7200 - Konstantin von Neurath Autograph Letter Signed, Seeking His Absent Defense Counsel Six Days Before the Opening of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg

Konstantin von Neurath Autograph Letter Signed, Seeking His Absent Defense Counsel Six Days Before the Opening of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg ALS in English, signed “C. von Neurath,” one page, 8 x 10.5, November 14, 1945. Handwritten letter to "the Secretary General of the International Court," in full: "My counsel Dr. von Lüdinghausen has gone away to Berlin the 30th of October. He told me that he would be back the 5th of November. Up to to-day I have nothing more heard. Could you kindly let make inquiries, whether something has happened to him or what else is the matter." In fine condition, with uniform toning and small edge splits to the horizontal fold. Written just six days before the opening of the International Military Tribunal on November 20, 1945, this letter captures von Neurath in the anxious final stage of preparing his defense. The former German foreign minister had been indicted on all four Nuremberg counts—conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity—and, like the other defendants, was entitled to counsel of his choosing. His attorney, Otto von Lüdinghausen, had departed for Berlin on October 30 and failed to return when expected, leaving von Neurath apparently without word from the man charged with organizing his defense as the trial approached. His handwritten appeal to the Tribunal’s secretary general—asking simply whether “something has happened to him”—offers an unusually personal glimpse behind the formal proceedings. Lüdinghausen did return and went on to conduct von Neurath’s defense throughout the trial, but his efforts failed to secure an acquittal: von Neurath was convicted on all four counts and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment.