Word: witzleben
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...ruins of Berlin is not so hard to believe as his continued survival through a dozen years of intraparty intrigue. As far back as 1938, German bigwigs planned their first Putsch. In on the deal, according to Gisevius, were Chief of Staff Franz Haider, General Erwin von Witzleben and a string of other generals. Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht, Major General Hans Oster (the brains of Wehrmacht counterintelligence) and Author Gisevius himself were among the conspirators. The calendar, he says, explains why the plot failed. Putsch day was set to coincide with the march on Czechoslovakia. But Munich intervened-Nazi Germany...
Gisevius: "Schacht, Oster and I sat around Witzleben's fireplace [burning] our lovely plans...
Accordingly, the conspirators determined to overthrow Hitler and expose his reckless gambling to the German people. "The leaders . . . were myself, General Erwin von Witzleben, commander of the Berlin garrison; Colonel General Ludwig Beck, my predecessor; Count von Helldorf, police president of Berlin; General von Brockdorf, head of the Potsdam garrison, and General Edwin von Stülpnagel. The commander in chief, von Brauchitsch, had been informed of the conspiracy...
...Nick of Time. Halder decided to strike on the night of Sept. 14. He sent a Panzer division to General von Witzleben at Berlin without arousing suspicion. Just when the coup seemed completely assured of success, London announced the umbrella-toting Prime Minister's impending visit to Hitler's mountain. Halder, shaken by this dramatic evidence of the Führer's political sagacity, called off the plot, thereafter toed the Hitler line. Later, Chamberlain's policy was defended as giving Britain time to prepare. Halder's statement indicated that it was Germany that...
That idea also fitted the Field Marshal's belief that Hitler's stubbornness and stupidity had doomed Paulus' mighty Sixth Army to a hopeless stand at Stalingrad. He was also outraged by Hitler's hanging of his fellow Field Marshal, Erwin von Witzleben. On Aug. 14, 1944, Friedrich von Paulus addressed an open letter to the German Army and people: "For Germany the war is lost. . . because of the political and military leadership 'of Adolf Hitler. . . . Germany must get rid of Adolf Hitler and establish a new state leadership which will bring...