Arno Schickedanz

Arno Schickedanz (27 December 1892[1] – 12 April 1945) was a German diplomat who held paramount positions in both the NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs (APA) and the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (RMfdbO) of Nazi Germany.

Both ministries he held positions in were under the command of Alfred Rosenberg, a friend since childhood and a leading Nazi theorist and ideologue.

According to the Rubonorum album, he continued his studies in Moscow from the summer of 1915 onwards with Rosenberg, and in January 1918, he graduated there with a degree in chemistry.

Together, Schickedanz and Biskupski arranged with the Russian claimant to the throne, Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich Romanov, for General Ludendorff to utilize funds totaling 500,000 gold marks to promote the joint national German-Russian cause.

Schickedanz supported von Scheubner-Richter in publishing the weekly magazine "Economic Policy Correspondence on Eastern Questions and Their Significance for Germany."

Goebbels' attitude did not change the fact that Schickedanz was able to establish a fairly close relationship with Adolf Hitler during those years of the Weimar Republic.

On September 14, 1930, Rosenberg was elected to the Reichstag as an NSDAP representative for the electoral district of Hesse-Darmstadt, where he served on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

In the spring of 1932, Rosenberg unsuccessfully pressured Schickedanz to move his residence to Berlin to secure a spot on the candidate list for the Reichstag elections.

In 1931, Schickedanz established the connection for Rosenberg with the Baltic-British journalist and Baron Wilhelm de Ropp and his former war acquaintance Major Frederick William Winterbotham.

Wilhelm de Ropp, who had been dispossessed by the Soviets and was a correspondent for the newspaper The Times as well as a foreign representative of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, later became a significant confidant of Rosenberg in London.

After Rosenberg was appointed head of the NSDAP Foreign Policy Office (APA) on April 1, 1933, Schickedanz received the high position of Chief of Staff in this authority.

Ernst Piper wrote in 2005: "This meant he was responsible for personnel policy, which gave him central influence over the course of events, and for the eastern area, which was initially of minor importance for the APA's work but, in the long term, of decisive perspective for racist expansionism."

Rosenberg wrote in his diary that day: "Christmas is coming, I must send Lecca back to Bucharest with some comforting words after almost three weeks.

From 1943 to 1944, Arno Schickedanz served as Chief of Staff to Josef Terboven, the Reich Commissioner for the Occupied Eastern Territories of Norway.