Ramón Serrano Súñer
Encyclopedia
Ramón Serrano Súñer was a Spanish
politician during the first stages of General Francisco Franco
's dictatorship, the Spanish State
, between 1938 and 1942, when he held the posts of President of the Political Junta Política of Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS (1938), and Interior and Foreign Affairs Minister. Serrano Súñer was known for his pro-Third Reich stance during World War II
, when he supported the sending of the Blue Division
to fight along with the Wehrmacht
in the Russian front
. He was also the brother-in-law of the Spanish dictator General Franco, for which he was nicknamed Cuñadísimo.
Serrano Súñer was the founder, 13 December 1938, of the 67,000 strong Spanish blind people organization ONCE
, as well as EFE
press-agency, 1939, the later together with Navarrese journalist Manuel Aznar Zubigaray
and his Basque falangist son Manuel Aznar Acedo
, (a Spanish army officer, journalist and propaganda broadcaster), the father of José María Aznar
, Prime Minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. Serrano Súñer also founded Radio Intercontinental station in 1950.
the fifth child of seven to an engineer working in the Valencian
port of Castellón de la Plana
. Although he was an excellent student, his father disapproved his aspirations of becoming a lawyer. He enrolled at the Madrid University
studying law anyway, and while he was there, studied along with José Antonio Primo de Rivera
(son of Spanish dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera
, and founder of the Falange). He also spent a year in Bologna
, during which he developed a taste for fascism.
Ramón Serrano Súñer and Francisco Franco were co-brothers-in-law, since the two married two sisters: Serrano Súñer married in Oviedo
on 6 February 1932 Ramona (Zita) Polo y Martínez-Valdés, whom he had met shortly after moving to Zaragoza in 1931, while Franco married Carmen Polo
y Martínez-Valdés in October 1923. Ramón Serrano Súñer and Zita Polo had six children: Fernando, Francisco, Jaime Javier, José, María del Pilar and Ramón Serrano-Súñer y Polo.
Carmen Díez de Rivera e Icaza, (1942-1999) his illegitimate daughter with the Marquis of Llanzol wife, who unknowingly tried to engage with his son (and her half-brother)Ramón Serrano Súñer y Polo and who later became a leftist politician and member of the European Parliament
. Highly educated and fluent in several languages Carmen, a most beautiful woman in her youth with blue "aryan" eyes, as Serrano had, too, and family frustrated woman on both sides of her family , was the Personal Secretay of the First Spanish President under democracy, Adolfo Suarez
.
(1933–36). He joined Franco early in the Spanish Civil War
(1936–39), during which he led the Falange. In July 1936 he was caught participating in the conspiracy to overthrow the republic and captured and locked in a Republican prison. He escaped in October 1936 dressed as a woman and was then helped by the Argentine
navy in getting to France
, from where he was able to reach Salamanca
, 20 February 1937, where Franco was in office at the time. It was there that he could work with Franco to participate in the rebellious side of the Spanish Civil War. Escaping from prison amidst the cross-fire of an angry outbreak of his country's civil war, while both of his brothers were killed by the Republicans, it seems ironic that Suñer would not only manage to pull through but later live to be a centenarian
.
In 1938 he went to Nuremberg
, with rather rombustious Nicolás Franco, brother of his brother in law General Francisco Franco, probably to the 10th Nuremberg Rally
Reichsparteitag Grossdeutchsland in German, of the Nazi Party, to celebrate the previous Austria
Anschluss
, March 1938.
He served as Nationalist Minister of the Interior (1 February 1938–9 August 1939) and when Franco amalgamated such Ministry with the Ministry of "Public Order ", "Ministerio de Orden Público in Spanish" a new name was created , "Ministerio de la Gobernación" , but usually such new name is translated nowadays as "Ministry of the Interior". This amalgamation was made by Franco on 9 August 1939 whereby Serrano Súñer became thus "Ministro de la Gobernación" on 9 August 1939 till 16 October 1940. It was just the day before, 15 October 1940 that the former President of the Generalitat
of Catalunya, Lluis Companys was executed by a firing squad at Barcelona
after he was handled back on 13 August by the Gestapo
authorities of occupied Paris
, France
to head hunter Spanish policeman and spy Pedro Urraca Rendueles, (1904–1989), as well as the Basque Minister of the Interior under Republican President Prof. Dr. Juan Negrín
, Julián Zugazagoitia, (1909 - executed by a firing squad at Madrid
, 9 November 1940).
During the time Serrano had been Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Foreign Affairs was General Juan Luis Beigbeder y Atienza, (Cartagena
, Spain
, 1888 - retired 1950 - Guadarranque, Spain
, 6 June 1957), formerly a Military Attaché at the Spanish Embassy Berlin
as an Army Commandant in 1926. Already as a Colonel, he was the predecessor of Serrano Súñer as a Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs , 12 August 1939 - 16 October 1940.
He had married , October 1915, María Fedriani y Martín-Esperanza, from Alcalá de Henares
. and was a Longtime resident in what is now North Morocco
as some sort of Military Governor, having a flair for exotic, foreign, beautiful ladies, as recognized by the German controllers of foreign members of the Diplomatic Services at Berlin. He seems to have been very friendly wuth a British lady born in India
by the name Rosalinde Powell Fox, presumed to be a British female spy.
Certainly, on 1 February 1943, "africanist" Colonel Beigbeder , a good speaker and reader of Classical Arabic and North Moroccan language, Tangier
and Tetouan
, was at USA , with Rosalinde Powell Fox, the former wife of some industrialist in India, being promoted, September 1943, to a General of Brigade.
Meanwhile, even on becoming the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Serrano Súñer had to accept Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart y Falcó, 17th Duke of Alba, as Ambassador to London
since November 1937 representing rebellious Franco and since March 1939 representing Spanish Dictator Francisco Franco till March 1945.
The 17th Duke of Alba, father of the actual witty and courageous 18th Duchess, Rosario Cayetana, already in her mid 80´s , had been formerly a Minister of Public Instruction , later Minister of State, 1930–1931, under the dictatorship of General Dámaso Berenguer
(1873–1953)
Just one week after being promoted to Minister of Foreign Affairs, on 23 October 1940, Francisco Franco
and Adolf Hitler
met at the Meeting at Hendaye
, a railway station in France, near the Spanish border, while Serrano Suñer met German Foreign Affairs Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
. Paul Schmidt
, head interpreter of the German Chancellor, reported that that Franco sat between Joachim von Ribbentrop
and Walther von Brauchitsch
, while Adolf Hitler sat between the Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister Ramón Serrano Súñer and the Spanish Ambassador at Berlin
, Espinosa de los Monteros
. Neither the Spanish Ambassador at Berlin nor the German Ambassador at Madrid, Eberhard von Stohrer
, were allowed at the exhaustive and inconclusive political meetings however. By morning the meeting ended with no compromise.
In June 1939 Serrano had been back to Italy to present Benito Mussolini
the thousands of repatriated Italian soldiers having fought by the side of Franco in Spain against the Spanish Republican soldiers. He was thus, also appointed the 263rd Minister of Foreign Affairs (18 October 1940–3 September 1942), thanks to his skill at building a relationship with Benito Mussolini
.
Even though he was working alongside Franco, he objected to the increasing role of the Catholic Church in Falangist politics. The two brothers-in-law had some intra-party conflicts of their own, as Serrano Súñer accused Franco of riding on a "cult of personality
," while Franco viewed Serrano Suñer as increasingly becoming a thorn in the side of his party, criticizing too many of its policies.
met in southern France (Hendaye
) to discuss having Spain participate in World War II
as part of the Axis. After playing a major role in establishing the Spanish state under Franco—he was so influential as to be nicknamed the "Cuñadísimo", which translates as supreme brother-in-law, (a joke on "Generalísimo")—despite Serrano Súñer's advocating for Spain to join the Axis powers, Franco opted for Spain to remain a nonbelligerent during World War II. Serrano Súñer's protege Pedro Gamero del Castillo
consulted in January 1941 with Hans Lazar, the press secretary of the German Embassy and told him that a Serrano Súñer government would commit to the Axis powers
and thus asked for him to arrange for the Nazis
to publicly back his mentor. However it is unclear whether or not Gamero was working on his own initiative and Hitler was disappointed that Serrano Súñer had not tried harder to help Germany, and called him the "gravedigger of the new Spain".
To make up for this failure, he proposed the Blue Division
of Spanish volunteers to fight with the Germans against the Soviet Union and communism after Operation Barbarossa
, 22 June 1941.
On 25 November 1941 he signed in Berlin
the sometimes described as the 1941 revised pact of the 25th November 1936 Germany
-Japan
Anti-Komintern
Pact an Anti-Communist pact concluded between Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan (later to be joined by other countries) directed against the Communist International (Comintern) or Komintern
.
In 1942, following the US entry into the war, German reverses in Russia, and the Basilica of Begoña
incident, 16 August 1942, Serrano Súñer was forced to resign as foreign minister and president of the political council of the Falange. After World War II, he wrote a persuasive letter to Franco, calling for a transitional government that would have room for intellectuals in exile. When Franco received the letter, he wrote a derisive "Ho-ho." in its margin. Serrano Súñer ultimately retired from public life in 1947, but lived longer than most of the people he worked with.
After some 70 years of cloak and dagger histories involving politicians, military sevices of information, generals, ambassadors, conflicts between European Powers and much arguing between so-called history specialists is not it time we pay attention to Serrano´s insult to his powerful brother in law by the birth of Carmen Díez de Rivera e Icaza, 29 August 1942, see below, a very close friend afterwards, in the late 1970´s of communist leader Santiago Carrillo
, King Juan Carlos I and his wife Queen Sophie of Greece as well as 1st President under the Spanish Democracy Adolfo Suarez
.
Serrano was replaced as a Minister of Foreign Affairs on 3 September 1942 by General Francisco Gómez-Jordana Sousa, 1st Count of Jordana
, formerly also a Minister of Foreign Affairs of Franco`s Spain.
In the same date, University Professor and some sort of General Fiscal Blas Pérez González was appointed Minister of the Interior, "Ministro de la Gobernación" in Spanish , starting thus a 15 year period , till 1957, really hard and tough for "traitors" to the country because of their political activities.
In particular, he can be tracked as early as 1946 at Barcelona
interacting with Fomento de Obras y Construcciones S. A. , (FOCSA), created in the year 1900, in charge of the sewage underground sanitary works of such big city and keeping strong connections since 1952 with Construcciones y Contratos", CYCSA, founded around 1947 by resident in Spain Upper Silesian Jewish Engineer Ernesto Koplowitz, deceased 1962 throgh a fall while riding horses at a Club .
Ernesto Koplowitz had even married within the Spanish-Cuban Aristocracy to a woman bearing some Marchioness titles, but his two daughters, Esther Koplowitz, born 1950, and Alicia Koplowitz , born 1953, were still too young when he died.
Fortunately, a childless and very rich International Spanish financier, Ramón Areces
, protected them with a real altruist behavior teaching them many secrets on the High World of Finances. FOCSA and Construcciones y Contratas are today the International Public Works firm Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas
,FCC, some 92,000 employees operating in some 54 countries in the world .
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
politician during the first stages of General Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
's dictatorship, the Spanish State
Spanish State
Francoist Spain refers to a period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975 when Spain was under the authoritarian dictatorship of Francisco Franco....
, between 1938 and 1942, when he held the posts of President of the Political Junta Política of Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS (1938), and Interior and Foreign Affairs Minister. Serrano Súñer was known for his pro-Third Reich stance during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, when he supported the sending of the Blue Division
Blue Division
The Blue Division officially designated as División Española de Voluntarios by the Spanish Army and 250. Infanterie-Division in the German Army, was a unit of Spanish volunteers that served in the German Army on the Eastern Front of the Second World War.-Origins:Although Spanish leader Field...
to fight along with the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
in the Russian front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
. He was also the brother-in-law of the Spanish dictator General Franco, for which he was nicknamed Cuñadísimo.
Serrano Súñer was the founder, 13 December 1938, of the 67,000 strong Spanish blind people organization ONCE
ONCE
ONCE , or Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles , is a Spanish foundation founded on December 13, 1938 to raise funds to provide services for the blind and people with serious visual impairment....
, as well as EFE
EFE
EFE is a Spanish news agency created in 1939 by Spain's former minister of the press and propaganda Ramón Serrano Súñer and Manuel Aznar Zubigaray....
press-agency, 1939, the later together with Navarrese journalist Manuel Aznar Zubigaray
Manuel Aznar Zubigaray
Manuel Aznar y Zubigaray was a Navarrese-Spanish diplomat in the dictatorship of Francisco Franco....
and his Basque falangist son Manuel Aznar Acedo
Manuel Aznar Acedo
Manuel Aznar y Acedo was a Spanish journalist and radio broadcaster.He was the son of Manuel Aznar Zubigaray and father of José María Aznar López....
, (a Spanish army officer, journalist and propaganda broadcaster), the father of José María Aznar
José María Aznar
José María Alfredo Aznar López served as the Prime Minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He is on the board of directors of News Corporation.-Early life:...
, Prime Minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. Serrano Súñer also founded Radio Intercontinental station in 1950.
Early life
He was born Ramón Serrano y Súñer in CartagenaCartagena, Spain
Cartagena is a Spanish city and a major naval station located in the Region of Murcia, by the Mediterranean coast, south-eastern Spain. As of January 2011, it has a population of 218,210 inhabitants being the Region’s second largest municipality and the country’s 6th non-Province capital...
the fifth child of seven to an engineer working in the Valencian
Valencian Community
The Valencian Community is an autonomous community of Spain located in central and south-eastern Iberian Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Valencia...
port of Castellón de la Plana
Castellón de la Plana
Castellón de la Plana or Castelló de la Plana is the capital city of the province of Castelló, in the Valencian Community, Spain, in the east of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Costa del Azahar by the Mediterranean Sea...
. Although he was an excellent student, his father disapproved his aspirations of becoming a lawyer. He enrolled at the Madrid University
Complutense University of Madrid
The Complutense University of Madrid is a university in Madrid, and one of the oldest universities in the world. It is located on a sprawling campus that occupies the entirety of the Ciudad Universitaria district of Madrid, with annexes in the district of Somosaguas in the neighboring city of...
studying law anyway, and while he was there, studied along with José Antonio Primo de Rivera
José Antonio Primo de Rivera
José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 1st Duke of Primo de Rivera, 3rd Marquis of Estella , was a Spanish lawyer, nobleman, politician, and founder of the Falange Española...
(son of Spanish dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera
Miguel Primo de Rivera
Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquis of Estella, 22nd Count of Sobremonte, Knight of Calatrava was a Spanish dictator, aristocrat, and a military official who was appointed Prime Minister by the King and who for seven years was a dictator, ending the turno system of alternating...
, and founder of the Falange). He also spent a year in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, during which he developed a taste for fascism.
Ramón Serrano Súñer and Francisco Franco were co-brothers-in-law, since the two married two sisters: Serrano Súñer married in Oviedo
Oviedo
Oviedo is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city....
on 6 February 1932 Ramona (Zita) Polo y Martínez-Valdés, whom he had met shortly after moving to Zaragoza in 1931, while Franco married Carmen Polo
Carmen Polo
María del Carmen Polo y Martínez-Valdés, 1st Lady of Meirás, Grandee of Spain was the wife of Francisco Franco and a member of the Spanish nobility.-Family:...
y Martínez-Valdés in October 1923. Ramón Serrano Súñer and Zita Polo had six children: Fernando, Francisco, Jaime Javier, José, María del Pilar and Ramón Serrano-Súñer y Polo.
Carmen Díez de Rivera e Icaza, (1942-1999) his illegitimate daughter with the Marquis of Llanzol wife, who unknowingly tried to engage with his son (and her half-brother)Ramón Serrano Súñer y Polo and who later became a leftist politician and member of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
. Highly educated and fluent in several languages Carmen, a most beautiful woman in her youth with blue "aryan" eyes, as Serrano had, too, and family frustrated woman on both sides of her family , was the Personal Secretay of the First Spanish President under democracy, Adolfo Suarez
Adolfo Suárez
Adolfo Suárez y González, 1st Duke of Suárez, Grandee of Spain, KOGF is a Spanish lawyer and politician. Suárez was Spain's first democratically elected prime minister after the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, and the key figure in the country's transition to democracy.-Parents:He is a son of...
.
Political career
Súñer was already a conservative member of the CortesCortes Generales
The Cortes Generales is the legislature of Spain. It is a bicameral parliament, composed of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate . The Cortes has power to enact any law and to amend the constitution...
(1933–36). He joined Franco early in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
(1936–39), during which he led the Falange. In July 1936 he was caught participating in the conspiracy to overthrow the republic and captured and locked in a Republican prison. He escaped in October 1936 dressed as a woman and was then helped by the Argentine
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
navy in getting to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, from where he was able to reach Salamanca
Salamanca
Salamanca is a city in western Spain, in the community of Castile and León. Because it is known for its beautiful buildings and urban environment, the Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. It is the most important university city in Spain and is known for its contributions to...
, 20 February 1937, where Franco was in office at the time. It was there that he could work with Franco to participate in the rebellious side of the Spanish Civil War. Escaping from prison amidst the cross-fire of an angry outbreak of his country's civil war, while both of his brothers were killed by the Republicans, it seems ironic that Suñer would not only manage to pull through but later live to be a centenarian
Centenarian
A centenarian is a person who is or lives beyond the age of 100 years. Because current average life expectancies across the world are less than 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more, something only...
.
In 1938 he went to Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
, with rather rombustious Nicolás Franco, brother of his brother in law General Francisco Franco, probably to the 10th Nuremberg Rally
Nuremberg Rally
The Nuremberg Rally was the annual rally of the NSDAP in Germany, held from 1923 to 1938. Especially after Hitler's rise to power in 1933, they were large Nazi propaganda events...
Reichsparteitag Grossdeutchsland in German, of the Nazi Party, to celebrate the previous Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
, March 1938.
He served as Nationalist Minister of the Interior (1 February 1938–9 August 1939) and when Franco amalgamated such Ministry with the Ministry of "Public Order ", "Ministerio de Orden Público in Spanish" a new name was created , "Ministerio de la Gobernación" , but usually such new name is translated nowadays as "Ministry of the Interior". This amalgamation was made by Franco on 9 August 1939 whereby Serrano Súñer became thus "Ministro de la Gobernación" on 9 August 1939 till 16 October 1940. It was just the day before, 15 October 1940 that the former President of the Generalitat
Generalitat
Generalitat is the name of the autonomous systems of government of two of the present Spanish autonomous communities: Catalonia and the Valencian Community. The term is also used for the government of the semi-autonomous comarca of Val d'Aran, the Generalitat a l'Aran.Generalitat refers to all...
of Catalunya, Lluis Companys was executed by a firing squad at Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
after he was handled back on 13 August by the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
authorities of occupied Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to head hunter Spanish policeman and spy Pedro Urraca Rendueles, (1904–1989), as well as the Basque Minister of the Interior under Republican President Prof. Dr. Juan Negrín
Juan Negrín
Juan Negrín y López was a Spanish politician and physician.-Early years:Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Negrín came from a religious middle-class family...
, Julián Zugazagoitia, (1909 - executed by a firing squad at Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, 9 November 1940).
During the time Serrano had been Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Foreign Affairs was General Juan Luis Beigbeder y Atienza, (Cartagena
Cartagena
-Colombia:*Cartagena, Colombia, a city in the Bolivar Region, the largest city bearing this name*Cartagena de Chairá, Colombia-Other:*Cartagena *Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety*FC Cartagena, a football club based in Cartagena, Spain-See also:...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, 1888 - retired 1950 - Guadarranque, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, 6 June 1957), formerly a Military Attaché at the Spanish Embassy Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
as an Army Commandant in 1926. Already as a Colonel, he was the predecessor of Serrano Súñer as a Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs , 12 August 1939 - 16 October 1940.
He had married , October 1915, María Fedriani y Martín-Esperanza, from Alcalá de Henares
Alcalá de Henares
Alcalá de Henares , meaning Citadel on the river Henares, is a Spanish city, whose historical centre is one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites, and one of the first bishoprics founded in Spain...
. and was a Longtime resident in what is now North Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
as some sort of Military Governor, having a flair for exotic, foreign, beautiful ladies, as recognized by the German controllers of foreign members of the Diplomatic Services at Berlin. He seems to have been very friendly wuth a British lady born in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
by the name Rosalinde Powell Fox, presumed to be a British female spy.
Certainly, on 1 February 1943, "africanist" Colonel Beigbeder , a good speaker and reader of Classical Arabic and North Moroccan language, Tangier
Tangier
Tangier, also Tangiers is a city in northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000 . It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel...
and Tetouan
Tétouan
Tetouan is a city in northern Morocco. The Berber name means literally "the eyes" and figuratively "the water springs". Tetouan is one of the two major ports of Morocco on the Mediterranean Sea. It lies a few miles south of the Strait of Gibraltar, and about 40 mi E.S.E. of Tangier...
, was at USA , with Rosalinde Powell Fox, the former wife of some industrialist in India, being promoted, September 1943, to a General of Brigade.
Meanwhile, even on becoming the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Serrano Súñer had to accept Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart y Falcó, 17th Duke of Alba, as Ambassador to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
since November 1937 representing rebellious Franco and since March 1939 representing Spanish Dictator Francisco Franco till March 1945.
The 17th Duke of Alba, father of the actual witty and courageous 18th Duchess, Rosario Cayetana, already in her mid 80´s , had been formerly a Minister of Public Instruction , later Minister of State, 1930–1931, under the dictatorship of General Dámaso Berenguer
Dámaso Berenguer
Dámaso Berenguer y Fusté, Count of Xauen was a Spanish soldier and politician.Berenguer was born in San Juan de los Remedios, Cuba, while that island nation was still a Spanish province....
(1873–1953)
Just one week after being promoted to Minister of Foreign Affairs, on 23 October 1940, Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
and Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
met at the Meeting at Hendaye
Meeting at Hendaye
The Meeting of Hendaye, or interview of Hendaye took place between Francisco Franco and Adolf Hitler ....
, a railway station in France, near the Spanish border, while Serrano Suñer met German Foreign Affairs Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...
. Paul Schmidt
Paul Schmidt
Paul-Otto Schmidt was a translator in the German foreign ministry from 1923-1945. During his career he served as the translator for Neville Chamberlain's negotiations with Adolf Hitler over the Munich Agreement, the British Declaration of War and the surrender of France.-Early years:In 1917/18...
, head interpreter of the German Chancellor, reported that that Franco sat between Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...
and Walther von Brauchitsch
Walther von Brauchitsch
Heinrich Alfred Hermann Walther von Brauchitsch was a German field marshal and the Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres in the early years of World War II.-Biography:...
, while Adolf Hitler sat between the Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister Ramón Serrano Súñer and the Spanish Ambassador at Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Espinosa de los Monteros
Espinosa de los Monteros
Espinosa de los Monteros is a municipality located in the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain, with a population of c. 2,100 inhabitants....
. Neither the Spanish Ambassador at Berlin nor the German Ambassador at Madrid, Eberhard von Stohrer
Eberhard von Stohrer
Eberhard von Stohrer was a career German diplomat who served during World War I and World War II. The son of an Army General from Würtemberg, he studied at Leipzig University, receiving a Doctor of Law degree...
, were allowed at the exhaustive and inconclusive political meetings however. By morning the meeting ended with no compromise.
In June 1939 Serrano had been back to Italy to present Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
the thousands of repatriated Italian soldiers having fought by the side of Franco in Spain against the Spanish Republican soldiers. He was thus, also appointed the 263rd Minister of Foreign Affairs (18 October 1940–3 September 1942), thanks to his skill at building a relationship with Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
.
Even though he was working alongside Franco, he objected to the increasing role of the Catholic Church in Falangist politics. The two brothers-in-law had some intra-party conflicts of their own, as Serrano Súñer accused Franco of riding on a "cult of personality
Cult of personality
A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are usually associated with dictatorships...
," while Franco viewed Serrano Suñer as increasingly becoming a thorn in the side of his party, criticizing too many of its policies.
Involvement in World War II
In October 1940, Súñer, Franco and Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
met in southern France (Hendaye
Hendaye
Hendaye is the most south-westerly town and commune in France, lying in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department and located in the traditional province Lapurdi of the French Basque Country...
) to discuss having Spain participate in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as part of the Axis. After playing a major role in establishing the Spanish state under Franco—he was so influential as to be nicknamed the "Cuñadísimo", which translates as supreme brother-in-law, (a joke on "Generalísimo")—despite Serrano Súñer's advocating for Spain to join the Axis powers, Franco opted for Spain to remain a nonbelligerent during World War II. Serrano Súñer's protege Pedro Gamero del Castillo
Pedro Gamero del Castillo
Pedro Gamero del Castillo was a Spanish politician and figure in the Spanish Civil War.-Early years:...
consulted in January 1941 with Hans Lazar, the press secretary of the German Embassy and told him that a Serrano Súñer government would commit to the Axis powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
and thus asked for him to arrange for the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
to publicly back his mentor. However it is unclear whether or not Gamero was working on his own initiative and Hitler was disappointed that Serrano Súñer had not tried harder to help Germany, and called him the "gravedigger of the new Spain".
To make up for this failure, he proposed the Blue Division
Blue Division
The Blue Division officially designated as División Española de Voluntarios by the Spanish Army and 250. Infanterie-Division in the German Army, was a unit of Spanish volunteers that served in the German Army on the Eastern Front of the Second World War.-Origins:Although Spanish leader Field...
of Spanish volunteers to fight with the Germans against the Soviet Union and communism after Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, 22 June 1941.
On 25 November 1941 he signed in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
the sometimes described as the 1941 revised pact of the 25th November 1936 Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
-Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
Anti-Komintern
Anti-Komintern
Anti-Komintern was a special agency within the Propaganda Ministry under Joseph Goebbels in Nazi Germany charged with administering anti-Soviet propaganda campaign in the mid-nineteen thirties. One of its main activities was to publicize that "Bolshevism was Jewish."...
Pact an Anti-Communist pact concluded between Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan (later to be joined by other countries) directed against the Communist International (Comintern) or Komintern
Komintern
Komintern may refer to:*Comintern, the Communist International*Komintern artillery tractor*Soviet_cruiser_Komintern - Soviet cruiser of the Black Sea Fleet*Malyshev Factory...
.
In 1942, following the US entry into the war, German reverses in Russia, and the Basilica of Begoña
Basilica of Begoña
The Basilica of Begoña is a basilica in Bilbao, in Spain, dedicated to the patron saint of Biscay, the Virgin Begoña.The current parish priest is Jesús Francisco de Garitaonandia.-History:...
incident, 16 August 1942, Serrano Súñer was forced to resign as foreign minister and president of the political council of the Falange. After World War II, he wrote a persuasive letter to Franco, calling for a transitional government that would have room for intellectuals in exile. When Franco received the letter, he wrote a derisive "Ho-ho." in its margin. Serrano Súñer ultimately retired from public life in 1947, but lived longer than most of the people he worked with.
Serrano´s dismissal
On 24 February 1942, Francisco and Nicolás Franco stranged father since they were small children , Nicolás Franco Salgado, a Navy chandlers and stores clerk from El Ferrol shipyards , was buried at thr Almudena Cemetery, Madrid. It is well known and reported by some people General and Dictator Francisco Franco was not at the burial.After some 70 years of cloak and dagger histories involving politicians, military sevices of information, generals, ambassadors, conflicts between European Powers and much arguing between so-called history specialists is not it time we pay attention to Serrano´s insult to his powerful brother in law by the birth of Carmen Díez de Rivera e Icaza, 29 August 1942, see below, a very close friend afterwards, in the late 1970´s of communist leader Santiago Carrillo
Santiago Carrillo
Santiago Carrillo Solares is a Spanish politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain from 1960 to 1982.- Childhood and early youth :...
, King Juan Carlos I and his wife Queen Sophie of Greece as well as 1st President under the Spanish Democracy Adolfo Suarez
Adolfo Suárez
Adolfo Suárez y González, 1st Duke of Suárez, Grandee of Spain, KOGF is a Spanish lawyer and politician. Suárez was Spain's first democratically elected prime minister after the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, and the key figure in the country's transition to democracy.-Parents:He is a son of...
.
Serrano was replaced as a Minister of Foreign Affairs on 3 September 1942 by General Francisco Gómez-Jordana Sousa, 1st Count of Jordana
Jordana
- Given name :*Jordana Brewster , Brazilian-American actress*Jordana Mendelson , American historian of Spanish art*Jordana Spiro , American film and television actress- Surname or title :...
, formerly also a Minister of Foreign Affairs of Franco`s Spain.
In the same date, University Professor and some sort of General Fiscal Blas Pérez González was appointed Minister of the Interior, "Ministro de la Gobernación" in Spanish , starting thus a 15 year period , till 1957, really hard and tough for "traitors" to the country because of their political activities.
Making a living out of Politics without deciding or ruling in Politics
Naturally gifted for leadership and charming people, a Public Sollicitor by his own merits at the Official Service of the Spanish State and with a brilliant mind of its own it would be surprising Serrano could not manage to fend his rather "legal" big family representing the financial interests and substantiopus contracts seekers of Public Works, Sanitary and Sewage Municipal works developpers, Touristic Infrastructures and so on.In particular, he can be tracked as early as 1946 at Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
interacting with Fomento de Obras y Construcciones S. A. , (FOCSA), created in the year 1900, in charge of the sewage underground sanitary works of such big city and keeping strong connections since 1952 with Construcciones y Contratos", CYCSA, founded around 1947 by resident in Spain Upper Silesian Jewish Engineer Ernesto Koplowitz, deceased 1962 throgh a fall while riding horses at a Club .
Ernesto Koplowitz had even married within the Spanish-Cuban Aristocracy to a woman bearing some Marchioness titles, but his two daughters, Esther Koplowitz, born 1950, and Alicia Koplowitz , born 1953, were still too young when he died.
Fortunately, a childless and very rich International Spanish financier, Ramón Areces
Ramón Areces
Ramón Areces Rodríguez. Born in La Mata, Asturias , in 1904. Died in Madrid , in 1989.At fifteen, Areces emigrated to Havana, Cuba. There he learned the basics of the business working at EL ENCANTO Department Store. He later traveled through the United States and Canada, before returning to Spain...
, protected them with a real altruist behavior teaching them many secrets on the High World of Finances. FOCSA and Construcciones y Contratas are today the International Public Works firm Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas
Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas
Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas is a leading Spanish construction company based in Barcelona. It is publicly traded and is part of the IBEX 35.Over 50% of the shares are owned by a company controlled by Esther Koplowitz and others.-History:...
,FCC, some 92,000 employees operating in some 54 countries in the world .
External links
- Cien Empresarios Españoles del Siglo Veinte Info on a book, 672 pages, by Rojo Cagigal, Juan Carlos . Azagra Ros, Joaquín Pedro . Arana Pérez, Ignacio . Echániz Ortúñez, José and others, 13 economists in total . ISBN 9788488717276, 2000.
- Milicia y diplomacia: los diarios del Conde de Jordana 1936-1944, forewords and initial study by Carlos Seco Serrano. (Selección y glosas de Rafael Gómez- Jordana Prats). Burgos: Dossoles, 2002. “Colección La Valija Diplomática”. 311 pp.ISBN 9788487528453.
- Samuel Hoare, 1st Viscount Templewood, Ambassador on Special Mission Collins ed. (1946), 320 pages. No ISBN registration as it was printed before 1970. Edited in Spanish translation by Sedmay ed. Madrid (1977) .
- Charles B. Burdick. Germany's Military strategy and Spain In World War II.Syracuse Univ. Press, Syracuse, U.S.A. , (1968). 228 pages. ISBN 256692. Former American Professor Charles B. Burdick biography can be seen at:
- Madrid Carmen Díez de Rivera
- Memorias de Carmen Diez de Rivera
- Ramón Serrano Súñer, Entre Hendaya y Gibraltar. ISBN 9788408104179, (2011).
- Pauley, Bruce F. (1981). Hitler and the Forgotten Nazis: A History of Austrian National Socialism, University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-1456-3.
- El general Beigbeder
- Tánger y otras utopías
- Cuando Tánger era internacional: la ciudad, su historia y sus gentes
- Rosalinda Powell fox, daughter of the Raj and Spain
- Rosalinda, la aventurera de entreguerras
- Gobiernos de España 1931-2008
- Ramón Serrano Súñer in Dialnet
- Necrology in ABC.es
- British Diplomacy and the fall of Serrano Súñer
- «Perspectiva actual de Ramón Serrano Súñer» by José María Laso
- Serrano Súñer and the Memoria Histórica
- Serrano Suñer and Fracnoist Repression
- José Antonio viewed by Ramón Serrano Súñer—Fundación Francisco Franco
- «Serrano Súñer. Dos velocidades» by Aquilino Duque
- Foro Fundación Ramón Serrano Súñer