On Oct. 14, 1944 — 70 years ago this week — Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who is considered one of Germany's greatest generals during World War II, committed suicide at the order of Adolf Hitler. Rommel had been implicated in the July 20 plot against Hitler, though his actual role in the attempted coup, if any, remains vague.
From south Germany, Rommel had graduated from a military school at Danzig and was commissioned a lieutenant in 1912. During World War I, he served with distinction, particularly along the Italian front. He was able to remain a part of the Weimar-era officer corps, even as the Treaty of Versailles demanded that Germany's army be trimmed to only 100,000 men, despite the fact that he did not come from an aristocratic family.
Though he never joined the Nazi party, Rommel, like most Germans and especially most army officers, looked on with approval as Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles and began a massive expansion of Germany's armed forces. When Germany declared war on Poland in 1939, Rommel commanded Hitler's military escort as the Führer toured the front.
Desperate for a fighting command, Hitler appointed Rommel to command the 7th Panzer Division. The force met with success in the 1940 invasion of France and earned the nickname “Ghost Division” for its ability to appear suddenly and surprise the enemy. Rommel's star continued to rise.
In early 1941, Hitler gave Rommel the command of the Afrika Korps, a few divisions sent to bolster Germany's ally, Italy, in its war against the British in North Africa. In spite of the fact that his mission was largely projected to be defensive, Rommel's daring and strategic abilities turned the tables on the British, and the Afrika Korps soon threatened the Suez Canal.
After the fall of the British fortress at Tobruk in mid-1942, Hitler promoted Rommel to field marshal, roughly equivalent to an American five-star general. Not long after British Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously said, “Rommel! Rommel! What else matters but beating him!”
Rommel's good fortune, however, did not last. Frequent shortages of men and supplies, usually earmarked by the German high command for the fighting in Russia, meant that Rommel proved severely handicapped at the critical Battle of Al Alamein in November 1942. The battle was a turning point and British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery went on the offensive. That same month, the American army invaded North Africa in Algeria and Morocco, far to Rommel's rear. The Afrika Korps now found itself fighting a war on two fronts.
By summer 1943, the Afrika Korps had been defeated by the Americans and British. Before its surrender, Hitler had ordered Rommel back to Berlin and soon set him to work inspecting defenses in Italy and later in France. Commanding Army Group B, Rommel participated in the defense of Normandy from the Allied invasion before he was wounded by a strafing fighter on July 17, 1944.
In the book, “Knight's Cross: A Life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel,” biographer David Fraser wrote: “Rommel was first attended by a French doctor in a French hospital — the property of a monastic order — in Livarot, near the scene of the wounding. … Thense an unconscious Rommel, together with (his driver) Daniel, was borne to Bernay. Rommel's skull was severely fractured, and there were wounds to the temple and face. Daniel died of his injuries.”
As Rommel was recuperating in France, momentous events were playing out across the continent. In Rastenburg, East Prussia, Col. Claus von Stauffenberg planted a bomb at Hitler's headquarters, with the intention of assassinating the Führer. Hitler survived the attempt, and Stauffenberg's coup, in which many German army officers were complicit, failed. The failure of the July 20 bomb plot saw many army officers arrested and executed for their participation.
During the attempted coup, the plotters had sought to seize control of the German armed forces throughout Europe, and Paris was seen as an important key to their plan. Army officers in France, including the German military governor of Paris, Gen. Carl Heinrich von Stüpnagel, were complicit. Among those rounded up and arrested by the Gestapo was a Luftwaffe officer named Caesar von Hofacker.
Von Hofacker had a foot in the various groups opposed to Hitler, and he was in league with Stauffenberg's circle. On July 9, von Hofacker had visited Rommel at his French headquarters at La Roche Guyon. The exact nature of his visit remains unclear, and it is likely he was there on official business unconnected to the plot. However, after his arrest, he confessed, presumably under torture, that he had informed Rommel of the coming coup.
Fraser wrote: “Hofacker's evidence — however extracted and however false or true — was shown to (Field Marshal Wilhelm) Keitel when Hitler was discussing with him the awful matter of Field Marshal Rommel's treachery. The evidence allegedly contained the statement that Rommel had asked Hofacker … to 'tell the gentlemen in Berlin' (a reference to the plotters) that they could count on him, Rommel.”
This “evidence” did not appear until several weeks after the plot, and even then Hitler was not certain whether or not to believe that Rommel had a hand in the conspiracy. Still, Hitler's desire to root out all vestiges of resistance meant that he ultimately allowed himself to be convinced of the field marshal's guilt. Rommel, meanwhile, no doubt agitated about the fate of so many fellow officers but most likely unaware of the sword of Damocles hanging over his own head, was recovering at his home at Herrlingen.
Hoping for another command, perhaps against the advancing Red Army in the east, the high command informed Rommel that Generals Wilhelm Burgdorf and Ernst Maisel would visit him the morning of Oct. 14. Keitel had instructed Burgdorf to present Rommel with the evidence against him and inform him that a formal investigation would soon follow. At that point, however, Rommel was under no illusions — an investigation meant almost certain execution.
In the book, “The Nemesis of Power: The German Army in Politics, 1918-1945,” historian and contemporary Sir John Wheeler-Bennett wrote: “Keitel also gave Burgdorf a box of poison ampoules and charged him to give Rommel verbal assurance that, should he elect to use them, the Führer would promise him a state funeral with full honor, and that no reprisals would be taken on his family.”
Hitler wanted to avoid the bad publicity that would accompany the trial of one of his greatest, and supposedly most loyal, generals. Rommel, for his part, wanted to avoid seeing his wife, Lucy, and his 15-year-old son, Manfred, sent to concentration camps before his own execution. With the house surrounded by Hitler's fanatical SS troops, Rommel took some time to say goodbye to his family, then joined the two generals for a drive.
After a few minutes the car pulled to a stop, the two generals and the driver stepping outside. Rommel took the poison and a few minutes later his wife was told that he died from a cerebral embolism resulting from his battlefield injuries.
A few days later, Rommel was given a state funeral, and no reprisals befell his family. Various military commanders and public officials lauded the great warrior, and Rommel's former commander in France, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, unaware of the true circumstances of Rommel's demise, represented Hitler and gave the eulogy.
Not long after the end of the war, when Hitler was dead and many began to look upon the July 20 plotters as heroes, Lucy Rommel made a statement that her husband had never been a part of the conspiracy, but had remained a loyal German officer to the end. To this day it remains a matter of debate what role, if any, Rommel played in the plot against Hitler.
Rommel's son, Manfred, went on to become a lawyer and politician in West Germany, eventually becoming the mayor of Stuttgart in the 1970s. He died in 2013.
Cody K. Carlson holds a master's in history from the University of Utah and teaches at Salt Lake Community College. An avid player of board games, he blogs at thediscriminatinggamer.com. Email: ckcarlson76@gmail.com