Paul Schmidt

Paul Schmidt Historical Figure Nationality: Germany, later West Germany (born in Prussia) Year of Birth: 1890 Year of Death: 1970 Cause of Death: Natural causes Occupation: Translator, Diplomat, Author of Non-Fiction Military Branch: Imperial German Army (World War I) Political Party: NSDAP Fictional Appearances: Worldwar POD: May 30, 1942 Appearance(s): Second Contact; Down to Earth; Aftershocks Type of Appearance: Direct Occupation: Ambassador The War That Came Early POD: July 20, 1936; Relevant POD: September 29, 1938 Appearance(s): Hitler's War Type of Appearance: Direct

Paul-Otto Schmidt (23 June 1899 - 21 April 1970) was a 20th-century German diplomat and translator. He entered Germany's Diplomatic Corps in 1923 as an interpreter and gradually became Germany's senior translator for the English and French languages. At the Munich Conference in 1938, he was the only other man in the room when Adolf Hitler and Neville Chamberlain met and decided that the United Kingdom would not oppose Nazi Germany's move to annex the Sudetenland in the days before World War II.

Paul Schmidt in Worldwar

Paul Schmidt served as the Greater German Reich's ambassador to the Soviet Union during the 1960s. In 1964, Chancellor Heinrich Himmler sent Schmidt to meet with Soviet leader Vyacheslav Molotov and propose an attack on Race-held Poland. Molotov flatly refused, remembering the events of a generation prior. While Schmidt was careful in his words, and proclaimed his faith in Himmler and the German Reich, he couldn't quite hide the fact that he thought Himmler's plan was a bad idea.

The Race-German War of 1965 that came under Himmler's successor, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, validated Schmidt's misgivings. After Walter Dornberger became Chancellor of Germany in 1965, he instructed Schmidt to ask Molotov to mediate a peace agreement between Germany and the Race. Molotov invited Schmidt to meet with Queek, the Race's ambassador to the Soviet Union, in his private Kremlin office in Moscow. The two ambassadors negotiated an end to hostilities.

Paul Schmidt in The War That Came Early

Dr. Paul Otto Schmidt served as interpreter between Adolf Hitler and Neville Chamberlain during the failed Munich Conference of September 1938. Hitler, who could only speak his native German, valued Schmidt because he could not just translate the words, but also reproduce the exact tone and voice inflection of the original speaker. Thus, when word came that a Czech nationalist had assassinated Sudeten German Party leader Konrad Henlein while in exile in Germany, and Hitler announced that he was going to retaliate by attacking Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain and Hitler could announce to each other that their countries were going to war as if they were speaking the same language.

References

Political offices (Worldwar)
Preceded by Last known is Friedrich Werner von der Schulenberg	German Ambassador to the Soviet Union 1960s	Succeeded by Incumbent in 1965, successors unnamed