Walther von Brauchitsch

Walther von Brauchitsch (October 4th 1881, October 18th 1948) is the commander of the Wehrmacht at the beginning of the Second world war.

Biography

In 1900, von Brauchitsch is officer in the Prussian Guard. At the time when the First World War bursts, he is staff officer. When Adolf Hitler seizes the power and increases that of the army, von Brauchitsch is named chief of the military district of the Eastern Prussia. In 1937, it becomes ordering 4th group of armies. Even if he is opposed to the Nazisme, he becomes mainly dependant on Hitler after him to have borrowed: 80000 Reichmarks in order to be able to divorce and remarier. In 1938, it replaces the general Werner von Fritsch as a commander-in-chief of the German army, after the resignation of this last following false charges of Homosexualité.

Von Brauchitsch is opposed by the rise to power of the S, it fears that this organization tries to replace the official German army. It has disagreements with Erich Koch, the Gauleiter of Eastern Prussia, Hitler must interpose between the two to solve the argument.

Just like the general Ludwig Beck, it opposes the annexation Austria (the Anschluss) and Czechoslovakia, but it is not opposed to the military plans of Hitler and does not do anything when Beck requires of him to convince the whole staff to resign if Hitler continues its plan of invasion of Czechoslovakia.

In September 1938, a group of officers warps a plot against Hitler and on several occasions tries to convince von Brauchitsch, as a commander-in-chief of the army, to direct the Coup d'etat envisaged, but this one promises only one thing to them: “I will not take part, but I will not prevent anybody from passing to the action”. Whereas the coup d'etat falls to water, von Brauchitsch is unaware of the requests for assistance of Beck and other conspirators in order to use the army to reverse Hitler before Germany is not plunged in the war.

In November 1939, encouraged by the chief of the staff Franz Halder and the conspirators, von Brauchitsch requires an audience with Hitler to convince it that Germany could never gain a war prolonged in Europe and begs it to give up its plans of conquest. Hitler, furious, lance with the commander-in-chief a broadside of insults and insults. Halder is horrified when he sees von Brauchitsch to leave the meeting “dead of fear”. Hitler meets then the staff to declare that it was going to crush the West in less than one year. It also makes the wish “destroy the spirit of Zossen”, a threat which throws into a panic Halder at the point to oblige the conspirators to cancel their second planned coup d'etat.

In 1940, von Brauchitsch is named Feld-maréchal and becomes a key component in the blitzkrieg of Hitler against the West while taking part in the modifications of the military plans to reverse the France. However, he does not manage to seize Moscow during the war against the Soviet Union, which is worth the hostility of Hitler to him. The problems of von Brauchitsch do not stop there since it undergoes a cardiac serious attack. Hitler raises it of its functions and takes its place, the December 19th 1941. The most recent biographer of Hitler, Ian Kershaw, depicts von Brauchitsch like a being " peureux" and " without caractère".

After the war, von Brauchitsch is stopped and shown war crime, but he dies in 1948 before being judged.

Note

Walther von Brauchitsch was the uncle of the racing driver of the years 1930, Manfred von Brauchitsch.

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