The Last Prussian
Page 44
When it came to crimes against humanity, though, von Rundstedt was at the very least economical with the truth at Nuremberg. True, he had no direct jurisdiction over Himmler’s Einsatzgruppen, but his statement that he was only aware of one massacre of Russian Jews, that at Berdichev, simply does not tie up with the stream of orders emanating from his headquarters forbidding soldiers from participating in these atrocities. Furthermore, his letter of approval of von Reichenau’s October 1941 order, which exhorted German troops to revenge themselves on the Jews for atrocities committed against them, was a damning piece of evidence.
As for the practice of taking civilian hostages by occupation forces as military necessity, there was actually nothing in the Geneva and Hague Conventions, as they existed during the Second World War, specifically forbidding this practice, and it was not outlawed until the 1949 Geneva Convention. The same applied to hostages who were shot in reprisal for guerrilla acts, which in themselves had no protection under the Laws of War. Thus, when French Resistance members blew the Antwerp-Paris railway line at Ascq on 1 April 1944, the third time in the same place, it is hardly surprising that von Rundstedt should declare that ‘the population of Ascq bears the responsibility for the consequences of its treacherous conduct, which I can only severely condemn’ and have 77 of its male inhabitants shot.24 As one eminent commentator on the Laws of War pointed out, the Resistance might have attacked the railway elsewhere and further away from habitation, ie the forests south of Lille,25 and it is almost as if they were willing the Germans to take reprisals. As for the forced transport of foreign labour to Germany, it was not a matter which involved von Rundstedt, except in the case of Holland in autumn 1944. There was, however, a sound military reason behind this; the danger of Dutch males of military age rising against the Germans at the same time as the Allies continued their advance into the Netherlands.
If von Rundstedt had stood trial, it is clear from the von Manstein case that he would have been found guilty of some of the charges levelled against him. These are likely to have been the ones that applied to the Eastern rather than Western Front and there is no doubt there would have been some justification for this. As it was, his defence that he merely tried to evade illegal orders and that if he had protested he would merely have been replaced by someone with less scruples was weak.
Yet, he probably suffered more from not having the opportunity to defend himself in court. The humiliations which he underwent during the years 1948–1951 were hard for him to bear and the fact that German officialdom, especially in Lower Saxony, appeared to take the attitude that he was guilty made him feel, according to his granddaughter Barbara, ‘deprived of his honour’.26 It was this that made him try and dissuade his elder grandson from ever joining the Army, saying that he himself had suffered enough for the family’s military tradition. Gerd, who had been called ‘General’s bastard’ by his schoolmates in Hamburg, was not deterred and still serves today as a Lt Col in the Bundeswehr.27
Von Rundstedt’s tragedy, and that of many of his comrades in the German Army, was to have been born fifty years too late. The code of ethics on which they were brought up may have well suited Imperial Germany, but it was too narrow and too rigid in scope to cope with the Weimar Republic and Hitler’s Germany. Over the generations it had cocooned them in a cosy little world in which they could concentrate on their profession and unthinkingly obey orders without dirtying their hands in politics. Duty, Honour and Loyalty are excellent precepts, and, indeed, form the motto of the United States Military Academy West Point to this day, but on their own they are too limited and imply unquestioning obedience. If the story of Gerd von Rundstedt has a moral it is that Conscience must be added to the above three tenets if the soldier is to be a truly effective servant of the state. Nevertheless, in spite of this shortcoming, von Rundstedt was endowed with many good and attractive personal qualities and thoroughly merited his title as the doyen of the Prussian Officer Corps, reflecting all that was best in it. He was, however, the last of the line.
APPENDIX ONE
The Von Rundstedt Family Tree.
APPENDIX TWO
Decorations Awarded to
Gerd von Rundstedt
Prior to August 1914
Order of the Crown 4th Class (Prussia)
Knight’s Cross 2nd Class Order of the White Falcon (Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach)
Knight’s Cross 1st Class Order of Saxe Ernestine (Saxony)
Cross of Honour 3rd Class (Schwarzburg)
Merit Cross 4th Class (Waldeck)
1914–1918
Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class (Prussia)
Order of the Red Eagle 4th Class (Prussia)
Knight’s Cross of the Hohenzollern House Order with Swords (Prussia)
Military Service Cross (Prussia)
Order of Military Merit 4th class with Swords and Crown (Saxony)
War Merit Cross (Lippe)
Military Merit Cross 3rd Class (Austria)
Iron Crescent (Turkey)
1919–1939
Royal Hungarian Order of Merit 1st Class (11/8/37)
Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy (7/6/38)
Royal Yugoslav Order of Heissen 2nd Class (6/7/39)
1939–1945
Knight’s Cross to the Iron Cross (30/9/39)
Oakleaves to the Knight’s Cross (2/7/44)
Swords to the Knight’s Cross (18/2/45)
And, possibly, Rumanian, Hungarian, Slovak and Italian decorations.
SOURCE NOTES
1. Published works are only cited in full where they are not listed in the Select Bibliography.
2. The following abréviations have been used:
Bundesarchiv Bundesarchiv, Koblenz.
Edmonds Papers The papers of Brig Gen Sir James Edmonds, Liddell Centre for Military Archives, King’s College, London.
Freiburg Bundesarchiv Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau.
IWM Imperial War Museum, London.
IZ Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Munich.
JRUSI Journal of the Royal United Services Institute, London.
LH Papers of Sir Basil Liddell Hart, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College, London.
PRO Public Record Office, London. Classes of papers are CAB (Cabinet Office), FO (Foreign Office), TS (Treasury Solicitor), WO (War Office).
Von Rundstedt Archive Papers held by his grandson, Gerd von Rundstedt
Sayer Archive Private archive of Ian Sayer.
Wheeler-Bennett Papers Papers of Sir John Wheeler-Bennett, St Antony’s College, Oxford.
CHAPTER ONE
1.
The origins of the von Rundstedt family and Gerd’s antecedents are drawn from the Almanack de Gotha (1905 edition), Siebmacher J Grosses und allgemeines Wappenbuch Vol III.2 (Verlag von Bauer und Raspe, Nuremberg, 1878), Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels: Adele Häuser Vol XI (C A Starke, Limbert and der Lahn, 1971), Blumentritt, Von Rundstedt: the Soldier and the Man pp 13–15, Cort, David The Last Prussian (Life Magazine, 25 December 1944), and information given to me by Eberhard von Rundstedt.
2.
Blumentritt op cit p 15.
3.
Edmonds unpublished autobiography, Edmonds III/1, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives.
4.
Most of the material on von Rundstedt’s time as a cadet is drawn from Blumentritt pp16–18.
5.
Quoted Carver Twentieth Century Warriors p92.
6.
Introductory Order to the Ordinance on Tribunals of Honour, dated 2 May 1874 and quoted Demeter The Officer Corps in Society and State 1650–1945 pp313–314.
7.
Report dated 1 January 1894, Freiburg Pers 6/16.
8.
Report dated 1 January 1896, ibid.
9.
Edmonds, Brig Gen Sir James An Army on the Cheap JRUSI, February 1951.
10.
Blumentritt op cit pp18–19.
11.
War Office p
amphlet A663 System of Training Staff Officers in Foreign Armies (HMSO, London, 1901). A copy of the section covering Germany (pp31–67) is contained in the Edmonds Papers op cit under Edmonds V/5/3, from which my information on entry to the Kriegsakademie is drawn.
12.
Report dated 1 January 1900, Freiburg Pers 6/16,
13.
Report dated 1 December 1901, ibid.
14.
Description based on letter to author dated 14 February 1990 from Barbara Papanastassiou, von Rundstedt’s eldest grandchild.
15.
Report dated 1 December 1903, Freiburg Pers 6/16.
16.
Most of my information on the Kriegsakademie at the time von Rundstedt was there is drawn War Office pamphlet A663 op cit. Unfortunately, the Kriegsakademie archives were largely destroyed at Potsdam, during World War 2.
17.
Edmonds, Brig Gen Sir James The German General Staff JRUSI, February 1954.
18.
Report dated 1 December 1905 and initiated by Oberst von Schlabrendorff, commanding 83rd Infantry Regt. Freiburg Pers 6/16.
19.
Report dated 1 December 1906, ibid.
20.
Kitchen The German Officer Corps, 1890–1914 p6.
21.
Because each promotion involved a large number of officers, it was considered important in the Prussian Army to lay down their seniority within each promotion. This was indicated in the Rangliste by a special code. The top 25 officers in each promotion were given a single letter A–Z (excluding I), the next 25 a double letter (Aa–Zz), Nos 51–75 a double letter with the figure 1 inserted in between (Ala–Zlz), Nos 76–100 the same with the figure 2 inserted (A2a–Z2z), and so on. The May 1914 Rangliste showed von Rundstedt with O9o, which placed him 264th. I am indebted to Klaus Benseler for this explanation.
22.
Annual report dated 1 December 1909, Freiburg Pers 6/16.
23.
Bodley Head, London, 1904, but originally published in Germany as Aus Einer Kleinen Garnison in 1903.
24.
Ibid, p276.
25.
Report dated I December 1913, Freiburg Pers 6/16. One source, W E Hart Hitler’s Generals p42, states that von Rundstedt ‘let it be known that the garrison commander of Colmar consulted him at every opportunity in the preparation of plans of mobilisation’ and that he was ‘seconded to the staff of the garrison as aide-de-camp’ and liked to call himself ‘the pocket edition of a chief of staff’. Since his commanders always stressed von Rundstedt’s modesty, it is most unlikely that he would have boasted in this way, even if he was consulted unofficially.
CHAPTER TWO
1.
The Advance from Mons pp 121–122.
2.
Von Kluck March on Paris p76.
3.
Ibid p95fn.
4.
Isselin The Battle of the Marne p148.
5.
Ibid p190.
6.
Blumentritt op cit p21.
7.
Bloem op cit p172.
8.
Blumentritt op cit p22.
9.
Report on von Rundstedt dated 15 June 1916, Freiburg Pers 6/16.
10.
Quoted Kahn, Leo The Fall of Warsaw, Purnell’s History of the First World War, vol 2 p961.
11.
Report on von Rundstedt dated 15 June 1916, op cit.
12.
Report on von Rundstedt dated 1 July 1915, Freiburg Pers 6/16.
13.
Reports on von Rundstedt dated 15 June and 1 November 1916, ibid.
14.
Blumentritt op cit p22.
15.
Report dated 25 December 1916, Freiburg Pers 6/16.
16.
Freiburg Pers 6/16.
17.
Report dated 20 March 1918, ibid.
18.
Report dated 1 August 1918, Freiburg MSg 109/2234.
19.
Report dated 22 November 1918, ibid.
20.
Report dated 14 December 1918, ibid.
CHAPTER THREE
1.
Quoted Benoist-Méchin Histoire de l’Armée Allemande Vol 1 p74.
2.
Record of service, Freiburg MSg 109/2234. The Deutsche Dienstelle (WASt) in Berlin, which holds records of service of members of the Wehrmacht, has no detail for von Rundstedt during the years 1894–1924 (WASt letter to the Author dated 10 April 1989).
3.
Report by Gen Ilse dated 19 April 1919, Freiburg Pers 6/16.
4.
Carsten The Reichswehr and Politics p86.
5.
The Trial of Major German War Criminals vol 21 p97. Hereafter known as IMT.
6.
Ibid.
7.
Quoted Carsten op cit p104.
8.
Quoted ibid p114.
9.
Report dated 1 November 1921, Freiburg Pers 6/16.
10.
Report dated 1 November 1922, ibid.
11.
Hitler’s Generals pp42–3 and reflected, for example, in Brett-Smith Hitler’s Generals p16.
12.
Interview dated 3 January 1946, LH 9/24/132.
13.
Hitler’s Generals p16.
14.
Liddell Hart interview with von Rundstedt, 3 January 1946, op cit.
15.
Report dated 30 September 1923, Freiburg Pers 6/16.
16.
Die Deutsche Soldatenzeitung 5 March 1953.
17.
Hitler’s Generals p45.
18.
Liddell Hart interview, 3 January 1946 op cit.
19.
Report dated 1 November 1925, Freiburg Pers 6/16.
20.
Reports dated 1 November 1926, 15 November 1927, ibid.
21.
Medical report, January 1948, PRO FO 371/70652, and interview Gerd and Eberhard von Rundstedt, 4 November 1989.
22.
Quoted Carr, William A History of Germany 1815–1945 p305 (St Martin’s NY, 1969).
23.
Carsten op cit p106.
24.
Citano The Evolution of Blitzkrieg Tactics pp 166–7.
25.
Die Deutsche Soldatenzeitung 5 March 1953.
26.
Vogelsang Reichswehr, Staat und NSDAP p159.
27.
Letter dated 21 July 1930, Ian Sayer archive.
28.
Quoted Citano op cit p 183.
29.
Interview dated 3 January 1946, LH 9/24/132.
30.
Von Rundstedt op cit p35.
31.
Interview with Gerd von Rundstedt, 4 November 1989.
32.
Klotz The Berlin Diaries ppxxiii–xxiv.
33.
Carsten op cit p326.
34.
Klotz op cit pp56–7.
35.
Interview dated 3 January 1946, LH 9/24/132. One source, Riess, Curt Marshal von Rundstedt: German Darlan, The Saturday Evening Post 2 October 1943, claims that von Rundstedt met Hitler even earlier, in March 1926 when he was commanding 18th Infantry Regiment. A Pastor Ludwig Müller is supposed to have arranged a meeting between the two at von Rundstedt’s house at Paderborn. I can find no evidence to substantiate this.
36.
Klotz op cit pp87–92.
37.
Carsten op cit pp368–9.
38.
There is some dispute as to whether soldiers or police were used. Reitlinger The SS: Alibi of a Nation p38 states that a police captain and five constables were involved, and this is supported by Carr A History of Germany p354. Vogelsang op cit p246 speaks of ‘military forces’ and von Rundstedt told Liddell Hart that it was a ‘small armed party’, implying soldiers rather than police (Interview 3 January 1946 op cit). Erfurth Die Geschichte des deutschen Generalstabes p
236 is the most specific and it is him that I have followed.
39.
Klotz op cit p115.
40.
Vogelsang op cit p254.
41.
Klotz op cit p123.
42.
For a detailed exposition of this concept of war see Simpkin, Richard Deep Battle: The Brainchild of Marshal Tuchachevskii (Brassey’s, London, 1987).
43.
Quoted Citano op cit p 189.
CHAPTER FOUR
1.
John, Otto Some Facts and Aspect of the Plot Against Hitler p13, Wheeler-Bennett Papers.
2.
Liddell Hart interview, 3 January 1946, LH 9/24/132.
3.
IMT p105. Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) was an Austrian philosopher and founder of the school of anthroposophy which argues that man himself holds the key to understanding the cosmos and that he should therefore find the means to develop his latent spiritual powers.
4.
Revolt Against Hitler p36. Fabian von Schlabrendorff was later deeply involved in the bomb plot against Hitler of 20 July 1944. Though captured and tortured by the Gestapo, he resisted interrogation and survived. During the war years he served as Aide to Henning von Tresckow, a senior member of the General Staff and an active member of the plotting group, to whom von Schlabrendorff was connected by marriage.