Ernst von Weizsaecker
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Ernst von Weizsaecker (1882 – 1951) was a career German diplomat under the Weimar Republic and the Nazi Party, joining the foreign service in 1920. He rose to the rank of State Secretary of the Reich Foreign Office, serving from 1938 to 1943, at which time he transferred from the role of professional head of the ministry to become Reich Ambassador to the Holy See.
He held the General SS rank of Brigadefuehrer.
Convicted of war crimes in the Minstries Case (NMT), he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, but his sentence was commuted after 18 months. He claimed, in his defense, to be a member of the German Resistance; this is controversial.
His son, Richard, became postwar President of Germany.