Alexander von Doernberg – Diplomatic Passport

ALEXANDER VON DOERNBERG – DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT
German jurist, diplomat, and SS officer, Head of the Protocol Department of the Foreign Office from 1938 to 1945. Diplomatic passport, issued August 2, 1943, in Berlin. The first page gives his passport number “1646”, expiration date in August of 1944 and an extension until 1946, and lists his title “Chef des Protokolls im Auswaertigen Amt.” The second page bears his biographical information. The third page features his identification photo above his signature in indelible blue pencil on a slip of paper affixed to the page. The Foreign Office’s endorsement stamp appears on page five, and the following pages show diplomatic visa stamps issued for Bulgaria, the Slovak Republic, Hungary, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and finally Switzerland. The document is bound in blue cloth boards with a gilt national eagle and titles. It shows various blind-embossed seals and a punch numeral at the bottom of the pages. The binding is split slightly, with expected bumps and wear to the covers; else, very good. Comes with a printed invitation, 8″ x 5 3/4″, from German Labor Front head Dr. Robert Ley, inviting von Doernberg to attend a reception for the “Faschistischen Partei-Delegation” (“Fascist Party Delegation”) of Italy on January 29, 1943, at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin. The group is completed by a postal cover used by the General Government in Belgium, addressed to a “Kabinettsrat (‘Cabinet Member’) Romheld,” with von Doernberg’s typed return address in Brussels on the verso.

In his official capacity, Von Doernberg received British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain during the negotiations that would produce the Munich Agreement in the fall of 1938 and would also accompany Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop to Moscow for the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939. The Allies arrested him at the war’s end, and he served as a witness at the Nuremberg trials, especially the Ministries Trial. He caused controversy when, in 2005, it was realized that his portrait still hung among those of his predecessors and successors as head of the Protocol Department at the Foreign Office building in Berlin.

The diplomatic passport was auctioned in July 2019 and sold for $2000.

Alexander von Doernberg

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