Walther von Brauchitsch

Heinrich Alfred Hermann Walther von Brauchitsch (Berlin, October 4, 1881-Hamburg, October 18, 1948) was commander-in-chief of the OKH (Army High Command) in the early years of the Second World War.

Beginnings

Walther von Brauchitsch was born in Berlin, son of General Bernhard von Brauchitsch and Charlotte von Gordon; In 1900, after training at the cadet school, von Brauchitsch served in the Prussian Guard; In 1910 he married Elizabeth von Karstedt, a wealthy heiress; Later, during the First World War he was an officer of the General Staff.

World War II

Arrival of Nazism

When Adolf Hitler came to power and began expanding the army, von Brauchitsch was appointed head of the East Prussian military district, replacing Werner von Blomberg. In 1937, he became commander of the Fourth Army. Despite being personally neutral to Nazism in many ways, he ended up becoming a trusted person for Hitler, and was forced to accept 80,000 German marks from the Führer in order to divorce and marry Charlotte Schmidt. He replaced General Werner von Fritsch at the head of the OKH as commander-in-chief of the Heer land army after his dismissal, accused of homosexuality in 1938.

Von Brauchitsch resented the growing power of the Schutzstaffel (SS), believing that they were attempting to replace the Wehrmacht as Germany's official armed force. He had disagreements with the Gauleiter of East Prussia, Erich Koch, and Hitler had to intercede in the dispute between the two.

Conspiracies against Hitler

Like General Ludwig Beck, he opposed the invasion of Austria and Czechoslovakia, although he was unable to prevent Hitler's war plans and did nothing when Beck asked him to persuade the entire General Staff to resign if Hitler proceeded to invade Czechoslovakia.

In September 1938, a group of officers began plotting against Hitler and repeatedly tried to convince von Brauchitsch, as commander-in-chief of the Army, to lead the expected coup, but his only promise was his famous response: “I will not do anything, but I will not prevent others from acting, these are political matters, not military ones.” Following the collapse of the 1938 coup attempt, von Brauchitsch ignored any further requests from Beck and the other conspirators to use the army to overthrow Hitler before Germany descended into a world war.

In November 1939, urged by Franz Halder and the conspirators, von Brauchitsch requested an audience with Hitler to persuade him that Germany could never win a long general war in Europe and to convince him to abandon his plans to conquer the Slavic peoples. which had no results.

Military campaigns

Von Brauchitsch was appointed field marshal during the 1940 Field Marshal Ceremony. He was a key player in the blitzkrieg war against the west, directing the Polish and Balkan campaigns and modifying the original plan to take France reaching the peak of his career.

He was not successful, however, in the mission to conquer Moscow, in the first part of Operation Barbarossa of the war against the USSR, which he and many German generals thought was going to be a quick war.

When Soviet General Georgy Zhukov began the counteroffensive of the Battle of Moscow, von Brauchitsch was harshly questioned by Hitler for not being able to conquer the Soviet capital, causing him to have a nervous breakdown.

Days later, he suffered a heart attack that incapacitated him as head of his command. He presented his resignation to the Führer, who blamed him for the delay in taking Moscow. Hitler relieved him of command on December 19, 1941, a situation that he took advantage of to become commander-in-chief of the OKH himself.

After the war

After the war, he was arrested and tried at the Nuremberg Trials for war crimes, after which he was deported to a prisoner of war camp in South Wales. In 1948 he was recalled to Germany to stand trial before a British court, but he died on October 18 of that same year in Hamburg Hospital, before he could be sentenced.

Personal life

Walther married Elizabeth von Karstedt and they were the parents of Bernd von Brauchitsch, who was a member of the Luftwaffe. He later married Charlotte Rueffer. He was the uncle of the racing driver Manfred von Brauchitsch and of Hans Bernd von Haeften and Werner von Haeften, members of the resistance against Hitler.