View text source at Wikipedia

Wilhelm Burgdorf

Wilhelm Burgdorf
Chief of the Army Personnel Office
In office
12 October 1944 – 2 May 1945
Preceded byRudolf Schmundt
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Chief adjutant to Adolf Hitler
In office
12 October 1944 – 30 April 1945
Personal details
Born(1895-02-15)15 February 1895
Fürstenwalde, Province of Brandenburg, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died2 May 1945(1945-05-02) (aged 50)
Berlin, Germany
Cause of deathSuicide by gunshot
Military service
Allegiance
Branch/service
Years of service1914–1945
Rank General der Infanterie
Unit12th Grenadier Regiment (World War I)
529th Infantry Regiment (World War II)
CommandsArmy Personnel Office
529th Infantry Regiment
Battles/warsWorld War I
World War II
AwardsWorld War I

Iron Cross

Iron Cross 2nd Class

Iron Cross1st Class

World War II

Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Eastern Medal

Wilhelm Emanuel Burgdorf (15 February 1895 – 2 May 1945)[a] was a German general who rose to prominence during the final years of World War II. Burgdorf served as a commander of 529th Infantry Regiment from May 1940 to April 1942 (part of the 299th Infantry Division). In October 1944, Burgdorf assumed the role of the chief of the Army Personnel Office and chief adjutant to Adolf Hitler. In this capacity, he played a key role in the forced suicide of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Burgdorf committed suicide inside the Führerbunker on 2 May 1945 at the conclusion of the Battle of Berlin.

Early life and education

[edit]

Burgdorf was born on 15 February 1895 in Fürstenwalde, Province of Brandenburg, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire.[1]

Military career

[edit]
Wilhelm Burgdolf during the Weimar Republic

Burgdorf joined the Prussian Army at the outbreak of World War I as an officer cadet and was commissioned as an infantry officer in Grenadier Regiment 12 in 1915. After the war he served in the Reichswehr and was promoted to captain in 1930. In the Wehrmacht, he became an instructor in tactics at the military academy in Dresden with the rank of major in 1935 and was appointed an adjutant on the staff of the IX corps in 1937. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1938 and served as the commander of the 529th Infantry Regiment from May 1940 to April 1942. In May 1942, he became Chief of Department 2 of the Army Personnel Office. Burgdorf became the Deputy Chief in October 1942, when he was promoted to Generalmajor.[2]

Burgdorf was promoted to chief of the Army Personnel Office and chief adjutant to Adolf Hitler in October 1944. At that time, he was further promoted in rank to Generalleutnant, and one month later (on 1 November 1944) to the rank of General der Infanterie. Burgdorf retained that rank and position until his death.[2]

Operation Valkyrie and the Court of Honor

[edit]

Following the 20 July plot to murder Hitler, which included notable members from within Germany's aristocracy and military command staff, a court was assembled to judge and condemn the conspirators.[3] Burgdorf was one of the many members of Roland Freisler's so-called Court of Honor brought together to pass judgment, along with generals von Rundstedt, Keitel, Guderian, Schroth, Kriebel, Maisel, Kircheim, and Specht.[4] Upwards of 200 persons or more—military and non-military alike—were executed in the wake of the 20 July events.[5]

Role in Rommel's death

[edit]

Burgdorf played a key role in the death of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who had been implicated as having a peripheral role in the plan to assassinate Hitler.[6] On 14 October 1944, Burgdorf, with General Ernst Maisel, arrived at the Rommel household. Burgdorf informed Rommel of the charges and, following the instructions of Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, offered him three choices: report to Hitler and plead not guilty; admit guilt, take poison, receive a state funeral and obtain immunity for his family and staff; or face a trial for treason.[b] Rommel decided on the second option and briefed his wife and son before leaving with Burgdorf and Maisel. Rommel's family received a telephone call ten minutes later informing them that Rommel had committed suicide.[8]

Battle of Berlin

[edit]

Shortly before the Battle of Berlin, Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager overheard Burgdorf say: "When the war is over, we will have to purge, after the Jews, the Catholic officers in the army."[9]

Burgdorf joined Hitler in the Führerbunker when the Soviets assaulted Berlin. On 28 April, Hitler discovered that Heinrich Himmler tried to negotiate a surrender to the western Allies via Count Folke Bernadotte. Burgdorf took part in Hitler's court-martial of Hermann Fegelein, Himmler's SS liaison officer and Eva Braun's brother-in-law. SS-General Wilhelm Mohnke presided over the tribunal, which included SS-General Johann Rattenhuber and General Hans Krebs. Fegelein was so drunk that he was crying, vomiting and unable to stand up; he even urinated on the floor. It was the opinion of the judges that he was in no condition to stand trial. Therefore, Mohnke closed the proceedings and turned Fegelein over to Rattenhuber and his security squad.[10]

On 29 April 1945, Burgdorf, Krebs, Joseph Goebbels, and Martin Bormann witnessed and signed Hitler's last will and testament.[11] After Hitler's suicide on 30 April 1945, Goebbels assumed Hitler's role as chancellor.[12] On 1 May, Goebbels dictated a letter to Soviet Army Marshall Vasily Chuikov, requesting a temporary ceasefire, and ordered General Krebs to deliver it. Chuikov commanded the Soviet forces in central Berlin.[13] After this was rejected, Goebbels decided that further efforts were futile.[14] Goebbels then launched into a tirade berating the generals, reminding them Hitler forbade them to surrender. Ministerialdirektor Hans Fritzsche left the room to take matters into his own hands. He went to his nearby office on Wilhelmplatz and wrote a surrender letter addressed to Soviet Marshall Georgy Zhukov. General Burgdorf followed Fritzsche to his office.[15] There he asked Fritzsche if he intended to surrender Berlin. Fritzsche replied that he was going to do just that. Burgdorf shouted that Hitler had forbidden surrender and as a civilian he had no authority to do so. Burgdorf then pulled his PPK to shoot Fritzsche, but a radio technician "knocked the gun" and the bullet fired, hit the ceiling. Several men then hustled Burgdorf out of the office and he returned to the bunker.[16]

After midnight, in the early hours of 2 May 1945, following the earlier suicides of Hitler and Goebbels, Burgdorf and his colleague Chief of Staff Hans Krebs committed suicide together by gunshot to the head.[17] The Soviets found the bodies of Krebs and Burgdorf in the bunker complex.[18]

Awards and decorations

[edit]
Promotions
1938:

Oberstleutnant

October 1942: Generalmajor
October 1944: Generalleutnant
1 November 1944: General der Infanterie (General of the Infantry)

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]

Explanatory notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Burgdorf apparently committed suicide after midnight on 2 May, although some other sources state it occurred before midnight on 1 May. See Kershaw 2008, p. 960,Beevor 2002, p. 387
  2. ^ "Two generals from Hitler's headquarters, Burgdorf and Ernst Maisel, visited Rommel at his home on 14 October 1944. Burgdorf informed him of the charges and offered him three options: he could choose to defend himself personally to Hitler in Berlin; "Burgdorf had with him copies of the interrogations of von Hofacker, von Stülpnagel and Speidel, along with a letter written by Keitel ostensibly dictated by Hitler himself. In the letter, the Führer gave Rommel an impossible choice: if he believed himself innocent of the allegations against him, then Rommel must report to Hitler in person in Berlin; refusal to do so would be considered an admission of guilt."[7][page needed]

Citations

[edit]
  1. ^ Klee 2016, p. 86.
  2. ^ a b Joachimsthaler 1999, p. 286.
  3. ^ Stone 2011, pp. 301–306.
  4. ^ Stone 2011, p. 306.
  5. ^ Stone 2011, p. 310.
  6. ^ Stone 2011, pp. 308–309.
  7. ^ Butler 2015.
  8. ^ Evans 2009, p. 642.
  9. ^ Boeselager 2009, p. 177.
  10. ^ O'Donnell 1978, pp. 182–183.
  11. ^ Bullock 1962, p. 795.
  12. ^ Kershaw 2008, pp. 949–950, 955.
  13. ^ Fest 2004, pp. 135–137.
  14. ^ Vinogradov 2005, p. 324.
  15. ^ Fest 2004, p. 137.
  16. ^ Fest 2004, pp. 137–139.
  17. ^ Beevor 2002, p. 387.
  18. ^ Ryan 1966, p. 398.
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h Thomas & Wegmann 1993, p. 292.
  20. ^ Scherzer 2007, p. 254.

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Beevor, Antony (2002). Berlin: The Downfall 1945. London: Viking-Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-670-03041-5.
  • Boeselager, Philipp Freiherr von (2009). Valkyrie: The Story of the Plot to Kill Hitler by its Last Member. Vintage. ISBN 978-0-307-45497-3.
  • Bullock, Alan (1962). Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-013564-2.
  • Butler, Daniel Allen (2015). Field Marshal: The Life and Death of Erwin Rommel. Havertown, PA / Oxford: Casemate. ISBN 978-1-61200-297-2.
  • Evans, Richard J. (2009). The Third Reich at War. New York: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-101548-4.
  • Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986]. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 — The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.
  • Fest, Joachim (2004) [2002]. Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-13577-5.
  • Joachimsthaler, Anton (1999) [1995]. The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, the Evidence, the Truth. Trans. Helmut Bögler. London: Brockhampton Press. ISBN 978-1-86019-902-8.
  • Kershaw, Ian (2008). Hitler: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06757-6.
  • Klee, Ernst (2016). Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945 (in German). Hamburg: Nikol Verlag. ISBN 978-3-86820-311-0.
  • O'Donnell, James (1978). The Bunker. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-25719-7.
  • Ryan, Cornelius (1966). The Last Battle. London: Collins. ISBN 0-00-613267-7.
  • Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Militaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
  • Stone, David (2011). Shattered Genius: The Decline and Fall of the German General Staff in World War II. Philadelphia: Casemate. ISBN 978-1-61200-098-5.
  • Thomas, Franz; Wegmann, Günter (1993). Die Ritterkreuzträger der Deutschen Wehrmacht 1939–1945 Teil III: Infanterie Band 3: Br–Bu [The Knight's Cross Bearers of the German Wehrmacht 1939–1945 Part III: Infantry Volume 3: Br–Bu] (in German). Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7648-1734-3.
  • Vinogradov, V. K. (2005). Hitler's Death: Russia's Last Great Secret from the Files of the KGB. Chaucer Press. ISBN 978-1-904449-13-3.
[edit]