Martin Luther (diplomat)
| Martin Luther | |
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| Nazi Reich Foreign Ministry Undersecretary, Head of Abteilung Deutschland | |
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In office 7 May 1940 – April 1943 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | 16 December 1895 Berlin |
| Died | 13 May 1945 (aged 49) Berlin |
Martin Franz Julius Luther (German: [ˈmaɐ̯tiːn ˈlʊtɐ]; 16 December 1895 – 13 May 1945) was an early member of the Nazi Party. He served as an advisor to Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, first in the Dienststelle Ribbentrop ("Ribbentrop Bureau"), and later in the Auswärtiges Amt ("Foreign Office") as a diplomat when von Ribbentrop replaced Konstantin von Neurath. He participated in the Wannsee Conference, at which the Final Solution was planned; it was the 1947 discovery of his copy of the minutes that first made the Allied powers aware that the conference had taken place and what its purpose was.
Luther ran a furniture removal and interior decorating business. He joined the Nazi Party and SA on 1 March 1933. He helped Ribbentrop to obtain a low party membership number, and when Ribbentrop was sent to London as Ambassador in 1936, he hired Luther to move his furniture from Berlin and do the interior decorating of the new German Embassy in London. Ribbentrop later offered him a position in his own foreign policy organisation, the Ribbentrop Bureau. Luther accepted, and henceforward became one of Ribbentrop's favourite hatchet men. Two years later he took over the 'Deutschland' department and moved it to its own building.
Luther was extremely loyal to Himmler. In May 1940, he was appointed to the position of Foreign Ministry liaison to the SS. By July 1941 he had advanced to the position of Ministerialdirektor with the rank of Unterstaatssekretär; his effective power exceeded that suggested by his title and rank, since he was the liaison between the party and the ministry. In addition he had become an SA Brigadeführer.
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