Hans Emil Speidel
Date of Birth: 28.10.1897 - Metzingen, Baden-Württemberg (German Empire)
Date of Death: 28.11.1984 - Bad Honnef, Nordrhein-Westfalen (West Germany)
Promotions:
00.08.1914 Fahnenjunker
00.09.1914 Fahnenjunker-Gefreiter
00.04.1915 Fahnenjunker-Unteroffizier
00.11.1915 Leutnant
01.04.1925 Oberleutnant
01.02.1932 Hauptmann
00.00.1936 Major im Generalstab
01.01.1939 Oberstleutnant im Generalstab
01.02.1941 Oberst im Generalstab
01.01.1943 Generalmajor
01.01.1944 Generalleutnant
09.11.1955 Generalleutnant (Bundeswehr)
14.06.1957 General (Bundeswehr)
Career:
30.11.1914 After completing high school diploma, he joined as a Fahnenjunker in Grenadier-Regiment “König Karl“ (5. Württembergische) Nr. 123 in Ulm, later Zug- and Kompanieführer
09.08.1916 Adjutant II.Bataillon / Grenadier-Regiment 123
18.12.1918 Adjutant Grenadier-Regiment 123 in Ulm
Late summer 1919 Ordonnanzoffizier Reichswehr-Infanterieführer 13 in Stuttgart
01.10.1920 Beginning of Führergehilfenausbildung at Wehrkreis V in Stuttgart, assigned to the Reichswehr-Infanterie-Regiment 26
01.10.1921 Transferred to Reiter-Regiment 18 and commanded to study economics and history at the universities in Stuttgart and Tübingen
01.10.1922 Truppendienst in Infanterie-Regiment 14
10.01.1923 Stabsoffizier in Infanterie-Regiment 13 at Ludwigsburg
01.10.1924 Stabsoffizier in II.Bataillon / Infanterie-Regiment 13, later in 7.Kompanie / Infanterie-Regiment 13 and Commander of the four-horse escort platoon of the 8. (MG-) Kompanie / Infanterie-Regiment 13
14.02.1925 Doctorate in Tübingen with summa cum laude to Dr. phil (1813-1924. A military-political investigation"; from the Peace of Tilsit to Germany after the Treaty of Versailles)
01.03.1929 - 30.09.1929 Assigned to Gruppenkommando 2 in Kassel
01.10.1929 3rd year of Generalststabsausbildung, assigned to RWM (Reichswehrministerium) and later to Reiter-Regiment 18
00.00.19__ longer trip to France for language studies
00.00.19__ Assigned to Kraftfahrabteilung 2, then to Nachrichtenabteilung 2 and Reiter-Regiment 18
01.10.1930 - 30.09.1933 Referatsleiter Westeuropa / Abteilung “Fremde Heere“ (T 3) im Truppenamt / RWM (Reichswehrministerium), became French expert at the Generalstab
00.09.1932 Assigned to the Soviet Marshal Tukhachevsky during the autumn maneuvers on the Oder
00.00.1933 Flugzeugbeobachter-Ausbildung at Verkehrsfliegerschule Braunschweig
01.10.1933 - 00.09.1935 Assistant for the Militärattachés Kühlenthal in Paris
15.10.1935 - 00.00.1936 Chef 8. Kompanie and briefly Führer II.Bataillon / Infanterie-Regiment 56
01.10.1936 - 00.00.1937 Leiter Abteilung 3 “Fremde Heere West“ im Generalstab des Heeres
16.06.1937 - 20.06.1937 Companion to the Chef des Generalstabes des Heeres, General der Artillerie Ludwig Beck, to Paris for talks with Pétain, Daladier and Gamelin
10.10.1937 Ia 33. Infanterie-Division in Mannheim
00.07.1939 Informative trip to Spain, planned to be a Militärattaché in Madrid
13.10.1939 - 01.06.1940 Ia IX. Armeekorps
01.06.1940 Führereserve OKH, assigned to the Generalstab der Heeresgruppe B (von Bock)
05.06.1940 - 14.06.1940 Ia Heeresgruppe B; Leads the handover negotiations for Paris as a parliamentarian
15.06.1940 - 01.08.1940 Chef des Stabes Militärbefehlshaber Paris (von Vollard-Bockelberg)
01.08.1940 Chef des Kommandostabes des Chefs der Militärverwaltung in Frankreich (von Streccius)
16.10.1940 - 25.03.1942 Chef des Kommandostabes des Militärbefehlshabers in Frankreich (Otto von Stülpnagel)
01.04.1942 Führereserve OKH
24.04.1942 - 01.06.1942 Chef des Generalstabes V. Armeekorps (then longer home leave, the planned appointment as Chief of Staff of the 17. Armee is cancelled)
20.10.1942 - 01.01.1943 Deutscher Chef des Generalstabs bei der 8. Italienischen Armee (Generaloberst Italo Gariboldi)
05.01.1943 Chef des Stabes Deutscher General bei der italienischen 8. Armee (GdI von Tippelskirch);
01.02.1943 Chef des Generalstabes Armee-Abteilung Lanz;
21.02.1943 Chef des Generalstabes Armee-Abteilung Kempf;
16.08.1943 Chef des Generalstabes 8. Armee
15.04.1944 - 05.09.1944 Chef des Generalstabs Heeresgruppe B (Rommel)
01.09.1944 in die Führerreserve versetzt
06.09.1944 Last meeting with Rommel in his home in Herrlingen
07.09.1944 Arrested early in the morning in Freudenstadt
08.09.1944 In Berlin from the military detention center on Lehrter Strasse to the Gestapo basement at Prinz-Albrecht Strasse 8, where he was interrogated by RSHA chief Kaltenbrunner and Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller until October 11, 1944
04.10.1944 Meeting of the “Ehrenhofs des Heeres“ (Court of Honor of the Army), no expulsion from the army [Prosecutor Kaltenbrunner. Generals Guderian, Kriebel and Kirchheim defended him so skilfully that he was neither expelled from the army nor brought before the People's Court. SS-Oberstgruppenführer Sepp Dietrich also successfully campaigned for the seriously endangered man. Keitel and General Specht opposed it. Hofacker had testified under torture that he had spoken to Rommel and Speidel. Guderian had pointed out that Speidel had acted in accordance with his duty when he informed Rommel about it]
19.12.1944 Released from prison
00.01.1945 Arrested again by the Gestapo and imprisoned in various other places until the end of the war [in the Küstrin Fortress, Wittenberg, again on the Prinz-Albrechtstrasse in Berlin (experienced the heavy bombing there on February 3rd, 1945), police prisons in Potsdam, Oberstenfeld, Gönningen / Württ. and Hersberg Castle near Immenstadt. Urnauer Bürger and Father Kruck prevented his execution at the last minute before the French (General Béthouard) freed him with 25 senior officers and the Dutch GLt van Roell]
29.04.1945 Liberation by the 1st French Army
00.07.1945 release to the family in Freudenstadt
00.00.1949 Lectureship at the University of Tübingen
[In 1949 his book "Invasion 1944. A contribution to Rommel's fate and the fate of the Reich" was published as a research commission from the state government, which determined the image of Rommel for a long time. He created a myth here (also of resistance), perhaps in order to participate a little in the splendor of this national hero in a career-promoting way, but perhaps also to calm his guilty conscience, since it does not seem entirely impossible that he dragged the field marshal into it to save his own head, although he has always denied it. Precise statements are not possible. In any case, Speidel did not belong to the active circle of the conspirators, he was not initiated into the assassination plans either, on the other hand, he was overrated in this complex for a long time, not without his own doing, if not even hyped up!]
works for the "Historical Division"
00.10.1950 Chairman of the military-political committee at the Himmerod conference (in the Eifel monastery of Himmerod on the question of a future German military contribution; memorandum)
09.01.1951 entry into the "Amt Blank"
in the negotiations on the European Defense Community ( EVG ) with the Allied High Commissioners on the Petersberg together with Heusinger advisor to the future Defense Minister Theodor Blank
00.00.1951 as a prerequisite for further cooperation, he and Heusinger wrested a declaration of honor for the German soldiers from the US General and NATO Commander-in-Chief Dwight D. Eisenhower and used his influence to successfully lobby for the release of many generals from Western Allied custody ( in which they were mostly right, including his brother Wilhelm).
01.10.1951 Chief German military delegate at the EVG negotiations in Paris (Although the EVG fails because of French resistance, he continues to negotiate)
23.10.1954 according to the "Paris Agreements" the Federal Republic becomes a full member of NATO with its own armed forces
05.05.1955 The Paris Agreements come into force
12.11.1955 on Scharnhorst's 200th birthday, Defense Minister Blank presented him and Heusinger with the certificates of appointment to the three-star general of the Bundeswehr (Generalleutnant)
22.11.1955 - 27.02.1957 Chef der Abteilung IV (Streitkräfte) im Bundesministerium der Verteidigung
01.10.1956 z. b. V. des Bundesministers der Verteidigung
0!.04.1957 - 30.09.1963 Oberbefehlshaber der Verbündeten Landstreitkräfte in Europa-Mitte, COMLANDCENT, Fontainebleau
01.10.1963 - 31.03.1964 “Sonderbeauftragter für Fragen der atlantischen Verteidigung“ der Bundesregierung
Präsident der “Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik“
31.03.1964 Retired
00.00.1971 Professor h. c. at the Spanish National Defense College in Madrid
Awards and Decorations:
00.00.1915 Königreich Württembergische Silberne Militärverdienstmedaille 1892
00.00.1915 1914 Eisernes Kreuz II.Klasse
00.00.1917 1914 Eisernes Kreuz I.Klasse
10.04.1917 Königreich Württembergische Militärverdienstorden Ritterkreuz
20.02.1917 Königreich Württembergische Goldene Militärverdienstmedaille 1892
00.00.19__ Ehrenritterkreuz zum Johanniterorden
00.00.1934 Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer 1914-1918
00.00.19__ Magyar Háborús Emlékérem 1914-1918 (Hungary)
02.10.1936 Dienstauszeichnung der Wehrmacht IV. bis II.Klasse
07.12.1939 1939 Spange zum 1914 Eisernes Kreuz II.Klasse
12.05.1940 1939 Spange zum 1914 Eisernes Kreuz I.Klasse
00.00.1940 Deutsches Schutzwall-Ehrenzeichen
00.00.194_ Ordinul Steaua Romaniei Commander, with Swords (Romania)
00.00.194_ Ordinul Corona Romaniei Commander, with Swords (Romania)
00.00.194_ Ordinul Steaua Romaniei Commander, with War Ribbon (Romania)
00.00.194_ Magyar Érdemrend Lovagkeresztje (Hungary)
00.00.194_ Za Voenna Zasluga, 3rd Class (Bulgaria)
08.10.1942 Deutsches Kreuz in Gold
01.04.1944 Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes, as Generalleutnant and Chef des Generalstabes 8. Armee
00.00.19__ Basilikon Tagma toy Phoinikos, Grand Cross (Greece)
00.00.19__ Grande Ufficiale della Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (Italy)
00.00.1957 Commandeur de l' Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur (France)
10.08.1961 Legion of Merit, Commander (U.S.A.)
00.00.1963 Großes Verdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband des Verdienstordens der BRD
00.00.1974 Bayerischer Verdienstorden
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Hans Speidel (28 October 1897 – 28 November 1984) was a German general, who was one of the major military leaders of West Germany during the early Cold War. The first full General in West Germany, he was a principal founder of the Bundeswehr and a major figure in German rearmament, integration into NATO and international negotiations on European and Western defence cooperation in the 1950s. He served as Commander of the Allied Land Forces Central Europe (COMLANDCENT) from 1957 to 1963 and then as President of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs from 1964.
Speidel joined the German Army in 1914, fought in the First World War, and stayed with the Army as a career soldier after the war. He served as chief of staff to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel during the Second World War and was promoted to lieutenant general in 1944. Speidel participated in the 20 July Plot to assassinate Hitler, and he was tasked with recruiting Rommel for the resistance. After the plot failed he was arrested by the Gestapo. With the help of Pallottine religious, he was able to escape together with other prisoners and were able to go into hiding in Urnau in today's Lake Constance district and were taken there by French troops in the last days of the war. He was the only major player in the 20 July Plot to survive the war.
During the early Cold War, Speidel emerged as one of the major military leaders of West Germany, and played a key role in German rearmament, Western international negotiations on defence cooperation and West German integration into NATO. He is thus regarded as one of the founders of the Bundeswehr. He was appointed as the military advisor of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in 1950 and joined the predecessor of the Federal Ministry of Defence in 1951, was the West German chief delegate to the conference on the Treaty establishing the European Defence Community from 1951 to 1954 and was a lead negotiator when West Germany joined NATO. In 1955 he became a director-general in the Federal Ministry of Defence with the military rank of lieutenant-general in the Bundeswehr, and in 1957 he became the first officer to be promoted to full General in West Germany. He served as COMLANDCENT from 1957 to 1963, with headquarters at the Palace of Fontainebleau in Paris. Speidel was also a historian by training, taught at the University of Tübingen and wrote several books. He received the Grand Cross with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1963. In 1964 he became President of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, the German government's main think tank in international relations.
He was the father of Brigadier General Hans Helmut Speidel and the father-in-law of European Commissioner and liberal politician Guido Brunner. A German Army military base, the General Dr Speidel Barracks, was named in his honour in 1997.
Speidel was born in Metzingen. He joined the German Army in 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War and was quickly promoted to second lieutenant. During the war he was a company commander at the Battle of the Somme and an adjutant. He stayed in the German Army during the interwar period and also studied history and economics at different universities. In 1926 he received his Ph.D. degree in history magna cum laude.
Speidel took part in the invasion of France of 1940 and in August became Chief of Staff of the military commander in France. In 1942 Speidel was sent to the Eastern Front where he served as Chief of Staff of the 5th Army Corps, and as Chief of Staff of 8th Army in 1943, where he was promoted to general.
In April 1944, Speidel was appointed Chief of Staff to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the Commander-in-Chief of Army Group B, stationed on the French Atlantic coast. When Rommel was wounded, Speidel continued as Chief of Staff for the new commander of Army Group B, Field Marshal Günther von Kluge.
On 26 August 1944, Speidel answered the phone when Alfred Jodl, the OKW chief of staff, called Field Marshal Walter Model, commander in chief of the western front, with Hitler's order to start targeting Paris immediately with V1 and V2 rockets. Model was not in. Speidel never did pass on the order to his superior.
Speidel, a professional soldier and nationalist conservative, agreed with those aspects of Hitler's policy that returned Germany to its place as a world power, but disagreed with the Nazis' racial policies. He was involved in the 20 July Plot to kill Hitler and had been delegated by anti-Hitler forces to recruit Rommel for the conspiracy, which he had cautiously begun to do prior to Rommel's injury in a British strafing attack on 17 July 1944. Speidel managed to become Rommel's confidant, purely by chance: Lucie Rommel, after having an argument with the wife of Alfred Gause (Rommel's then Chief-of-Staff) about who had the more honourable place at a wedding, decided to not only evict the Gause couple out of her house but to order her husband to dismiss Alfred Gause as well. Rommel chose Speidel, a fellow Swabian, as his new Chief-of-Staff.
Following the assassination attempt, the Gestapo rounded up, tortured and executed some five thousand Germans, including many high-ranking officers. Speidel's involvement was suspected by the Gestapo, and he was arrested on 7 September 1944. Rommel, in his final letter to Hitler of 1 October 1944, appealed for Speidel's release, but received no answer. Speidel appeared before an Army court of honour. According to an affidavit left by Heinz Guderian and Heinrich Kirchheim, during interrogation he blurted out Rommel's name. Maurice Remy comments that Speidel's testimony did not truly betray Rommel, although Speidel probably blamed himself until his death for his revered Field Marshal's fate afterwards. Unknown to Speidel though, his statement offered nothing new or startling to the interrogators, who had already obtained from other co-conspirators the information that Rommel not only knew about but agreed with the assassination. Gerd von Rundstedt, Heinz Guderian and Wilhelm Keitel refused to expel him from the German Army. Thus he was not compelled to appear before Roland Freisler's People's Court, which would have been a death sentence. He was jailed for seven months by the Gestapo. As Allied forces approached the location where he was held, he slipped from his captors and went into hiding for not longer than 3 weeks until 29 April 1945, when French troops entered the area.
In 1950, Speidel was one of the authors of the Himmerod memorandum which addressed the issue of rearmament (Wiederbewaffnung) of the Federal Republic of Germany after World War II. As an important military adviser to the government of Konrad Adenauer, he was instrumental in the creation of the Bundeswehr, and later as a four-star general (the first to be awarded this rank by the Bundeswehr, together with Adolf Heusinger), he oversaw the smooth integration of the Bundeswehr into NATO.
According to an article in Der Spiegel, which cited documents released by the Bundesnachrichtendienst in 2014, Speidel may have been part of the Schnez-Truppe, a secret illegal army that veterans of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS established up from 1949 in Germany in order to repel an attack either by the Soviet Union or by Soviet-controlled East German police units.
After the war Speidel served for some time as professor of modern history at Tübingen and in 1950 published his book Invasion 1944: Rommel and the Normandy Campaign before being involved in both the development and creation of the new German Army (Bundeswehr) which he joined, reaching the NATO rank of full general. He was subsequently appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied NATO ground forces in Central Europe in April 1957, a command that he held until retirement in September 1963. His headquarters were at the Palace of Fontainebleau in Paris.
In 1960, Speidel took legal action against an East German film studio which portrayed him as having been privy to the assassinations of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou in 1934, as well as having betrayed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to the Nazis after the 20 July Plot in 1944. He successfully claimed damages for libel.
Hans Speidel died in 1984 at Bad Honnef, North Rhine-Westphalia, aged 87.
Source :
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-2004-0024,_Hans_Speidel.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Speidel
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=52392&hilit=hans+speidel
https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/18866/Speidel-Drphil-Hans.htm
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