Friedrich Olbricht

Friedrich Olbricht (October 4th 1888, July 21st 1944) is a German general and one of the conspirators implied in the attempted murder of Adolf Hitler with the Wolfsschanze, in Eastern Prussia, the July 20th 1944.

Biography

Born with Leisnig, in Saxony, he is the son of the professor of mathematics Richard Olbricht.

In 1907, Olbricht joint with the regiment of infantry 106 of Leipzig as a carry-standard, after having finished its Abitur. It takes part in the engagements during the First World War and after the war, having reached the rank of captain, it is integrated into the Reichswehr, which was reduced cuts some according to the terms of the Traité of Versailles in 1919.

Olbricht marries Eva Koeppel and the couple has a son and a girl.

The mistrust of Olbricht towards the Nazis is discovered very early, particularly after the Putsch of the brewery in 1923, where it côtoie Hans Oster, Erwin von Witzleben and Georg Thomas, which took all their distance from the growing movement of right-hand side, anxious to note the attraction which the Nazis have on many military men.

In 1926, Olbricht works with the ministry for the defense of Reich as a leader of the " office of the armies étrangères". In 1933, he becomes chief of staff of the division of Dresden.

In 1934, Olbricht saves several men of dead in the wake of the Nuit of the Long Knives by assigning them with tasks politico-soldiers under the protection of the army. They had been stopped and would have been put quickly at death.

In 1935, it is named chief of staff of the 4th army corps posted in Dresden. In 1938, it takes the direction of the 24e division of infantry. The same year, he preaches, without success, the rehabilitation of Werner von Fritsch fallen in disgrace following a charge from homosexuality.

At the time when the Second world war bursts in 1939, it takes part in the invasion of the Poland at the end which one allots the to him Croix of knight. The February 15th 1940, Olbricht is promoted general of infantry. One names it with the head of the general office in the high command of the army. It is also named with the head of the office of recruitment of the Wehrmacht.

Olbricht takes part in the planning of the plot aiming at making an attempt on the life of Hitler with the circles of resistance of the general colonel Ludwig Beck, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler and the general major Henning von Tresckow. In 1943, he asks that the colonel Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, who will become later the key man in the attempted murder by posing a bomb close to Hitler, comes to work at his office.

The day of the attempt of the coup d'etat, on July 20th, 1944, Olbricht and the colonel Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim start the Valkyrie operation, designed initially to dam up a rising in Germany, causing the mobilization of the reserve army. However, it is learned quickly that the bomb installed in the document-case of Stauffenberg did not kill Hitler. The consequences dramatic for are entreated.

After the installation of a martial court to haste in the night from July 20th to 21st, directed by the general colonel Friedrich Fromm, Friedrich Olbricht, Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim, Werner von Haeften, and Claus von Stauffenberg is brought in the court of the Bendlerblock where they are shot.

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