Erwin von Witzleben

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Field Marshal General Erwin von Witzleben (1940)

Job Wilhelm Georg Erwin Erdmann von Witzleben (* 4. December 1881 in Breslau , † 8. August 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German officer , last field marshal and during the Second World War Army commander and resistance fighters of 20 July 1944 . In the event of the success of the Walküre operation, the conspirators had designated him as commander-in-chief of the entire armed forces .

Life

origin

Erwin came from the Elgersburg-Angelroda branch of the Thuringian noble officer family von Witzleben . His father was the Prussian captain Georg von Witzleben (1838–1898), his mother the bourgeois Therese nee. Brandenburg (1847-1925).

Empire and First World War

Witzleben completed the Prussian cadet corps (1892-1896 in Wahlstatt, from 1896 in Lichterfelde) and entered on June 22, 1901 as a lieutenant in the Grenadier Regiment "King William I" (2nd West Prussian) no. 7 in the Silesian Legnica one, where his widowed mother lived at the time. In 1910 he was promoted to first lieutenant .

From 1907 he was married to Else Kleeberg; the two had two children.

During the First World War , Witzleben was initially a brigade adjutant of the 19th Reserve Infantry Brigade before he was promoted to captain and company commander in Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 6 in October 1914 . He later became battalion commander in the same regiment. Witzleben's unit fought u. a. near Verdun , in Champagne and in Flanders . Witzleben was badly wounded and awarded both classes of the Iron Cross . After being wounded, he started training for the general staff in 1918 and was the first general staff officer of the 121st Division at the end of the war .

Weimar Republic

Witzleben was accepted into the Reichswehr as a company commander. In 1923 he came to Dresden as a major on the staff of the 4th Division . In 1928 he became battalion commander in the 6th Infantry Regiment , since 1929 as a lieutenant colonel . He was then chief of the staff of the 6th Division and, after being promoted to colonel in 1931, took over the 8th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment in Frankfurt (Oder) .

time of the nationalsocialism

Pre-war period

In the spring of 1933 he was transferred to the position of Infantry Leader VI in Hanover . On February 1, 1934 he was appointed major general and transferred as commander to the 3rd Division in Potsdam . As the successor to General von Fritsch , he became the commander of Wehrkreis III in Berlin . In this position he became lieutenant general and in September 1935 commanding general of the III. Army Corps in Berlin. In 1936 he received his promotion to general of the infantry .

As early as 1934, Witzleben took a position against the Nazi regime when, after the murder of Generals Schleicher and Bredow in the course of the so-called Röhm Putsch, he presented to the head of the army command and protested against the murder of the two generals and demanded a judicial investigation.

Since 1937 Witzleben was looking for a way to overthrow Hitler. In the summer of 1938 - during the Sudeten crisis - he was the overall responsible person, who together u. a. Planned the so-called September conspiracy with Colonel Oster (Defense Office), General der Artillerie Halder (Chief of the General Staff), his employees Lieutenant General Graf von Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt and Major General von Hase and Lieutenant General Hoepner (who was to be subordinate to him with his 1st Light Division) to eliminate the Nazi regime. Witzleben's command of the important Berlin military district was to play a decisive role in this. However, Hitler's success in the Munich Agreement removed the basis for the planned coup.

In the meantime, Witzleben had been transferred to Frankfurt (Oder) as Commander in Chief of Army Group 2 in November 1938 .

Second World War

Western campaign
France 1941: 40th anniversary of Erwin von Witzleben's service; Gerd von Rundstedt (left) congratulates

In September 1939 , Witzleben, who was promoted to Colonel General a little later, took over the command of the 1st Army stationed in the west . During the attack on France on May 10, 1940, Witzleben's army belonged to Army Group C under the command of Colonel General Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb . It broke through the Maginot Line on June 14 and forced several French divisions to surrender on June 17. For this, Witzleben was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and on July 19, 1940 - along with eleven other generals - promoted to Field Marshal General. In 1941 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief West to succeed General Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt , but in mid-March 1942, allegedly for health reasons, but actually because of the suspicion that he was part of a military opposition, at the instigation of Franz Halder (who has meanwhile withdrawn from the resistance distanced) was transferred to the Führerreserve by Hitler and replaced again by Rundstedt.

July 20, 1944

In 1944 Erwin von Witzleben was given a key position in the coup plans of the conspiratorial group around Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg . While Colonel-General Ludwig Beck was the provisional head of state and Colonel-General Erich Hoepner as the commander of the replacement army , General Field Marshal von Witzleben was to take over the supreme command of the entire Wehrmacht as the highest-ranking German soldier after Hitler's death . Witzleben, who was initially in the Army High Command in Bendlerstrasse on July 20 , was arrested the next day on the Seese estate of his adjutant Wilhelm Graf zu Lynar and later by the so-called " Court of Honor " formed on August 2, 1944, chaired by Field Marshal General Gerd von Rundstedt "dishonorably expelled from the Wehrmacht" so that the Reich Court Martial was no longer responsible for his judgment.

People's Court and Death
Witzleben as a defendant before the People's Court, August 1944
British propaganda forgery of a German postage stamp with a portrait of Witzleben from 1944

Witzleben, along with Hoepner and six other comrades, belonged to the first group of defendants who had to answer before the People's Court on August 7 and 8, 1944 for high treason ; the chairmanship was chaired by its president Roland Freisler . At the beginning of the negotiations, von Witzleben showed the Hitler salute , which Freisler forbade himself, since the accused was dishonorable in his eyes and, in his opinion, only “honorable people” were allowed to use this greeting.

During the show trial, he had to hold on to his trousers all the time because the Secret State Police had removed his suspenders and he was emaciated in prison. Freisler responded by asking von Witzleben: "What do you keep touching your pants, you dirty old man?"

He was sentenced to death on August 8, 1944 . Witzleben's closing words, addressed to Freisler, are said to have been: “You can hand us over to the hangman. In three months the indignant and tormented people will hold you accountable and drag you alive through the dirt of the streets. "

On the day of the verdict, Erwin von Witzleben was executed in Berlin-Plötzensee prison on the express orders of Hitler by hanging instead of - as is usual with military personnel - by shooting .

Awards

Honors

Today we remember Erwin von Witzleben:

Furthermore, the 84th officer candidate year of the German Army was named after him.

literature

  • Georg von Witzleben: "If it goes against Satan Hitler ...". Erwin von Witzleben in the resistance. Biography. Osburg, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-95510-025-4 .
  • I will never get over the death of my father! The memories of the Reimer Noble Guard, daughter of Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben. Published by Matthias Horndasch , Shaker Media, Aachen 2008, ISBN 978-3-86858-013-6 .
  • Arnim Ramm: Critical analysis of the Kaltenbrunner reports on the assassins from July 20, 1944. A contribution to the history of the military resistance. Tectum, Marburg 2003, ISBN 3-8288-8575-6 .
  • Klaus-Jürgen Müller : Witzleben - Stülpnagel - Speidel - officers in the resistance. Contributions to resistance, Berlin 1988, issue 7.
  • Arnim Ramm: July 20th before the People's Court. Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Berlin, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-86573-264-4 .
  • Hans-Joachim Ramm: "... always responsible to someone above". Basic Christian convictions in the internal military resistance against Hitler. Hänssler, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-7751-2635-X .
  • Gene Mueller: Field Marshal General Erwin von Witzleben. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär (ed.): Hitler's military elite. From the beginning of the regime to the beginning of the war. Volume 1, Primus Verlag, Darmstadt 1998, ISBN 3-89678-083-2 , pp. 265-271.

Web links

Commons : Erwin von Witzleben  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Deister-Leine-Zeitung. August 9, 1944.
  2. ↑ Gerd R. Ueberschär : Stauffenberg. July 20, 1944. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-10-086003-9 , p. 156.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Ranking list of the German Imperial Army . Mittler & Sohn Verlag, Berlin, p. 115.
  4. ↑ Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 185.
  5. ↑ GSP section Bad Kisssingen. Retrieved February 25, 2019 .
predecessor Office successor
Gerd von Rundstedt Commander in Chief West Gerd von Rundstedt
personal data
SURNAME Witzleben, Erwin von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Witzleben, Job Wilhelm Georg Erwin from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer and field marshal general in the Third Reich
DATE OF BIRTH 4th December 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1944
Place of death Berlin