Rommel's fate post WW2

[ccdsah]

What would be Rommel's fate if he survived WW2?
Would he face charges at Nuremberg? Or he would be spared and maybe even heavily involved with the creation of Bundeswehr post war?

[hairysamarian]

Originally Posted by ccdsah

Would he face charges at Nuremberg?

Certainly he would face charges; but he would probably escape with a light sentence, or perhaps no sentence, if he could prove his involvement with the anti-Hitler plotters in 1944.

[jmc247]

Originally Posted by hairysamarian

Certainly he would face charges; but he would probably escape with a light sentence, or perhaps no sentence, if he could prove his involvement with the anti-Hitler plotters in 1944.

This is a good example of how modern views and images are disconnected from WW2 western public opinion.

Take Guderian... he was hated by Poland and the USSR and was a decient example from a moral standpoint of a typical amoral German commander who had zero care for civilian deaths or Jewish deaths and yet he was not charged with any crimes as he was deemed a proper professional soldier. Guderian was liked by the Anglo-American generals who were willing to go to bat for him... also WW2 standards of 'professional conduct' in war were a fair bit more loose then modern standards.

Together with his Panzer staff, Guderian surrendered to American troops on 10 May 1945.

Despite Soviet and Polish government protests, he was not charged with any war crimes during the Nuremberg Trials, as his actions and behaviour were thought to be consistent with those of a professional soldier.

After the war he was often invited to attend meetings of British veterans' groups, where he analyzed past battles with his old foes. During the early 1950s he was active in advising on the redevelopment of the West German army: Bundeswehr (see Searle's Wehrmacht Generals).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Guderian

Rommel was the only German Commander that was genuinely liked not just by the Allied generals, but the Anglo-American press, Hollywood, and the Western Allied governments who actively promoted him to the British and U.S. public as the only truly honorable and chivalrous German commander of the war while the war was going on.

Churchill himself honored Rommel in the House of Commons as did many members of parliament during the war and because of things like that it was believed by many that he was the only one who the Anglo-Americans might talk to in order to put an end to the war (that was why the anti-Nazi civilian German resistance wanted a high governmental position for him any post Hitler government even as early as 1943). He was also the only German commander greatly honored by Jews after the war for all he did to protect them from the SS, deportation to Poland as well as well as militant Arabs.

There is zero chance he would have been charged at Nuremberg. Hell, German commanders that gleefully participated in the Final Solution were given nothing or slaps on the wrist as long as they weren't desk generals who were hated by Allied officers. His Chief of Staff who he assigned to negotiating with the WAllies at Normandy was made the ground commander of NATO forces in Europe in 1957.

[Snake Featherston]

He's let off free from charges, gets a deliberately created propaganda image as the Good German, and writes memoirs blaming his failures on Adolf Hitler.

[Noravea]

How about Rommel as Chancellor of West Germany. I always thought he could possibly get that position.

[Lalli]

Surely he avoid everything charges. Him can't suspect about any war crime. If he get as war prisoner he would be free man very soon. I don't know would he be advisor for organizating Bundeswehr but he might writes memoirs.

Originally Posted by Noravea

How about Rommel as Chancellor of West Germany. I always thought he could possibly get that position.

I don't think that he was so much intrested about politics.

[David Floyd]

What about his use of slave labor to build the Atlantic Wall? Would that have neen a consideration at all? What about if he led a more successful defensive campaign instead of getting wounded, or a more successful Ardennes offensive. Could Rommel have been a scapegoat for a prolonged war or tens of thousands more casualties?

For full disclosure I personally don't think Rommel should have been charged, nor do I think he could have prolonged the war.

[The Kiat]

What exactly could they charge Rommel with? If a certain rocket scientist who used force labor to build his missiles managed to get out of charges, why would a combat soldier face them?

[jmc247]

Originally Posted by Snake Featherston

He's let off free from charges, gets a deliberately created propaganda image as the Good German, and writes memoirs blaming his failures on Adolf Hitler.

In the UK and their Commonwealth their press and government already sold the image to their public of him as the smart and chivalrous German commander by 1942. As for the American public thanks to Hollywood they learned in 1943 that the defeat of Rommel in Africa was started by a French woman who tried to seduce Rommel in Africa to get her brother out of a POW camp.



The point is the image of Rommel was already built for him during the war in the West by his opponents. That was what Rommel won during the war by playing his PR right in Africa, disobeying illegal orders and waging what both sides viewed as a clean war there along with his well known active opposition to Nazi anti-Jewish policies.

The difference between post war Guderian and a post war Rommel is that Rommel was and would have continued to be a celebrity like figure in the UK and US. He wasn't exactly in Guderian's shoes of having his reputation be entirely based on his skill as a general and Hollywood and the Anglo-American press had already explained his defeats in ways that very much tended to make both the Western Allied commanders and Rommel look good.

But, yes when the Cold War got going they would have turned him into an anti Communist symbol.

[jmc247]

Originally Posted by David Floyd

What about his use of slave labor to build the Atlantic Wall? Would that have neen a consideration at all? What about if he led a more successful defensive campaign instead of getting wounded, or a more successful Ardennes offensive. Could Rommel have been a scapegoat for a prolonged war or tens of thousands more casualties?

For full disclosure I personally don't think Rommel should have been charged, nor do I think he could have prolonged the war.

He ordered in 1944 that French workers be paid for their work in his area of operations and not be treated as slaves, not that he had much to pay them with.

During Rommel's time in France, Hitler ordered him to deport the country's Jewish population; Rommel disobeyed. Several times he wrote letters protesting against the treatment of the Jews.

During the construction of the Atlantic Wall, Rommel directed that French workers were not to be used as slaves, but were to be paid for their labour. Nazi party officials in France reported that Rommel extensively and scornfully criticised Nazi incompetence and crimes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Rommel

Rommel could have lived out the rest of his life as a celebrity in the West and an anti Communist symbol for Germans, but he would have had to be willing to keep his head down while his country and people were crushed. He wasn't willing to do that, he was mainly killed not for the weak links Himmler found between him and the July Plotters, but the much more clear evidence that he had tried to organize a surrender of German forces in the West to end the war in 1944.

[superkuf]

Originally Posted by ccdsah

What would be Rommel's fate if he survived WW2?
Would he face charges at Nuremberg? Or he would be spared and maybe even heavily involved with the creation of Bundeswehr post war?

Partly it depends on his actions after his (IOTL) death until VE-Day. But as already been mentioned German generals were not prosecuted for military matters, but for political/strategical decisions (Kietel and others) or individual massacres/crimes.

My guess is that Rommel fights the war out, does some years in POW camp and then is let free. He may keep his polularity with the western press, but I can't see him as involved in Bundeswehr. Guderian or Runstedt would be far better.

He would probably be used as "consultant" for several nations, as were many german officers post WW2. His memoars could be both bestsellers and interesting, but also quite a lot of white-washing. They could have some influence on both the history of the Third Reich and military tactics/strategy.

Regarding a political career I am very dubious. I think that nazi generals were forbidden to parcipiate in the first, Allied-led, elections. I doubt that generals from the losing side would be attractive in a country that was trying to leave the period 1933-45 behind.

[Barbarossa Rotbart]

IOTL Rommel prevented that his son joined the SS and shortly before his suicide he warned him about military ana politics.
So I believe that after the war he stay out of both.

[MattII]

Originally Posted by superkuf

My guess is that Rommel fights the war out, does some years in POW camp and then is let free. He may keep his polularity with the western press, but I can't see him as involved in Bundeswehr. Guderian or Runstedt would be far better.

Rommel would be more sympathetic and less likely to inflame tensions, since he basically had no war crimes to his name (and several times ignored direct orders to commit them). Having a former Nazi in the Bundeswehr government is not going to please the Soviets, having Guderian or Rundstedt is going have them screaming blue murder.

[mankind]

Originally Posted by Barbarossa Rotbart

IOTL Rommel prevented that his son joined the SS and shortly before his suicide he warned him about military ana politics.
So I believe that after the war he stay out of both.

His son became a mayor in a German town I believe.

[kalamona]

Originally Posted by mankind

His son became a mayor in a German town I believe.

Stuttgart (no small thing, BTW, big important city)

[mankind]

Originally Posted by kalamona

Stuttgart (no small thing, BTW, big important city)

Thanks, I couldn't remember where. I only knew from reading an article about Patton's son.

[Nebogipfel]

Originally Posted by mankind

His son became a mayor in a German town I believe.

Manfred Rommel was (lord)major of Stuttgart from 74-96. Extremely popular, even outside of his party (CDU). Probably would have been chancellor if he wanted, but he always refused to even try it.

[kalamona]

Originally Posted by mankind

Thanks, I couldn't remember where. I only knew from reading an article about Patton's son.

Welcome and:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimler_AG

[Barbarossa Rotbart]

Originally Posted by MattII

Rommel would be more sympathetic and less likely to inflame tensions, since he basically had no war crimes to his name (and several times ignored direct orders to commit them). Having a former Nazi in the Bundeswehr government is not going to please the Soviets, having Guderian or Rundstedt is going have them screaming blue murder.

But Rommel would be too old for the job in '55. Guderian was 23 years younger. (And Rundstedt died in '53.)

Originally Posted by mankind

His son became a mayor in a German town I believe.

Manfred Rommel was lord mayor of Stuttgart from 1974 until he stepped down in 1996 and he was very popular.

[MattII]

Originally Posted by Barbarossa Rotbart

But Rommel would be too old for the job in '55. Guderian was 23 years younger.

WTF are you on about, Guderian was 3 years OLDER than Rommel.