FRÄULEIN BLANK: The Tripartite Pact was to be a pact for the limitation of war.
DR. HORN: Do you know whether Ribbentrop endeavored to keep America out of the war?
FRÄULEIN BLANK: Yes, the Tripartite Pact was signed with this end in view.
DR. HORN: And now another set of questions. What was Herr Von Ribbentrop’s attitude in church questions?
FRÄULEIN BLANK: As far as I can judge, his attitude in church questions was very tolerant.
To my knowledge, he left the Church already in the twenties, but in this respect he exercised no pressure or influence on his personnel or, rather, he did not bother about it at all. His tolerance went even so far that in 1935 he let his two eldest children have their wish and rejoin the Church. His tolerance in personal questions of religion was in line with his political attitude towards the Church. In this connection I remember Von Ribbentrop’s sending the Führer a fundamental memorandum in which he advocated a tolerant church policy. In the winter of 1944 he received Bishop Heckel to discuss church matters with him. On the occasion of a journey to Rome in 1941 or 1942, he paid a long visit to the Pope.
DR. HORN: Was Ribbentrop of an introspective and secluded character, or was he not?
FRÄULEIN BLANK: Yes, although I was his personal secretary for 10 years, I hardly ever saw him in a communicative mood. His time and thoughts were so completely occupied by his work, to which he devoted himself wholeheartedly, that there was no room for anything private. Apart from his wife and children there was nobody with whom Von Ribbentrop was on terms of close friendship. This, however, did not prevent him from having the welfare of his subordinates at heart and from showing them generosity, particularly in time of need.
DR. HORN: Is it true that you often felt that there were certain differences of opinion between Ribbentrop and Hitler?
FRÄULEIN BLANK: Yes. True to his attitude, which I mentioned before, Von Ribbentrop never discussed such differences with his subordinates, but I do remember distinctly that there were times when such differences surely did exist. At such times the Führer refused for weeks to receive Herr Von Ribbentrop. Ribbentrop suffered physically and mentally under such a state of affairs.