Secret Cabinet Council
The Secret Cabinet Council in Nazi Germany was a nine-member governmental body created on 4 February 1938. The Council was established by decree of Adolf Hitler with the supposed purpose of advising him on foreign policy. It was established ostensibly as a sort of “super cabinet” of close foreign policy advisors. In reality, the Council was a paper organization without any real power and never actually met.
Background
In a 5 November 1937 meeting at the Reich Chancellery with his top foreign policy and military advisors, documented in the Hossbach Memorandum, Hitler unveiled his plans for a more assertive foreign policy, including his aggressive designs against Austria and Czechoslovakia. At this meeting, the Reichsminister for Foreign Affairs, Konstantin von Neurath, expressed his concerns over this new policy. Neurath sought a follow-up audience with Hitler, who rebuffed him and left Berlin for an extended holiday at the Berghof, his mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden. When Neurath finally saw Hitler again on 14 January 1938, he reiterated his opposition to Hitler’s plans, indicating that if Hitler persisted with his expansionist plans, he would have to find a new Foreign Minister. In fact, Hitler had already made up his mind to replace Neurath.On 4 February 1938, as part of a reshuffle of the Reich cabinet and armed forces resulting from the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair, Neurath was sacked and replaced by Joachim von Ribbentrop, an ardent Nazi. Conversely, Neurath was a long-time professional foreign service officer, having served in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic posts since 1901, and had headed the Reich Foreign Ministry since June 1932. To assuage concerns in foreign capitals about the removal of Neurath, a known quantity in international diplomatic circles, Hitler cloaked the departure as a promotion, naming the long-time diplomat as President of the newly created and impressive-sounding Secret Cabinet Council.
Composition
The 4 February 1938 Decree establishing the Council enumerated the following nine members:| Name | Position |
| Konstantin von Neurath | President of the Council Reichsminister without portfolio |
| Joachim von Ribbentrop | Reichsminister for Foreign Affairs |
| Hermann Göring | Minister-President of Prussia Reichsminister for Air Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe |
| Rudolf Hess | Deputy Führer Reichsminister without portfolio |
| Joseph Goebbels | Reichsminister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda |
| Hans Lammers | Chief of the Reich Chancellery Reichsminister without portfolio |
| Walther von Brauchitsch | Commander-in-Chief of the Army |
| Erich Raeder | Commander-in-Chief of the Navy |
| Wilhelm Keitel | Chief of the Armed Forces High Command |
Existence
The Council was officially in existence from its inception in February 1938 until the end of the Nazi regime on 8 May 1945. It was established as a select advisory committee of the Reich government for the deliberation of foreign affairs and was granted neither legislative nor administrative functions. The image of an important deliberative body was presented to the world by Nazi propaganda, which depicted the Council as a type of “super cabinet.” In reality, the Council was an empty façade and never even convened. At the Nuremberg Trials on 14 March 1946, Hermann Göring testified about the creation and existence of the Council:“In order to avoid a lowering of Herr von Neurath's prestige abroad, I myself was the one to make a proposal to the Führer. I told him that in order to make it appear abroad that von Neurath had not been entirely removed from foreign policy, I would propose to appoint him chairman of the Secret Cabinet Council. There was, to be sure, no such council in existence, but the expression would sound quite nice, and everyone would imagine that it meant something. The Führer said we could not make him chairman if we had no council. Thereupon I said, "Then we shall make one," and offhand I marked down names of several persons.... I declare under oath that this Cabinet Council never met at all, not even for a minute; there was not even an initial meeting for laying down the rules by which it should function. Some members may not even have been informed that they were members.”
On 24 June 1946, Neurath himself also testified that the Council “was set up for the sole purpose of masking the reorientation in foreign policy and the changes on the military side” and that it, in fact, never convened.
The above demonstrates, as with so much else in the Third Reich, how Hitler presented the outward appearance of establishing formal governmental institutions and procedures while retaining all actual decision-making authority in his own hands.