SATAN IN TOP HAT: Biography of Franz v. Papen

Capable biography- no more, no less- of that suave, sartorially perfect, shrewd statesman-spy, whose peripatetic career, playing every political party for what he could get, was based on a motivating search for power, per se. An occasionable questionable statement, unsourced anecdote, raises the question of authenticity. The book opens with his career as dashing figure under the Kaiser's regime, then as military attache in Washington, where his activities as amateur saboteur, his blunders in the case of the Archiald papers and other manoeuvres, caused his sudden diplomatic demise. Back in Germany, he played a fine game of doublecross -- and eventually went over to Hitler. He helped sell Hitler and Fascism to Germany; he brought about the betrayal of Austria, fathered the Moscow Treaty. The book closes with the Turkish episode, where he attempted to incite the Arabs against Great Britain. Vain, arrogant, frequently incautious and stupid, consistently contemptible under his veneer.