Erwin Rommel

What kind of reputation does Erwin Rommel have in Germany? Is he consider a Nazi general although he was a conspirator against Hitler?
Guess not because his son Manfred was selected as a mayor in somewhere. Do you guys have better info?

 

as far i can remember, many people like him in germany, can say he was very popular,he was menitioned by one of the conspirators and he was conected to the attemps to murder hitler, he was given the option of commiting suicide or face trial and the death penalty,he choose the first, when his wife, then widow, was presented witha letter about his suicide, she spit to the carriers, he told her everything before .

 

Rommel is formally made a national hero recently in a ceremony held to pay respect to the members that attemted to assasinate Hitler in his bunker. This ceremony was held by Gerhardt Shroeder.

 

His name is Schröder, the present Bundeskanzler (more or less prime minister) of Germany.

I hadn't heard of this declaring Rommel a national hero, though. I did know he was too popular in Germany during WW2 for Hitler to have him publically shot, which is why the shady thing with the suicide happened.

 

Ok Ok! its Shroder

It seems that Germany is making some moves to forget the past and reward the resistance fighters. For example Shroder (happy Roel? ) attended the June 6th commemoration. A first.

 

No, I'm not happy. Repeat after me: S c h r ö (in case you don't have a keyboard capable of an umlaut, type "oe") d e r .

And yes, Germany has been suffering terribly from a national feeling of guilt for what happened in WW2 but they are now gradually crawling out of that emotional pit, claiming heroes of their own who fought for the Allied cause.

 

A german friend of mine told me that many people in Germany(including himself) felt very uncomfortable with Chancelor Schröder attending june 6th commemoration.
They do not understand why germans should celebrate an event that was directed against Germany and where thousands of german soldiers died.

Yes of course, eventually, all this led to the "liberation" of Germany(at least the western part), but this was not the objective of the allied forces landing in Normandy, their objective was the defeat of Germany.

According to my friend it was like if the japanese would celebrate Hiroshima, or Midway....

 

The position they are in, morally, is highly complicated. Of course they will not be untrue to their own soldiers, and they wish to remember their gallantry in battle just like any other country that fought in WW2. However, the cause for which the German soldiers fought and died cannot rationally be defended or made good. The way in which Schröder wishes to treat this dillemma, by "siding" with the Allies and celebrating their victory, perhaps isn't the most true but it definitely helps the German people get rid of some part of its feelings of guilt, and it draws the country out of a Remembrance isolation of a sort. Whereupon hopefully more people will realize that most German soldiers were just soldiers, and that they lost a major war only to be sliced up by the victors, which isn't exactly something that they can celebrate.

 

It's quite a complicate matter indeed.
I remember that in 1994, for the 50th anniversary, Chancelor Kohl had been invited too, but refuesd to come.

 

Speaking to a German soldier who I knew for a shot whle, He wanted to go to a Rememberance service to show respect. He too thought the war was against Nazi Germany not Germany.

 

Speaking of Normandy, does anyone know the story of can't-remember-first-name Severloh and John Silva? Severloh was a MG42 gunner in Omaha Beach and John Silva was attacking there. Silva got wounded from Severloh's bullet. After the war Severloh was reading a book in which Silva got wounded. Severloh contacted Silva who is a catholic priest by profession and now they are very good friends! There was a document about this in Finnish TV.

 

That documentary was shown just about everywhere. I saw it too. Severloh is known as the butcher of Omaha for having shot at least 2000 people, confirmed...

 

I have it right here its Stuttgat and besides Rommel never became a member of the nazi party he just worked for one

 

Rommel has some fantastic PR working for him, most likly becuase he avoided the Nuremberg Trials but also due to the Montgomery/Rommel battles in Normandy and North Africa which made him well known in the uk.

There is little evidence that Rommel was implicated/involved in the bomb plot. Hitler suspected him as Rommel's aide and staff were involved and Rommel was at that point very dissatisfied with Hitler/High Command and been vocal in that dissent.

Rommel and Hitler go back a long way. Rommel commanded Hitlers personal bodyguard units several times in the 30's and Hitler prommoted and favoured Rommel above a lot of other staff. I can't remember if they were classed as friends but they certainly associated with each other a lot.

But as you said, the war was against hitler, his minions, the nazis and tyranny. Not the Germans as such. They just happened to the country hitler used.

As for the butcher of Omaha, he was a soldier doing his job. I am sure that many allied soldiers opperating MG's had similar experiances. However we won, we wrote the history books, and he became the butcher. Which is wrong.

Mind you, I bet he is tortued at night from what he saw, as were/are a lot of soldiers.

FNG

 

When my dad was stationed in Germany in the 70's , he had a chance to visit Rommels grave , he said it was one of the most beautiful graves he had ever seen

 

There are not many, who know, that Erwin Rommel had a cousin in the olish Army - General Julius Ròmmel. The last commanded the Lodz Army in 1939. The cousins knew each other. He had been colonel in Russian Imperial Army. In 1939 was POW till the end of WW2.

 

Rommel was generally well liked by the german public and his name was at the bottom of the suspect list on the bomb plot but cazy hitler said kill yourself or i kill your family

 

Rommel didn't wanted Hitler dead.He wanted him on the national trial.Rommel is one of the best self-made generals ever.He is the true meaning of Blitzkrieg warfare.

 

i always thought that they were family. thanks, again something i've learnt

Rommel even used a form of blitzkrieg with infaltry when he had to capture a mountain during WW1. he moved his troops quick and fast. probed the enemy lines, sought the weak spot and concentrate everything against is, broke through the line and move on. he got the bleu max (german highest medal in WW2) and he was just a corpral.

 

Actually he was a captain, the Stormtrooper tactics he used were standardized in the German army in the final years of WW1, and they had nothing to do with what we have come to call "Blitzkrieg" except for the basic concept which is thousands of years old.

Rommel was indeed the best exponent of Blitzkrieg because he was a tactician, not a strategist; the perfect general to carry out a tactic which was never truly a strategy. However he should never have commanded anything higher than an armoured corps because he proved time and again that he couldn't handle a higher post.