Branch: Heer
Born: 4 October 1881 in Berlin, Germany.
Died: 18 October 1948 in Hamburg, Germany.
Ranks:
Generalfeldmarschall 19 July
1940
Generaloberst 4 February 1938
General der Artillerie 20
April 1936
Generalleutnant 1 October
1933
Generalmajor 1 October 1931
Oberst 1 April 1928
Oberstleutnant 01 April 1925
Major 15 July 1918
Hauptmann 18 December 1913
Oberleutnant 18 October 1909
Leutnant 22 March 1900
Decorations:
Commands:
Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres
Other: Personnel
Articles:
Heinrich Alfred Hermann Walther von Brauchitsch was born on
4 October 1881 and became a German field marshal and the Oberbefehlshaber
des Heeres (Commander of the Heer (Army)) in the early years
of World War II.
Walther von Brauchitsch was born in Berlin as the fifth son
of a cavalry general. He attended the Französisches Gymnasium
Berlin. Walther von Brauchitsch was commissioned in the Prussian
Guard in 1900. By World War I, he was appointed to the General
Staff. In 1910, he married Elizabeth von Karstedt, a wealthy
heiress to 300,000 acres (1,200 km2) in Pomerania.
In 1933,
Adolf
Hitler and the National Socialist Party came to power
and began to expand the military. Walther von Brauchitsch
was named Chief of the East Prussian Military District. His
specialty was artillery. In 1937, he became commander of the
Fourth Army Group.
Walther von Brauchitsch disliked or opposed much of the National
Socialist system, but also welcomed the National Socialist
policy of rearmament and was dazzled by
Adolf
Hitler's personality. He became largely reliant on
Adolf
Hitler as political patron and even for financial help.
In February 1938, in the middle of the Munich Crisis, Walther
von Brauchitsch left his wife Elizabeth after 28 years. He
wanted to marry Charlotte Rueffer (later married Schmidt),
the daughter of a Silesian judge, and ardent admirer of the
Nazis (Ulrich von Hassell later part of the conspiracy against
Adolf Hitler
described her as a 200 percent rabid Nazi).
Adolf
Hitler set aside his usual anti-divorce sentiments and
encouraged Walther von Brauchitsch to divorce and remarry.
Adolf Hitler
even lent him 80,000 Reichsmarks, which he needed since the
family wealth was all his wife's. In the same month, Walther
von Brauchitsch was appointed Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres
(Commander of the Heer) as a replacement for General Werner
von Fritsch, who had been dismissed on false charges of homosexuality.
Walther von Brauchitsch resented the growing power of the
SS, believing that they were attempting to replace the Wehrmacht
as the official German armed forces. He had disagreements
with Erich Koch, the Gauleiter of East Prussia, and
Adolf
Hitler had to resolve the dispute between the two.
Like General
Ludwig
Beck, Walther von Brauchitsch opposed
Adolf
Hitler's annexation of Austria (the Anschluss) and Czechoslovakia
(see Fall Grün), although he did not resist
Adolf
Hitler's plans for war. He took no action when
Ludwig
Beck asked him to persuade the whole General Staff to
resign if
Adolf
Hitler proceeded in his invasion of Czechoslovakia.
In September 1938, a group of officers began plotting against
Adolf Hitler
and repeatedly tried to persuade Walther von Brauchitsch as
Commander of the Heer to lead the anticipated coup, but the
only assurance he gave them was: I myself won't do anything,
but I won't stop anyone else from acting. After the collapse
of the 1938 coup attempt, Walther von Brauchitsch ignored
all further appeals from
Ludwig
Beck and the other plotters to use the army to overthrow
Adolf Hitler
before Germany was plunged into world war.
In early November 1939, Walther von Brauchitsch and
Franz
Halder started to consider overthrowing
Adolf
Hitler. Walther von Brauchitsch and
Franz
Halder had decided to overthrow
Adolf
Hitler after the latter had fixed X-day for the invasion
of France for November 12, 1939 an invasion that both officers
believed to be doomed to fail. On 5 November 1939, the Army
General Staff prepared a memorandum purporting to recommend
against launching an attack on the Western powers that autumn.
Walther von Brauchitsch reluctantly agreed to read the document
to
Adolf Hitler.
In the meeting with
Adolf
Hitler on November 5, Walther von Brauchitsch had attempted
to talk
Adolf
Hitler into putting off X-day by saying that morale in
the German Army was worse than what it was in 1918, a statement
that enraged
Adolf
Hitler who harshly berated Walther von Brauchitsch for
incompetence. The document's specific recommendations did
not convey the dissent in the ranks of the General Staff,
who were uneasy at having their planning and conduct of the
Polish Campaign interfered with down to a regimental level.
More generally, the unease at the army's position as the chief
martial arbiter in the German State having been encroached
upon since
Adolf
Hitler's ascendance to power was prevalent in the closing
days of the 1930s. It was left to Walther von Brauchitsch
to voice these doubts, which he did, stating that the OKH
would be grateful for an understanding that it, and it alone,
would be solely responsible for the conduct of any future
campaign. The suggestion was received in an icy silence, whereupon
on an impulse Walther von Brauchitsch went on to complain
that the aggressive spirit of the German infantry was sadly
below the standard of the First World War. there had beencertain
symptoms of insubordination similar to those of 1917-18.
Adolf
Hitler responded by flying into a tremendous rage, accusing
both the General Staff and Walther von Brauchitsch personally
of disloyalty, cowardice, sabotage and defeatism. The Chief
of the Army General Staff
Franz
Halder, who was the main propagator of the memorandum's
preparation wrote that the scene was most ugly and disagreeable.
He returned to the Headquarters at Zossen where he arrived
in such poor shape that at first he could only give a somewhat
incoherent account of the proceedings. After that meeting,
both
Franz
Halder and Walther von Brauchitsch told Carl Friedrich
Goerdeler that overthrowing
Adolf
Hitler was simply something that they could not do, and
he should find other officers if he that was what he really
wanted to.
Adolf
Hitler then called a meeting of the General Staff to declare
that he would smash the West within a year. He also vowed
to destroy the spirit of Zossen a threat that panicked
Franz
Halder to such an extent that he forced the conspirators
to abort their second planned coup attempt. Equally important,
on November 7, 1939 following heavy snowstorms,
Adolf
Hitler put off X-Day until further notice, which removed
the reason that had most motivated Walther von Brauchitsch
and
Franz
Halder to consider overthrowing
Adolf
Hitler.
Walther von Brauchitsch was promoted to Generalfeldmarshall
in 1940 and was key in
Adolf
Hitler's blitzkrieg war against the West, making modifications
to the original plan to overrun France. After France was conquered,
Operation Sea Lion the invasion of Britain was planned. Had
it succeeded,
Adolf
Hitler intended to place Walther von Brauchitsch in charge
of the new conquest. However, the Luftwaffe could not gain
the requisite air superiority, and the plan was abandoned.
Walther von Brauchitsch agreed with harsh measures against
the Polish population claiming they were inevitable for securing
the German Lebensraum and ordered to his army and commanders
that criticism of Nazism racist policy should cease as National
Socialist policy was needed for forthcoming battle of destiny
of the German people. When Germany turned east and invaded
the Soviet Union in 1941, the Army's failure to take Moscow
earned
Adolf
Hitler's enmity. Things went further downhill for Walther
von Brauchitsch as he endured a serious heart attack, and
Adolf Hitler
relieved him on 10 December. Walther von Brauchitsch spent
the last three war years in the Tri Trubky hunting lodge in
the Brdy mountains southwest of Prague. One of the few public
comments he made after his retirement was a statement condemning
the attempt on
Adolf
Hitler's life.
After the war, Walther von Brauchitsch was arrested and charged
with war crimes, but died in Hamburg in 1948 before he could
be prosecuted.
Walther von Brauchitsch was the uncle of Manfred von Brauchitsch,
a 1930s Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrow Grand Prix driver, and
Hans Bernd and Werner von Haeften, both members of the German
resistance against
Adolf
Hitler.Walther von Brauchitsch was a strong admirer of
Feldmarshal
Helmuth
von Moltke and used to linger in his former office that
was made into a museum at a later date.
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