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On Hostile Soil: Spanish Republican Diplomats in Berlin at the Onset of the Spanish Civil War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2016

FRANCISCO MORENTE
FRANCISCO MORENTE*
Affiliation:
Department of Modern and Early Modern History, Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Carrer de la Fortuna, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès Barcelona, Spain; Francisco.Morente@uab.cat
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Abstract

German intervention in the Spanish Civil War was decisive for its development and result. Traditionally scholars have focused their attention on the support given by the Third Reich to the military rebels; however, they have widely neglected the study of the relationship between Germany and the Spanish Republic during the first four months of the war, when both countries maintained diplomatic relations. This paper aims at exploring a crucial aspect of that historical period, namely the circumstances of the Spanish diplomats in Berlin during those first four months, and the strategies that the German and the Spanish governments carried out in the harsh diplomatic battle that they ended up fighting. The author explains the difficult working conditions of the Spanish diplomats who were loyal to the Republic and stayed in Berlin in July 1936, when most of their colleagues deserted. Finally, he explores how the German Foreign Affairs Department, in collaboration with the Gestapo, managed to restrain the Spanish Republic diplomatic action in Germany.

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Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , February 2017 , pp. 49 - 67
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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References

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8 There was no ambassador in Madrid from April 1936 onward; Eberhard von Sthorer had been appointed to the position but he had not yet travelled to Spain to present his credentials; Viñas, Franco, 287–8.

9 Both Völckers and Schwendemann were career diplomats with years of experience in Spain but with a low political profile. After the breaking off of diplomatic relations between the Third Reich and the Spanish Republic Völckers went back to Germany while Schwendemann continued his diplomatic work in Franco's main headquarters in Salamanca. In 1937 he returned to Berlin to become the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ department on Spain.

10 Völckers to Hans-Heinrich Dieckhoff (chair of the Auswärtiges Amt’s Political Department), 22 July 1936, Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes, Berlin, Innere Politik, Parlaments- und Parteiwesen, file R102988, documents 257054-56.

11 For example, on 20 July, just three days after the military rebellion started, Schwendemann wrote to Berlin that, according to non-confirmed rumours, Franco was moving forward from Cordoba to Madrid, while in fact he was still in Morocco; PAAA, IPPP, R102987, d. 256236-37.

12 Viñas, Franco, 380–4; Collado Seidel, Bürgerkrieg, 90–1; Gallego, Ferran, De Múnich a Auschwitz. Una historia del nazismo, 1919–1945 (Barcelona: Plaza & Janés, 2001), 401 Google Scholar.

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14 Köcher to Auswärtiges Amt, 22 and 24 Jul. 1936, PAAA, IPPP, R102987, d. EO83327, and R102988, d. 257048-53, respectively.

15 Merkes, Politik, 159.

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17 There is a lot of information on this case in PAAA, Politische Beziehungen Spaniens zu Deutschland (thereafter: PBSD), R102983, d. 251760-62, 251769-71, 251781-86.

18 Völckers to Auswärtiges Amt, 29 Aug. 1936, PAAA, PBSD, R102983, d. 251875 and 251876-77; the second document also in Akten der deutschen Auswärtigen Politik 1918–1945 (thereafter: ADAP), Serie D (1937–1945), Band III Deutschland und der Spanische Bürgerkrieg 1936-1939 (Baden-Baden, 1951), document 62.

19 ADAP, D, III, d. 15.

20 Draft of a telegram written by Dieckhoff to the Embassy in Madrid, 31 July 1936, PAAA, IPPP, R102988, d. 257064.

21 Merkes, Politik, 166–8.

22 PAAA, Unterstaatssekretär, R29914, d. 132353-54, and PAAA, PBSD, R102983, d. 251837-38.

23 Merkes, Politik, 169–72; Berdah, Democracia, 238–9.

24 Völckers to Auswärtiges Amt, 11 Aug. 1936, PAAA, PBSD, R102983, d. 251779.

25 Völckers to Auswärtiges Amt, 13 Aug. 1936, PAAA, PBSD, R102983, d. 251790.

26 ‘Glauben Sie, dass wir Sie hier noch schützen können, wenn Sie Beziehungen mit uns abbrechen?’; Völckers to Auswärtiges Amt, 21 Aug. 1936, PAAA, PBSD, R102983, d. 251818-19.

27 This is what Völckers said to the Auswärtiges Amt on August 23rd; PAAA, PBSD, R102983, d. 251828. Zugazagoitia, Julián, Guerra y vicisitudes de los españoles (Paris: Librería Española, 1968), vol. 2, 72 Google Scholar.

28 Whealy, Robert H., Hitler and Spain. The Nazi Role in the Spanish Civil War 1936–1939 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1989), 14–9Google Scholar; Jackson, Peter, ‘French Strategy and the Spanish Civil War’, in Leitz, Christian and Dunthorn, David J., eds., Spain in an International Context, 1936–1959 (New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1999), 62–7Google Scholar; Moradiellos, , Reñidero, 92–6; Ángel Viñas, La soledad de la República. El abandono de las democracias y el viraje hacia la Unión Soviética (Barcelona: Crítica, 2006), 34–8Google Scholar.

29 Taylor, F. Jay, The United States and the Spanish Civil War (New York: Octagon Books, 1971), 58 Google Scholar.

30 Taylor, United States, 51–9; Traina, Richard P., American Diplomacy and the Spanish Civil War (Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1968), 46–60 Google Scholar; Tierney, Dominic, FDR and the Spanish Civil War. Neutrality and Commitment in the Struggle that divided America (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2007), 39–48 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bosch, Aurora, Miedo a la democracia. Estados Unidos ante la Segunda República y la guerra civil española (Barcelona: Crítica, 2012), 126–31Google Scholar.

31 Viñas, Franco, 382–3; Leitz, Christian, ‘Nazi Germany and Francoist Spain, 1936–1945’, in Balfour, Sebastian and Preston, Paul, eds., Spain and the Great Powers in the Twentieth Century (London: Routledge, 1999), 128 Google Scholar.

32 Berdah, Democracia, 239–40.

33 Abendroth, Hitler, 51–2.

34 ADAP, D, III, d. 42 and 46.

35 ADAP, D, III, d. 50 and 55.

36 Abendroth, Hitler, 53; Berdah, Democracia, 240.

37 Viñas, Ángel, ‘Una carrera diplomática y un Ministerio de Estado desconocidos’, in Viñas, Ángel, dir., Al servicio de la República. Diplomáticos en guerra civil (Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2010), 268 Google Scholar.

38 Enrique Moradiellos, ‘La embajada en Gran Bretaña durante la guerra civil’, in Viñas, dir., Al servicio de la República, 90.

39 Ricardo Miralles, ‘El duro forcejeo de la diplomacia republicana en París. Francia y la guerra civil española’, in Viñas, dir., Al servicio de la República, 123–5.

40 Soledad Fox, ‘Misión imposible: la embajada en Washington de Fernando de los Ríos’, in Viñas, dir., Al servicio de la República, 158.

41 Casanova, Marina, ‘El inicio de la guerra civil y sus repercusiones en los diplomáticos españoles acreditados ante el Quirinal y el Vaticano’, Espacio, Tiempo y Forma. Historia Contemporánea, 4 (1991), 32–3Google Scholar.

42 Pablo de Azcárate took over the embassy in London, Álvaro de Albornoz did the same in Paris and Fernando de los Ríos in Washington. All of them were highly prestigious political and intellectual individuals with considerable political experience.

43 Memorandum of conversation between Woermann and Agramonte, PAAA, IPPP, R102987, d. E083331.

44 Agramonte to Ministerio de Estado, telegram no. 51, 27 July 1936, Archivo del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y Cooperación (AMAEC), Ministerio de Estado-Guerra civil 1936-1939, Archivo Renovado (thereafter: AR), box R584, file 5.

45 Telegrams no. 55 to 60, 29 July 1936, AMAEC, AR, R584, f. 5.

46 Berdah, Democracia, 210.

47 Barcia to Neurath, 29 July 1936; and Fiscowich to Ministerio de Estado, 30 July 1936, AMAEC, Archivo de Barcelona (thereafter AB), RE158, f. 3.

48 German legation in Stockholm to Auswärtiges Amt, 30 July 1936, PAAA, IPPP, R102989, d. D674276-78.

49 Fiscowich to Ministerio de Estado, 1 Aug. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R584, f. 5.

50 Fiscowich to Ministerio de Estado, 6 Aug. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R584, f. 5.

51 Relato de lo acaecido en Alemania en los primeros días del movimiento, por Jorge Tell (noviembre de 1938), 1, AMAEC, AB, RE98, folder (thereafter fd.) 6, f. 14. Thereafter Relato de lo acaecido en Alemania.

52 Esplá to Ministerio de Estado, 12 Aug. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R566, f. 2.

53 A really surprising mission and, obviously, without any positive result. Abendroth, Hitler, 43; Howson, Gerald, Arms for Spain. The Untold Story of the Spanish Civil War (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999), 76 Google Scholar; Pelt, Morten Heiberg y Mogens, Los negocios de la guerra. Armas nazis para la República española (Barcelona: Crítica, 2005), 64; Viñas, Soledad, 79–80Google Scholar.

54 Xammar, Eugeni, Seixanta anys d'anar pel món (Barcelona, Pòrtic, 1974), 396–7Google Scholar. Xammar was the press attaché in the Spanish Embassy, and he remained loyal to the Republic; see also Relato de lo acaecido en Alemania, 1.

55 For a narration of the events, see the report written by Agramonte on 20 Nov. 1936 titled Sobre situación interior de la Embajada desde 18 de julio hasta la fecha, AMAEC, AR, R596, f. 4. Thereafter Sobre situación interior de la Embajada. The version of the ex-ambassador is basically in line with that of Eugeni Xammar in Seixanta, 396–7, and with that of Jorge Tell in Relato de lo acaecido en Alemania, 1–2.

56 For a detailed report of the incident, see Esplá to Ministro de Estado, 16 Aug. 1936, and verbal note of 26 Aug., AMAEC, AR, R566, f. 1.

57 Ministerio de Estado to German chargé d'affaires, 12 Aug. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R566, f. 1.

58 Köcher to Auswärtiges Amt, 4 Sept. 1936, PAAA, PBSD, R102983, d. 251896-98.

59 Spanish Foreign minister Álvarez del Vayo to German Foreign minister von Neurath, 8 Oct. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R158, f. 3.

60 The documents in AMAEC, AR, R596, f. 4 confirm that Agramonte has been acting as an unofficial ambassador of the rebels since 31 July 1936.

61 Note of Legationsrat Dumont, 1 Aug. 1936, PAAA, IPPP, R102989, d. D674280-81. Also published in ADAP, D, III, d. 22. Nevertheless, there is a mistake in this publication: in the document index, the editors of the volume state that the letter was from General Mola not General Cabanellas. They also claim, in a footnote, that the original letter submitted by Portago was never found. However, as Ángel Viñas pointed out at the time, the original letter signed by Cabanellas does exists and can be found in the above cited file, d. D674282; Viñas, Franco, 411, footnote 15.

62 Agramonte to Neurath, 30 Sept. 1936, sending a message of gratitude from Franco to Hitler, PAAA, PBSD, R102983, d. 251758; and PAAA, PBSD, R102983, d. 251948.

63 Marrades to Ministerio de Estado, 18 Aug. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R416, f. 6.

64 Marrades to Ministerio de Estado, dispatch of 22 Aug. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R416, f. 6.

65 Merkes, Politik, 167; Abendroth, Hitler, 50–1; Berdah, Democracia, 239. The German formal complaint about the Kamerun incident can be found in PAAA, PBSD, R102983, d. 251837-38.

66 See dozens of German formal complaints about this kind of incidents in PAAA, PBSD, R102983 and R102984.

67 In addition to the above mentioned incident in which Carlos Esplá was involved, the arrest in Cologne of Major San Juan – an officer of the Spanish Army – and his companion, Mr. Cuito, while they were in an official mission for the Spanish Government was particularly important. Marrades was informed of the arrest on 21 Aug., and they were not set free until 5 Sept.. See a great amount of documents about this case in AMAEC, AR, R584, f. 5.

68 Marrades to Ministerio de Estado, 18 Aug. 1936, AMAEC, AR, b. R416, f. 6.

69 Marrades to Ministerio de Estado, telegram no. 79, 24 Aug. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R584, f. 5; and Marrades to Ministerio de Estado, dispatch no. 244, 24 Aug. 1936, AMAEC, AR, 566, f. 1.

70 Even before that, on 1 Sept., the consul in Frankfurt/Main had resigned, as did the consul in Hamburg on 5 Sept.. Marrades to Ministerio de Estado, telegrams no. 87, 3 Sept. 1936, and no. 91, 11 Sept. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R584, f. 1.

71 José Rovira was a young diplomat of the 1933 class (also known as the ‘class of the Republic’). He had been serving in Costa Rica until that moment, and he arrived in Berlin as a second class Embassy secretary. José Rovira Armengol's personal file, AMAEC, PG178, f. 22506. He had therefore very little professional experience and he had just served in a place of very limited diplomatic relevance. But his loyalty to the Spanish Republic was unquestionable. As Viñas has highlighted, he was one of the five members of the ‘class of the Republic’ (with twenty-seven members) who did not desert during the war. Viñas, ‘Carrera’, 271, footnote 10.

72 José Rovira Armengol's personal file, 17 Sept. 1936, AMAEC, PG178, f. 22506.

73 Akten-Vermerk, 9 Oct.1936, PAAA, PBSD, R102983, d. 251985-86. Luis Álvarez Estrada (chargé d'affaires in Berlin after Franco's recognition by Germany) to Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (Salamanca), telegram, 10 Dec. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R596, f. 4.

74 Xammar, Seixanta, 398–402.

75 Rovira to Ministerio de Estado, telegram no. 106, 15 Oct. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R584, f. 5.

76 Sobre situación interior de la Embajada, 4.

77 José Rovira Armengol's personal file, 17 Sept. 1936, AMAEC, PG178, f. 22506.

78 Rovira to Ministerio de Estado, dispatch no. 275, 17 Oct. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R415, f. 42.

79 None of them were able to take up their posts as consuls when they tried to do so on 14 Oct. ‘due to the defiance’ of the consuls who were in charge. Rovira to Ministerio de Estado, dispatch no. 292, 3 Nov. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R566, f. 1.

80 Everything to do with the cases of Gerez and Tell are to be found in Rovira to Ministerio de Estado, dispatch no. 290, 3-6 Nov. 1936, AMAEC, RA, R566, f. 1. Tell explains in more details what happened to (his version being basically the same as Rovira's) in Relato de lo acaecido en Alemania, 4–6.

81 This information and everything that follows which is related to this incident (unless another source is indicated) can be found in Rovira to Ministerio de Estado, dispatch no. 297, 6 Nov. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R566, f. 1.

82 Rovira doesn't specify the date in the document but it can be inferred by the context.

83 Rovira [from the Spanish Embassy in Paris] to Ministerio de Estado, dispatch 000, 14 Nov. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R566, f. 1. Also in Sobre situación interior de la Embajada, 5, where Agramonte offers a slightly different version of events. The ex-Ambassador explains that the leader of the Spanish Falange in Berlin, Rogelio García Castelló, visited him on 6 Nov. to inform him ‘that he had decided to demand that Rovira resign and leave Germany’. Agramonte opposed any violent action against the chargé d'affaires (he had promised the Auswärtiges Amt) but accepted that García Castelló could meet Rovira. According to Agramonte the meeting passed without any coercion of the Spanish official. But that statement about the peaceful behaviour of the Falangists in Berlin contrasts with Agramonte's other reference to them: according to the ex-Ambassador, when Esplá was in Berlin in August the Falangists had suggested that they kill the Spanish special envoy and bury him in the Embassy's garden. In his memoirs Agramonte changed the burial to the dissolving of the corpse in sulphuric acid [Francisco Agramonte, El frac a veces aprieta. Anécdotas y lances de la vida diplomática (Madrid: Aguilar, 1955), 424]. In any case, from Agramonte's account about the November events, it can be clearly inferred that the Rovira's assailants were Falangist (contrary to what the Spanish diplomat had thought). Agramonte also explained that the Falangists were reprimanded by the Berlin police superintendent, who recommended that they remain quiet in order to avoid going to jail.

84 The whole account about what happened on 7 Nov. (quotations included) is to be found in Rovira [from the Spanish Embassy in Paris] to Ministerio de Estado, dispatch 000, 14 Nov. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R566, f. 1.

85 Berdah offers no information about this episode. He just points out the date Rovira left Germany, without any indication about the reasons for his sudden departure; Berdah, Democracia, 213. Neither does Merkes; he merely writes that Rovira himself took the decision to leave, but he does not explain the reason behind this unusual behaviour; Merkes, Politik, 188. Finally, in his book Abendroth pays no special attention to what happened in the Spanish Embassy in Berlin between July and November; in fact, he hardly refers to the issues that I address in this paper.

86 Agramonte to Francisco de A. Serrat y Bonastre (Secretary of Foreign Relations), 9 Nov. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R596, f. 4.

87 Rovira [from the Spanish Embassy in Paris] to Ministerio de Estado, dispatch 000, 14 Nov. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R566, f. 1.

88 Rovira [from the Spanish Embassy in Paris] to Ministerio de Estado, dispatch 001, 17 Nov. 1936, AMAEC, AR, R566, f. 1.

89 Information about the prisoners in Germany is to be found in Relato de lo acaecido en Alemania, 9–10. In this text, written in Barcelona in November 1938, Tell does not explain how he managed to return to the Republican zone. In 1938 Tell was posted as a second class secretary in the Spanish Embassy in Norway [Viñas, ‘Carrera’, 304, table 1]. He stayed in Norway when the civil war ended, and was arrested by the German police in May 1940, after the Nazi occupation of this country. The Spanish authorities then asked the Germans to deliver him to them. AMAEC, AR, R1.343, f. 150.

90 José Rovira Armengol's personal file, AMAEC, PG178, f. 22506.

91 AMAEC, AB, RE98, fd. 7, f. 18.

92 The activity of the Spanish Embassies in London, Paris and Washington have been studied by Enrique Moradiellos, Ricardo Miralles and Soledad Fox, respectively, in Ángel Viñas, dir., Al servicio de la República.

93 See a clear example of it in a Völckers's letter to a Berliner colleague dated 23 Sept. in ADAP, D, III, d. 87.

94 Merkes, Politik, 177; Viñas, Soledad, 259–60; Vayo, Julio Álvarez del, Give me Combat. The Memoirs of Julio Alvarez del Vayo (Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1973), 161 Google Scholar.

95 Traina, Diplomacy, 124; Bosch, Miedo, passim; Bowers, Claude G., My Mission to Spain. Watching the Rehearsal for World War II (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954)Google Scholar.