Hans-Heinrich Dieckhoff

Hans Heinrich Dieckhoff entered the German Foreign Office in 1912 and became ambassador in Washington in 1937. He remained in diplomatic service throughout the Nazi period. Historian Sylvia Taschka describes a diplomat who had rejected Nazi ideology before 1933 but whose subsequent cooperation helped sustain the regime. ¹

In February 1938, Dieckhoff informed Secretary of State Cordell Hull that Berlin would prohibit German citizens in the United States from joining organizations that interfered in American domestic affairs, including the German American Bund. Hull welcomed the announcement after repeated American complaints and agreed that Dieckhoff should handle its publicity. ^{3, 4}

By July, Dieckhoff acknowledged to Hull that relations had deteriorated despite his stated ambition to improve them. Hull responded by condemning militarism, territorial aggression, and Germany’s treatment of minorities and warning that such policies would bring a wider war. ⁵

Dieckhoff warned Berlin about Franklin Roosevelt’s hostility to Nazi Germany and the risks of confrontation with the United States. Germany recalled him in November 1938, after Washington had recalled its ambassador following the November pogroms. He later represented Nazi Germany in Spain. After the war, he was questioned and testified in the Nuremberg proceedings, but was not formally charged. ^{1, 2}