761.6211/244: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 9—9:40 a.m.]
706. The press today reports the arrival yesterday in Moscow of Ritter,37 a special plenipotentiary of the German Government for economic matters, and an economic delegation of 12 headed by Schnurre.38 The delegation includes representatives of the German Ministries of Economy, Agriculture and Railways. According to the announcement Hencke,39 the head of the German Frontier Commission, also arrived with the delegation. The delegation was met by officials of the Commissariats for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade. A further announcement in today’s press states that Molotov received Ritter and Schnurre yesterday and that during the conversation [Page 484] agreement was reached for the “speedy realization and on a wide scale” on the economic agreement concluded during Ribbentrop’s last visit. The announcement states that in particular agreement was reached to the effect that “the Soviet Union shall immediately begin to supply Germany with raw materials and Germany to carry out deliveries to the U. S. S. R.”
- Karl Ritter, Ambassador on special assignment in the German Foreign Office, in charge of economic warfare questions.↩
- Karl Schnurre, head of Eastern European and Baltic Section of Commercial Policy Division of the German Foreign Office; for the German aspirations for facilitating trade with the Soviet Union, see the Foreign Office memorandum, Nazi-Soviet Relations, 1939–1941, p. 119.↩
- Andor Hencke, attached to the German Foreign Minister’s staff for special duties at the outbreak of war; member of the mixed German-Soviet Commission for the Frontiers of Poland.↩