Joachim Von Ribbentrop - Early Life

Early Life

Joachim von Ribbentrop was born in Wesel, Rhenish Prussia, to Richard Ulrich Friedrich Joachim Ribbentrop, a career army officer, and his wife, Johanne Sophie Hertwig. Ribbentrop was educated irregularly at private schools in Germany and Switzerland. From 1904 to 1908, Ribbentrop took French courses in a school at Metz, the German Empire's most powerful fortress. A former teacher later recalled that Ribbentrop "was the most stupid in his class, full of vanity and very pushy". His father was cashiered from the Imperial German Army in 1908—after repeatedly disparaging Kaiser Wilhelm II for his alleged homosexuality—and the Ribbentrop family were often short of money. Fluent in both French and English, young Ribbentrop lived at various times in Grenoble, France, and London, before travelling to Canada in 1910. Initially, Ribbentrop planned to emigrate to German East Africa, where he hoped to become a planter. But during a summer holiday in Switzerland in 1909, Ribbentrop fell in love with a wealthy young socialite named Catherine Bell, from a Montreal banking family, which led him to substitute Canada for Tanganyika as his preferred destination. Until 1914, Ribbentrop hoped to marry Bell. He became friendly with fellow German Alfred Baumgarten and worked for the Molsons Bank on Stanley Street in Montreal and then for the engineering firm M. P. and J. T. Davis on the Quebec Bridge reconstruction. He was also employed by the National Transcontinental Railway, which constructed a line from Moncton to Winnipeg. He worked as a journalist in New York City and Boston and then rested to recover from tuberculosis in Germany. He returned to Canada and set up a small business in Ottawa importing German wine and champagne. In 1914, he competed for Ottawa's famous Minto ice-skating team, participating in the Ellis Memorial Trophy tournament in Boston in February.

When World War I began, Ribbentrop left Canada (which, as part of the British Empire, was at war with Germany) for the neutral United States. He sailed from Hoboken, New Jersey on 15 August 1914 on the Holland-America ship The Potsdam, bound for Rotterdam. He then returned home and enlisted in the 12th Hussar Regiment.

He served first on the Eastern Front, but was later transferred to the Western Front. He earned a commission and was awarded the Iron Cross. In 1918 1st Lieutenant Ribbentrop was stationed in Istanbul as a staff officer. During his time in Turkey, he became friends with another staff officer named Franz von Papen.