The fifteen-year old Rudolf von Ribbentrop's first day at Westminster School, 12 October 1936. Original caption: "Rudi, the eldest son of the German ambassador in London, Joachim von Ribbentrop, began his first day of school today as a new student at the famous Westminster School in London. Rudolf von Ribbentrop in the traditional school uniform of the Westminster students leaving his London home in Eaton Square on the way to the Westminister School."
Unlike many of his fellow boarding students, Rudolf "Rudi" von Ribbentrop was an outside student. He would arrive first thing every day, attend his morning classes, eat at school, and return home at the end of each day.
As he confesses in his memoirs, and despite his years of belonging to the Hitlerjugend, nothing in Nazi Germany had prepared him at 15 years of age, for the culture shock that he was going to suffer at Westminster School: Spartan life, frozen rooms, food unbearable. The daily dinner at the ambassador's residence with dishes of German cuisine was, hands down, the highlight of the day for the young student.
Of course, nothing is perfect in life, because from Monday to Friday every night at every dinner, his father would question him about his impressions of opinions and comments from his classmates and teachers.
Von Ribbentrop saw his son as a primary source of information about the thinking of the children of the British elites and, therefore, of them. With his commission to strike a pact with Great Britain, the ambassador was anxious to know whether the British would be willing to strike some kind of agreement to help Hitler fight the threat of communism or if they were really a group of "decadent manners. As described by Nazi propaganda.
We suppose that after dinner there would still be time for homework.
Rudi was a somewhat lanky boy who wore glasses, who - according to his memoirs - found it very strange to have to go to and from school every day with a top hat, frack, gloves and an umbrella ...
In his memoirs he recalls how surprised he was that there was an Officers Training Corps at the school, which he wanted to join at the time. And how a "nice and young teacher, in a captain's uniform, asked me if he wanted to sign me up."
Surprised by the existence of such a pre-military formation, von Ribbentrop authorized his son to join, but on the condition that he should wear a German uniform. Very politely the school rejected the proposal. However, the ambassador informed Berlin that the British were preparing their schoolchildren for war.
Rudi was initially teased by his classmates. And he also remembers the cold and huge house, where to warm himself he went to the library which, apparently, was the warmest room in the school.
The British diplomat Brian Urquhart, a student at the same school during Ribbentrop's time there, in his autobiography "A Life in Peace and War (1987)" describes the latter as being "doltish, surly and arrogant". Urquhart recalls that Ribbentrop, much to the dismay of his schoolmates, "arrived each morning in one of two plum-colored Mercedes-Benz limousines". Urquhart further recalls, "On arrival in Dean's Yard, both chauffeurs would spring out, give the Nazi salute, and shout "Heil Hitler!"
Peter Ustinov, tone of his classmates, states in his memoirs that von Ribbentrop would drive to school every day in the embassy's Mercedes and that the chauffeur would bump his heels shouting "Heil Hitler!"
When Rudolf is reminded of this, he smiles and denies it in amusement. Every day on his way to and from school walking to the residence in Eaton Square - he says - he, in addition to the fact that the driver was English.
Rudi's father did not exactly win sympathy among embassy staff. The animosity between Ustinov and Rudi has its origin in that von Ribbentrop dismissed, among many others, the German press attaché in London, who was precisely the father of Peter Ustinov.
Two more anecdotes from Rudi von Ribbentrop's London school days:
On the occasion of a school debate on the hypothetical return of the German colonies, the vote was in favor of the return to Germany. This show of impartiality was transmitted to Berlin by the ambassador, interpreted as a British predisposition to make concessions to the Reich.
On another occasion a member of Parliament visited the school to give a lecture on the League of Nations established by the Treaty of Versailles, criticizing Hitler for his intervention. Young von Ribbentrop got up to contradict the speaker and was slapped by a teacher who said to him: - "We don't want to hear speeches, we want to hear questions."
Behind him, he heard the noise of the chairs: all the students had left the room in silence to protest the treatment given to their German companion.
This anecdote was also wrongly interpreted by the German ambassador, who deduced and informed Berlin about a "British sympathy towards German policies".
Upon completing that course in the summer of 1937, Rudi returned to Germany.
In 2010, when interviewed by The Times, Rudolf von Ribbentrop stated: "I look back and happily remember those days."
As he confesses in his memoirs, and despite his years of belonging to the Hitlerjugend, nothing in Nazi Germany had prepared him at 15 years of age, for the culture shock that he was going to suffer at Westminster School: Spartan life, frozen rooms, food unbearable. The daily dinner at the ambassador's residence with dishes of German cuisine was, hands down, the highlight of the day for the young student.
Of course, nothing is perfect in life, because from Monday to Friday every night at every dinner, his father would question him about his impressions of opinions and comments from his classmates and teachers.
Von Ribbentrop saw his son as a primary source of information about the thinking of the children of the British elites and, therefore, of them. With his commission to strike a pact with Great Britain, the ambassador was anxious to know whether the British would be willing to strike some kind of agreement to help Hitler fight the threat of communism or if they were really a group of "decadent manners. As described by Nazi propaganda.
We suppose that after dinner there would still be time for homework.
Rudi was a somewhat lanky boy who wore glasses, who - according to his memoirs - found it very strange to have to go to and from school every day with a top hat, frack, gloves and an umbrella ...
In his memoirs he recalls how surprised he was that there was an Officers Training Corps at the school, which he wanted to join at the time. And how a "nice and young teacher, in a captain's uniform, asked me if he wanted to sign me up."
Surprised by the existence of such a pre-military formation, von Ribbentrop authorized his son to join, but on the condition that he should wear a German uniform. Very politely the school rejected the proposal. However, the ambassador informed Berlin that the British were preparing their schoolchildren for war.
Rudi was initially teased by his classmates. And he also remembers the cold and huge house, where to warm himself he went to the library which, apparently, was the warmest room in the school.
The British diplomat Brian Urquhart, a student at the same school during Ribbentrop's time there, in his autobiography "A Life in Peace and War (1987)" describes the latter as being "doltish, surly and arrogant". Urquhart recalls that Ribbentrop, much to the dismay of his schoolmates, "arrived each morning in one of two plum-colored Mercedes-Benz limousines". Urquhart further recalls, "On arrival in Dean's Yard, both chauffeurs would spring out, give the Nazi salute, and shout "Heil Hitler!"
Peter Ustinov, tone of his classmates, states in his memoirs that von Ribbentrop would drive to school every day in the embassy's Mercedes and that the chauffeur would bump his heels shouting "Heil Hitler!"
When Rudolf is reminded of this, he smiles and denies it in amusement. Every day on his way to and from school walking to the residence in Eaton Square - he says - he, in addition to the fact that the driver was English.
Rudi's father did not exactly win sympathy among embassy staff. The animosity between Ustinov and Rudi has its origin in that von Ribbentrop dismissed, among many others, the German press attaché in London, who was precisely the father of Peter Ustinov.
Two more anecdotes from Rudi von Ribbentrop's London school days:
On the occasion of a school debate on the hypothetical return of the German colonies, the vote was in favor of the return to Germany. This show of impartiality was transmitted to Berlin by the ambassador, interpreted as a British predisposition to make concessions to the Reich.
On another occasion a member of Parliament visited the school to give a lecture on the League of Nations established by the Treaty of Versailles, criticizing Hitler for his intervention. Young von Ribbentrop got up to contradict the speaker and was slapped by a teacher who said to him: - "We don't want to hear speeches, we want to hear questions."
Behind him, he heard the noise of the chairs: all the students had left the room in silence to protest the treatment given to their German companion.
This anecdote was also wrongly interpreted by the German ambassador, who deduced and informed Berlin about a "British sympathy towards German policies".
Upon completing that course in the summer of 1937, Rudi returned to Germany.
In 2010, when interviewed by The Times, Rudolf von Ribbentrop stated: "I look back and happily remember those days."
Source :
https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/detail/dfd84cb6-0259-11e7-904b-d89d6717b464/media/4bbf0d95-3c83-539a-2f80-990fe91a44ba?mode=detail&view=horizontal&q=rudolf%20ribbentrop&rows=1&page=1
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=134272&hilit=rudolf+ribbentrop
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rudolf-von-ribbentrop-fils-de-lambassadeur-joachim-von-news-photo/690506992
https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/cloth-headgear/rudolf-von-ribbentrop-783266-2/
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