Rommel did not suicide

NIK PARMEN

Banned
Let's say that in 1944 Rommel instead commit suicide after the failed assination attempted against Hitler escapes to Switzerland or surrenders to the Americans. What's next?
 
A popular theme seems to be that Rommel somehow manages to engage in a civil war with Nazi state, win control of it via the army, then negotiate peace with the Western allies who obviously recognize his brilliance and apparent dandy antinazi-ness and who then march into Moscow without nary a scratch and everyone lives happily ever after in some sort of Rommel-fanboy fantasy land where 100 Rommel-Marks gets you into Rommel-World (much like Rimmer Experience in Red Dwarf).
 
escape to switzerland would never happen

surrender/defect not in his character to act alone

otherwise if he doesn't committ suicide... I actually don't think Hitler would have the stones to put him before the court of honor despite the threat of doing so (too risky and Rommel was too popular in the country as a whole to have him revealed as a traitor)... more likely the SS or SD would just give him an "accident" on his way home from his convalesence
 
If he did escape, I imagine his family would be killed. To save them is part of the reason he killed himself to begin with.
 
Though not an actual conspirator in the MANY plots to assasinate and/or overthrow AH , Erwin Rommel was privy to some of them . This, combined with the course of the war and his popularity within the Reich (due mostly to the Goebels propaganda apparatus) made him politically unreliable . It is a fact that he was aware of the Valkyrie von Staufenberg-Beck plot , so suicide was for him the only realistic and honorable option(also picturing one's family enjoying the hospitality of the Gestapo at the Prinz Albrectstrasse dungeons is incentive enough).
 
As others have said the alternative is execution of some form, probably without a public trial. His family would probably also meet with 'accidents'.
 

The Vulture

Banned
Rommel is found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs before he goes on trial to avoid losing favor among some elements of the Wehrmacht.

Most plausible outcome I can envision.
 
First, Rommel was constrained by the fact that his family would have been killed (or worse) if he did nor kill himself.

Second, Rommel's later standing as an "anti-Hitler" conspirator was largely secured by the fact that the Nazis forced him to hill himself. In fact his only involvement with the plots was that he knew about them and did not tell anybody. Had he fled to Switzerland his credentials as an anti-Nazi would be diminshed since he would have done essentially nothing noteworthy to demonstrate a sincere opposition to the Nazi regime - like getting killed by it. It would basically be his word that he became an opponent of the regime against the fact that, more than many German officers, he actively curried favor with the regime to get where he was throughout the 1930's and early 1940's.

He would die in exile in Switzerland.
 
First, Rommel was constrained by the fact that his family would have been killed (or worse) if he did nor kill himself.

Second, Rommel's later standing as an "anti-Hitler" conspirator was largely secured by the fact that the Nazis forced him to hill himself. In fact his only involvement with the plots was that he knew about them and did not tell anybody. Had he fled to Switzerland his credentials as an anti-Nazi would be diminshed since he would have done essentially nothing noteworthy to demonstrate a sincere opposition to the Nazi regime - like getting killed by it. It would basically be his word that he became an opponent of the regime against the fact that, more than many German officers, he actively curried favor with the regime to get where he was throughout the 1930's and early 1940's.

He would die in exile in Switzerland.
Provided he Managed to Sneak his Family Out with him ...

That's STILL a Better Fate than OTL, No?
 
If he did escape, I imagine his family would be killed. To save them is part of the reason he killed himself to begin with.

This would also mean that there would definitely be other mayors for the city of Stuttgart. Every German with a bit of grasp also knows about his son Manfred. He is also known as a man of great virtue.
 
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