The Wilhelmstrasse

The Wilhelmstrasse: A Study of German Diplomats Under the Nazi Regime by Paul Seabury offers a sobering examination of one of the twentieth century’s most troubling institutional stories: the fate of Germany’s venerable Foreign Office under Hitler. Drawing on an unprecedented archival opening after 1945—including the captured records of the Auswärtiges Amt and documents from the Nuremberg trials—Seabury reconstructs the careers, choices, and compromises of the diplomatic elite during the Nazi years. Rather than revisiting the well-worn debates about foreign policy origins, this book asks a deeper question: how did the officials of a proud, conservative bureaucracy, trained in the traditions of European diplomacy, adapt to the pressures, inducements, and terrors of a totalitarian state?

In tracing the disintegration of the Wilhelmstrasse, Seabury situates German diplomats within broader problems of modern bureaucracy and political responsibility. Engaging Weber’s classic theories of administrative rationalization and civil service autonomy, he shows how Nazi techniques—ranging from charismatic dominance to systematic intimidation—undermined professional independence and reduced skilled officials to instruments of a criminal regime. It raises universal questions about the vulnerability of bureaucratic elites to revolutionary movements, the moral hazards faced by “technicians of diplomacy,” and the thin line between professional disinterestedness and culpable complicity. Part narrative history, part political sociology, The Wilhelmstrasse provides both a candid account of German diplomacy under Nazism and a broader meditation on the tragic consequences when institutional expertise collides with unrestrained power.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1954.