Diego von Bergen

Who is Diego von Bergen?

Dr. Carl-Ludwig Diego von Bergen was the ambassador to the Holy See from the Kingdom of Prussia, the Weimar Republic, and Nazi Germany, most notably during the negotiation of the Reichskonkordat and during World War II.

From 1930 to 1943, by virtue of seniority, von Bergen was also the doyen of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. This office entitled him to speak at the funeral of Pope Pius XI in 1939, where he infamously urged the cardinals to elect a new pope who would work with the fascist governments of Europe to build "a new world upon the ruins of a past that in many things has no longer any reason to exist". von Bergen was recalled in 1943, well in excess of the mandatory retirement age for German diplomats, and was replaced by Ernst von Weizsäcker.