paganism, contrasted with everything which called to mind unfortunately the principles of a thousand-year western civilization in Germany.

Back in Berlin, I requested Herr von NEURATH to come and talk with me. I gave him my conception of the future treatment of the Austrian question and found he was in complete agreement. Although I was directly responsible to the Fuehrer and was independent of the Foreign Office, I assured him that I would inform him of everything in order to maintain a common foreign policy in this matter. But I could not omit a reference to the criminal neglect of the Austrian question in recent years, to the necessity of making clear to the Reich Chancellor the impossibility of the behavior of the NSDAP in Austria, even under the pressure of my resignation. Then the catastrophic collapse of our policy would never have been possible there. I had the impression that the Foreign Minister, though as I knew, he exercised a moderating influence on HITLER, supported my own efforts seldom and unwillingly. And I know that he was unfortunately living in the fear that I wanted to remove him from his post. Many cabinet members had suggested that to me. FRICK said to me one day that my position in the cabinet as "Representative of the Reich Chancellor" was unsatisfactory in the long run because HITLER in no form whatsoever wanted to be "represented". I should take over NEURATH's post. The National Socialist ministers were of the opinion that he had perhaps the phlegmatic temperament for a good Ambassador but that he didn't have the initiative required of a Foreign Minister. MEISSNER, too, told me that the Reich President was ready any day to hand over NEURATH's portfolio to me. I didn't think of such a change. It seemed to

me that the initiative influence in foreign matters was far less necessary than a "counter-pressure" against the countless measures and plans of the revolutionary dynamic with which HITLER and his crowd were moving forward.

For this reason alone, and with great uneasiness, did I worm my way into foreign questions because, most likely, I recognized more clearly than Herr von NEURATH the deplorable reactions of these new methods including the persecution of Jews and Christians on our foreign position. But no one is free of human weakness and I know from my own life that it is often hard to find the border between duty and opportunism. It became clear to me that Herr von NEURATH never became adjusted to his position, when, after his dismissal on 4 Feb 38, he permitted himself to be set aside with the post of. "President of the Secret Advisory Cabinet". It is known that this "Secret Advisory

Cabinet" never met and Herr von NEURATH must have known that it was a pure farce. Finally, it became harder for me to understand that he allowed himself to be adorned with the dignity of a "Reich Protector" of Bohemia, where his good name and reputation were only the sign-boards for a policy which he later was not able to carry through. As Reich minister and experienced diplomat he could have had his doubts as to whether the decisions made in Munich in September 1938 were the last international effort to maintain peace. I wrote an enthusiastic letter to the British Prime Minister Chamberlain congratulating him to his action which represented an invaluable contribution toward the European cooperation. All of us, who did not attend the conferences, were happy about this big success, and HITLER's speech made a short time afterwards in Saarbruecken, came like a cold shower for us. It was the beginning of a further aggressive policy. There could be no doubt about it. And the occupation of Prague was definitely in contradiction to the solemn promise that in getting back the Sudeten countries the last territorial demand of the Reich was filled.

The fact that von NEURATH accepted the office of "protector" could only be considered abroad as his approval of HITLER's action.

It would be interesting to read sometime the memoirs of NEURATH's experiences. Then history would be able to judge him objectively, as indeed the rest of us, too. For this reason these remarks should in no way supplant the impression which I always had of NEURATH's fine, human qualities.

In the following period, when I was active in Vienna, he supported me, with only a few exceptions, very loyally.

On a gray October day in 1934 I got off a plane at Aspern to take up my new post. The way to my palace in the Metternich Gasse was hemmed in by police. But the public took little part in this. Most probably my arrival had been kept secret. Vienna made almost an empty, neglected, sad impression on me.

The old embassy was a house which united wonderfully the comfort of many large, roomy drawing-rooms with the possibility for great occasions. Our private rooms and my study were located on the ground floor. There was a great ball-room with many adjoining rooms, and a dining-room large enough to accommodate eighty persons on the first floor. My predecessor, Dr. RIETH, had furnished the ground-floor with valuable furniture of the period of Louis XIV. This was still there and made any removal of furniture from Wallerfangen superfluous. After a few changes which altered the coldness of my bachelor-apartment,

it became in every respect a comfortable house. Various upper rooms were arranged for official use. The old portraits, which one of my predecessors had banished to the garret, were brought out again. For I found that the republic, too, was bound to cherish tradition. Prince ERBACH, my embassy counsellor, knew Vienna and the circles of its society intimately.

We soon struck up a friendship with him and his congenial, clever wife, a Countess Seceny, and I shall preserve till my last day this friendship for these two upright and honest persons. The Legation Counsellor was Herr von HEINZ, a rather reserved person, very loyal, tactful and knowledgeable; he was a grandson of HUMBOLDT and a scion of the TEGEL family. Then I discovered a Herr von HARFTEN, a man particularly suited for the difficult cultural task and upon whose tactful ability so much of the future depended. His frank, pleasant manner very quickly won my heart and it was a bitter blow to me that this excellent person and tireless worker fell a victim to the results of the 20 July 1944. Herr von NOSTITZ completed the political staff and he was always untiring in all matters of embassy etiquette. Oberstleutnant Muff, later General Muff, was assigned to me as Military Attache. He maintained good relations with the Army circles which were inclined towards National Socialism, but he had no contact with the far more worthy part of Austria. His inclination towards the Party brought him the post of acting Commander General of the Wehrkreis Hannover during the war. Muff was an intelligent, well-read man and it was a pleasure to work with him. The important position of Press Consultant had been held by Mr. von dem Hagen for years. His dependability, his industry and tact were solid as a rock. From the staff of the Vice-Chancellery I was accompanied by Freiherr von KETTELER and Herr von TSCHIRSCHKY, as well as by Amtswart TRAMP, who took charge of the funds which were at my disposal from the Reich Chancellery and who remained a loyal assistant during his life. GRAF KAGENECK stayed back in Berlin as liaison officer and took care of the apartment in the Lenne Strasse which I retained. Baroness STOTZINGEN and Miss ROSE, the secretaries, completed the staff.

A few days later I made my official call on the Austrian Foreign Minister, Herr von BERGER-WALDENEG, as well as on Chancellor SCHUSCHNIGG and President MIKLAS. The latter was a dignified figure, by occupation a high school professor, in whom were combined the customary authority of a teacher with the Austrian amiability and objectivity. The Chancellor was of quite a different type. I had met him before when, as Minister of

Justice, he had called upon me when I was Vice-Chancellor in Berlin. He was most congenial in his manners and in his person he combined the forms of a man of the world with great knowledge. It was always a pleasure to discuss matters with him. He like the President, stood with both feet planted in the firm Catholic tradition of Austria and the Reich and both were renowned for their exemplary family life. But I like to think that in SCHUSCHNIGG, who was completely absorbed and electrified by the political task which devolved upon him, the contemplative, pondered, disputable, and purely theoretical element outweighed by far the realistic. In the countless debates which I had with him during the course of four years, I often marveled at his clearsightedness. But I found him seldom prepared to adopt a practical position upon which the historical evolution of our two countries might progress. It is possible that there was also an insurmountable distrust which would not allow him to reach this goal. Herr von BERGER, as a young secretary, belonged to the Foreign Service of the Monarchy. As a member of the Heimwehr and a monarchist he had been entrusted with the Foreign Office. He performed his duty correctly, but without any particular zest or imagination, and everyone was happy that later he exchanged it for the Embassy in Rome. The basis of his policy was, rather than seek any sensible compromise with the Reich, to entrust Austria's unimpeachability to France and particularly to the care and support of MUSSOLINI. His office in the Ballhaus Platz was formed with this in mind. So among the leading figures my start was most difficult. My first reception was characteristic. The ministry at the Ballhaus Platz in which it took place, was surrounded with machine guns like a small fortress. At the entrance stood the official honor guard which intoned the Austrian national anthem and the Heimwehr song. In the traditional reception room, where METTERNICH once presided over the Congress and had shown Europe how the conqueror could treat the conquered impartially and wisely, there stood on a console before a crucifix the deathmask of DOLLFUSS. It appeared that they desired at the very beginning to present to the new and very suspect representative of the Reich the drama which had led to the rupture in our relations. The Foreign Minister and the Chancellor listened in icy silence to the declarations in which I attempted to outline my task-the continuation of a peaceful restoration of friendly relations, an evolution the object of which was the progressive and permanent understanding of the two brother countries. Without being directly offensive it was still the coldest reception I ever experienced in my life. While I was

inwardly grievously disappointed that the Austrian government did not hail my arrival at least as a sign of good will for a new epoch, as a realist I well understood that it could hardly be otherwise. The combinations and the force with which the HITLER government was built, the many disputes almost resulting in my being shot-with their revolutionary spirit, my preoccupation for a cautious and peaceful treatment of the Austrian problem-all of this was unknown to the world and to these gentlemen. The idea of the Vatican circles, that I knew that HITLER would never respect the Concordat with the Holy See, and that I had merely played a political game in securing the Concordat, was also expressed by Christian-Social circles. They already regarded me with the greatest distrust because I had stabbed in the back the "Zentrum" Party and, in their opinion, removed its Chancellor, BRUENING. To all of them, I was a Catholic in a wolfskin, a dangerous man, whom one should be on the watch for.

On my way home from these receptions I felt that I had here a task which was beyond the power of one man. Would it ever succeed? The next visits were to the diplomatic corps. Without question, the French Ambassador, M. PUAUX, enjoyed the greatest reputation and the strongest position. He dwelt in that frightful Jugendstil palace which corresponded so little with the refined French taste of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries but with which a bad architect had disfigured the Schwarzenberg Platz. M. PUAUX was jokingly referred to in the diplomatic corps as "a minister of the Austrian government". And so his position appeared, so unshakable was the trust of the Austrian politicians, oriented to the Quai D'Orsay, in the help and support of France. Like many important men of his country, he was not the witty or sarcastic, lively Frenchman, as for instance his excellent counterpart in Berlin, FRANCOIS-PONCET. His reserved, quiet manner was characteristic of the strict Calvinist which was in so many ways a contrast to his jolly Austrian friends. That his talents were highly esteemed is shown by his later appointment as General-Commissioner in Syria and Morocco. Naturally, he was, and in accordance with the policy of the Quai D'Orsay he had to be, my strongest opponent. member of the German-French Study Commission I had worked for the ten previous years sincerely and with the greatest inner conviction for German-French co-operation. So I attempted to convince M. PUAUX that it must be possible to come to an understanding in the realm of the Austrian question as well. But I never found in this official a conception of a peaceful, new arrangement of the Central European problem and I soon dis