Hans Speidel

Hans Speidel was a German general who served in both World Wars and became one of the major military leaders of West Germany during the early Cold War. 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 also participated in the 20 July Plot to assassinate Hitler and was one of the few plotters who survived the war. Speidel was born in Metzingen, a town in the Kingdom of Württemberg, which was part of the German Empire. He joined the army in 1914 as a volunteer and fought in the First World War as a lieutenant. He stayed in the army after the war and became a member of the Reichswehr, the army of the Weimar Republic. He studied history at the University of Tübingen and received his doctorate in 1928. He also taught at the military academy in Berlin. In 1930, he was appointed to the General Staff, where he served under Ludwig Beck, who later became one of the leaders of the resistance against Hitler. Speidel did not join the Nazi Party, but he remained in the army after Hitler came to power in 1933. He took part in the invasion of France in 1940 as a colonel and was promoted to major general in 1942. He served as chief of staff to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in North Africa and later in France, where he commanded the Army Group B under Rommel, Günther von Kluge and Walter Model. Speidel was involved in the 20 July Plot to overthrow Hitler and end the war. He was tasked with recruiting Rommel for the resistance, but Rommel refused to join the assassination plan and preferred to arrest Hitler instead. After Rommel was wounded by an Allied air attack, Speidel took over his command and tried to negotiate with the Allies for a separate peace. However, after the plot failed, he was arrested by the Gestapo and interrogated. He managed to escape execution by claiming that he did not know about the assassination attempt and that he only wanted to save Germany from destruction. He was sent to a prison camp, where he stayed until the end of the war. After the 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 was appointed as the military advisor of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in 1950 and joined the predecessor of the Federal Ministry of Defence in 1951. He was also 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 Commander of the Allied Land Forces Central Europe (COMLANDCENT) from 1957 to 1963, with headquarters at the Palace of Fontainebleau in Paris. Speidel retired from active service in 1963 and became President of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs from 1964 to 1970. He also continued his academic work as a historian and wrote several books on military history and strategy. He died in 1984 in Bad Honnef, where he was buried. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his service in the Second World War and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his contribution to the defence and security of West Germany and NATO. He is regarded as one of the founders of the Bundeswehr and a pioneer of European integration and cooperation.