Franz von Papen in June. He continued to hold that position under Chancellor
Kurt von Schleicher in December 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, "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". He was involved in the German withdrawal from the
League of Nations in 1933, the negotiations of the
Anglo-German Naval Agreement (1935) and the
remilitarisation of the Rhineland. Neurath was also made a member of
Hans Frank's
Academy for German Law. To mark the fourth anniversary of the regime on 30 January 1937, Hitler determined to enroll all the remaining non-Nazi ministers in the Nazi Party and to confer upon them personally the
Golden Party Badge. By his acceptance, Neurath officially joined the Nazi Party (membership number 3,805,229). Additionally, in September 1937, he was given the honorary rank of a
Gruppenführer in the
SS, equivalent in the
Wehrmacht rank to a
Generalleutnant. On 5 November 1937, the conference was held between the Reich's top military-foreign policy leadership and Hitler, which was recorded in the so-called
Hossbach Memorandum. At the conference, Hitler stated that it was the time for war or, more accurately, wars, as what Hitler envisioned were a series of localised wars in Central and Eastern Europe in the near future. Hitler argued that because the wars were necessary to provide Germany with
Lebensraum,
autarky and the
arms race with France and Britain made it imperative to act before the Western powers developed an insurmountable lead in the arms race. He further declared that Germany must be ready for war as early as 1938 and at the latest by 1943. Of those invited to the conference, objections arose from Neurath, War Minister
Generalfeldmarschall Werner von Blomberg and Army Commander-in-Chief,
Generaloberst Werner von Fritsch. They all believed that any German aggression in Eastern Europe was bound to trigger a war with France because of the French alliance system in Eastern Europe, the so-called
cordon sanitaire. They further believed that if a Franco-German war broke out, it would quickly escalate to a European war since Britain would almost certainly intervene, rather than risk the prospect of France's defeat. Moreover, they contended that Hitler's assumption was flawed that Britain and France would ignore the projected wars because they had started their rearmament later than Germany. That said, offering moral or humanitarian arguments to Hitler — just three years after the
Night of the Long Knives — would have been futile if not dangerous. In response to the reservations expressed at the conference, Hitler tightened his control of the military-foreign policy making apparatus by removing those who expressed reservations at the November conference: Blomberg, Fritsch and Neurath. On 4 February 1938, Neurath was sacked as Foreign Minister with Blomberg and Fritsch also losing their posts (the
Blomberg–Fritsch Affair). Neurath was succeeded by
Joachim von Ribbentrop but remained in government as a
minister without portfolio to allay the concerns that his removal would have caused internationally. Neurath was also named as president of the
Secret Cabinet Council, a purported super-cabinet to advise Hitler on foreign affairs. On paper, it appeared that Neurath had been promoted. However, this body only existed on paper;
Hermann Göring subsequently testified that it never met, "not for a minute". 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. 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 (1,200 student protesters went to concentration camps and nine were executed). He also supervised the persecution of
Czech Jews according to the
Nuremberg Laws. Draconian as those 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 so 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. He tried to resign in 1941, but his resignation was not accepted until August 1943, when he was succeeded by the former Interior Minister
Wilhelm Frick. On 21 June 1943, Neurath had been raised to the honorary rank of an
SS-Obergruppenführer, the equivalent to a three-star general. Late in the war, Neurath had contacts with the
German resistance. ==Trial and imprisonment==