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Erwin von Witzleben

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Erwin von Witzleben
Field Marshal von Witzleben in 1940 or 1941
Born(1881-12-04)4 December 1881
Breslau, Province of Silesia, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire (present-day Wrocław, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland)
Died8 August 1944(1944-08-08) (aged 62)
Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, Nazi Germany
Allegiance German Empire  Weimar Republic (1918–1933)
 Nazi Germany (1933–1944)
German resistance (1944)
Service / branchImperial German Army Reichsheer
Wehrmacht (Heer)
Years of service1901–1944
Rank Generalfeldmarschall
Commands1st Army
OB West
Battles / warsFirst World War

Second World War

AwardsKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Job Wilhelm Georg Erdmann Erwin von Witzleben (4 December 1881 – 8 August 1944) was a German Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. A leading conspirator in the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler,[1] he was designated to become Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht in a post-Nazi regime had the plot succeeded.

Early years

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Erwin von Witzleben was born in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) in the Prussian province of Silesia, the son of Georg von Witzleben (1838–1898), a Hauptmann (captain) in the Prussian Army, and his wife, Therese née Brandenburg. The Witzleben dynasty was an Uradel family of old nobility and many officers, descending from Witzleben in Thuringia.

He completed the Prussian Cadet Corps program at Liegnitz Ritter-Akademie, Prussian Silesia and in Lichterfelde near Berlin, and on 22 June 1901 joined the Grenadier Regiment König Wilhelm I No. 7 in Liegnitz, Silesia (now Legnica, Poland) as a Leutnant (lieutenant). In 1910, he was promoted to Oberleutnant (first lieutenant).

He was married to Else Kleeberg from Chemnitz, Saxony. The couple had a son and a daughter.

First World War

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At the beginning of the First World War, Witzleben served as brigade adjutant in the 19th Reserve Infantry Brigade before being promoted to Hauptmann and company chief in the Reserve Infantry Regiment No.6 in October 1914. Later, in the same regiment, he became battalion commander. His unit fought in Verdun, the Champagne region and Flanders, among other places. He was seriously wounded and was awarded the Iron Cross, both first and second classes. Afterwards, he was sent to General Staff training and witnessed the war end as First General Staff Officer of the 121st Division.

Between the wars

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Witzleben (r.) with Reichswehr Generaloberst Wilhelm Heye, c. 1930

In the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic, Witzleben was promoted to company commander. In 1923, he found himself on the Fourth Division staff in Dresden as a Major. In 1928, he became battalion commander in Infantry Regiment No. 6 and retained that position as Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel) the following year. After being promoted to full Oberst (colonel) in 1931, he took over as commanding officer of the (Prussian) Infantry Regiment No. 8 in Frankfurt on the Oder.

Early in 1933, shortly before Adolf Hitler seized autocratic control of the German state via a paramilitary backed revolution with the passage in the Reichstag of the Enabling Act of 1933, Witzleben was transferred to the post of Infantry Leader VI in Hanover. He was promoted to Generalmajor (major general) on 1 February 1934 and moved to Potsdam as the new commander of the 3rd Infantry Division. He succeeded General Werner von Fritsch as commander of Wehrkreis III (Berlin (HQ), Brandenburg, parts of Neumark). In this position, he was promoted to Generalleutnant (lieutenant general) and in the newly established Wehrmacht forces became commanding general of Army Corps III in Berlin in September 1935. In 1936, he was promoted to a General of the Infantry (General der Infanterie).

Hitler, Witzleben and SS-Obergruppenführer Sepp Dietrich at the 1936 Summer Olympics

As early as 1934, Witzleben indicated opposition against the Nazi regime when he and Manstein, Leeb, and Rundstedt demanded an inquiry into Schleicher's and Bredow's deaths in the Night of the Long Knives. As a result of that and his criticism of Hitler's persecution of Fritsch in the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair, Witzleben was temporarily forced into early retirement. His "retirement" did not last, however, as Hitler soon needed him in the preparations for the Second World War.

By 1938, Witzleben was a member of the Oster Conspiracy, a group of plotters including Generaloberst (Colonel General) Ludwig Beck, Generals Erich Hoepner and Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel, Admiral and Chief of the Abwehr Wilhelm Canaris and Abwehr Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel) Hans Oster. The men planned to overthrow Hitler in a military coup d'état and avert another European war, which seemed highly likely during the 1938 Sudeten Crisis, until the Munich Agreement both shocked and demoralized the plotters. Witzleben's unit, which included the key Berlin Defense District, was to have played a decisive role in the planned coup.

In November 1938, Witzleben had been installed as commander-in-chief of Army Group 2 in Frankfurt. He was also involved in Generaloberst Hammerstein-Equord's conspiracy plans of 1939. The latter planned to seize Hitler outright in a kind of frontal assault while the former would shut down the Nazi headquarters, but the plan also fell through.

Second World War

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Field Marshals Rundstedt and Witzleben in France, March 1941
Witzleben as the commander of OB West with Generaloberst Curt Haase, commander of the 15th Army, May 1941

In September 1939, Witzleben, then a Generaloberst (Colonel General), took command of the 1st Army, stationed at the Western Front. When Germany attacked France on 10 May 1940, the First Army was part of Army Group C. On 14 June it broke through the Maginot line, and within three days had forced several French divisions to surrender. For this, Witzleben was decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross; and on 19 July, he was promoted to Generalfeldmarschall (General Field Marshal) during the 1940 Field Marshal Ceremony.

On 1 May 1941 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief OB West, succeeding Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt, but only a year later, on 15 March 1942, he took leave from that position for health reasons. Some sources, however, claim that he was again forcibly retired at this time after he had criticized the regime for its invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 in Operation Barbarossa.

20 July 1944

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Further information: 20 July plot

In 1944, the conspirators around Stauffenberg saw Witzleben as the key man in their plans. Whereas Generaloberst (Colonel General) Beck was seen as a prospective provisional head of state, and Generaloberst Hoepner was in line to command the inner Ersatzheer ("Replacement Army") forces, Witzleben was to become commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, becoming the ranking officer of the new regime.

However, on 20 July 1944, the day of Stauffenberg's attempt on Hitler's life at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia, Witzleben did not arrive at the Bendlerblock in Berlin from the OKH-HQ (Oberkommando des Heeres Headquarters) at Zossen to assume command of the coup forces until 8 p.m., when it was already clear that the coup attempt had failed. He then protested angrily that it had been bungled and left after 45 minutes to return to Zossen, where he reported the situation to General of the Artillery (General der Artillerie) Eduard Wagner and then drove back to his country estate, 30 mi away, where he was arrested the next day by Generalleutnant (Lieutenant General) Viktor Linnarz of the OKH personnel office.

He was then cast out of the Wehrmacht by the so-called "Court of Honour" (Ehrenhof), a conclave of officers set up after the attempted assassination to remove officers from the Wehrmacht who had been involved in the plot, mainly so that they were no longer subject to German military law and could be arraigned to a show trial before the Nazi "People's Court" (Volksgerichtshof).

Trial and death

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On 7 August 1944, Witzleben was in the first group of accused conspirators to be brought before the Volksgerichtshof. Ravaged by the conditions of his Gestapo arrest, he surprisingly approached the bench giving the Nazi salute,[2] for which he was rebuked by the presiding judge Roland Freisler.

Witzleben on trial at the Volksgerichtshof

Witzleben was sentenced to death on the same day. Witzleben gave these closing words in court, addressed to Freisler:

You can turn us over to the executioner. In three months the outraged and tormented people will call you to account and drag you through the filth in the streets alive.

Much of the Volksgerichtshof, including scenes of Witzleben's show trial, was filmed for the German weekly newsreel Die Deutsche Wochenschau;[citation needed] however, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels decided against releasing the footage, firstly because Freisler's abusive ranting in the courtroom might draw sympathy for the accused, and secondly because the regime wanted to quell public discussion of the event. The material was classified as secret (Geheime Reichssache).[citation needed]

Witzleben was put to death the same day at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin. By Hitler's direct orders, he was hanged with a meat hook and a thin hemp rope,[3] which people who were not from the prison staff called a piano wire, and the execution was filmed.[4][5] The footage has since been lost.[6]

Decorations

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Depiction in media

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Notes about personal names

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  • The terms Schenk and Graf in "Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg" began as titles but are now considered additional name elements; following the revolution of 1918, titles of nobility were abolished in Germany. However, members of the families of the former nobility got around the law by making the title a part of the person's legal name. Schenk was a role-title ("Butler" or "Cup bearer"); Graf was the title, meaning "Count".
  • Likewise, the term Freiherr in "Kurt Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord" is now also a name element, and not a title. Freiherr was roughly the equivalent of "Baron".

See also

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References

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Citations

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  1. ^ Exponat: Photo: Witzleben, Erwin von, 1941–1944 Archived 2014-08-05 at the Wayback Machine at www.dhm.de
  2. ^ In the Name of the Volk: Political Justice in Hitler's Germany Hannsjoachim Wolfgang Koch & I. B. Tauris (November 15, 1997), p. 198
  3. ^ Manvell, Roger; Fraenkel, Heinrich (1966). The Men Who Tried To Kill Hitler. New York: Pocket Books Inc. pp. 160–161.
  4. ^ "His execution on 8 August 1944 was a particularly grisly affair. The 63-year-old field marshal was pushed into a cellar at Berlin's Plötzensee prison, placed under a meat hook and, half-naked with a running noose around his head, he was lifted and slowly strangled." Robert Solomon Wistrich, "Witzleben, Erwin von (1881–1944) General Field Marshal of the Wehrmacht", Who's Who in Nazi Germany, (Routledge, 2001), p. 279–80
  5. ^ "SS men were filming.... Gestapo people were in the shed, and so was the cameraman." Eyewitness Viktor von Gostomski documented the execution in Brigitte Oleschinski, Plötzensee Memorial Center, translated by John Grossman, (Berlin: Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand, 2002), p. 35. (in English)
  6. ^ Shirer, W. L. (1960). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p. 1071.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Rangliste des Deutschen Reichsheeres, p. 115.
  8. ^ Fellgiebel 2000, p. 450.
  9. ^ a b c d e f "Generalfeldmarschall Job Wilhelm Georg Erdmann Erwin von Witzleben" (in German). Archived from the original on 31 May 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2014.

Bibliography

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  • Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986]. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 — The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.
  • Reichswehrministerium, ed. (1930). Rangliste des Deutschen Reichsheeres (in German). Berlin, Germany: Mittler & Sohn Verlag. OCLC 10573418.
  • Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Militaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
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Military offices
Preceded by
none
 Commander of 1. Armee
26 August 1939 – 23 October 1940 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt
 Oberbefehlshaber West
1 May 1941 – 15 March 1942 		Succeeded by
Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt
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