wide range of espionage activities—recruiting agents throughout
the country, disrupting grain and arms shipments to Europe, and
fomenting unrest against British rule in Ireland and India. At the
end of 1915, he and Karl Boy-Ed were declared persona non grata
by the U.S. government and returned to Germany. Very little ef-
fort was made to cover Papen’s tracks. An inspection of his papers
while en route by British officials uncovered the financial records
of his sabotage activities. The following spring, U.S. authorities
found other incriminating documents in his former New York of-
fice, then under the direction of Wolf von Igel.
Papen’s political career during the Weimar Republic culminated
in his brief appointment as chancellor in 1932, owing primarily to
his close relationship with President Paul von Hindenburg. Although
chosen by Adolf Hitler as his vice chancellor the following year, he
resigned three days after the purge of 30 June 1934, having narrowly
escaped execution himself. Nevertheless, by the fall, he was ap-
pointed a special envoy to Vienna and became ambassador to Austria
in 1936, all the while helping to prepare for the Anschluss of 1938.
Papen’s final espionage involvement took place during his tenure
as ambassador to Turkey from 1939 to 1944. Most significantly, he
gave his approval to the undercover work of Elyesa Bazna in the
Cicero Affair. In May 1943, a secret mission to Ankara approved
by Wilhelm Canaris and designed to secure Papen’s cooperation
with the resistance proved unsuccessful. Five months later, however,
he made an overture to an agent of the U.S. Office of Strategic Ser-
vices, stating his willingness to help overthrow Hitler in exchange for
certain concessions, but the negotiations foundered. Another offer by
Papen to the British was also rebuffed.
Arrested by the Americans in June 1945, he stood trial before the
International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg and was acquitted of all
charges. Although he had never joined the Nazi Party, a German de-
nazification court imposed a sentence of eight years’ hard labor and
forfeiture of property, which was rescinded on appeal two years later.
Papen’s selective autobiography Der Wahrheit eine Gasse (Franz
von Papen: Memoirs) appeared in 1952. He died in Obersasbach
(Baden-Württemberg) on 2 May 1969.PARVUS. See HELPHAND, ALEXANDER.
340 • PARVUS