Ludwig Beck

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Ludwig Beck bigraphy, stories - German general

Ludwig Beck : biography

29 June 1880 – 20 July 1944

Generaloberst Ludwig August Theodor Beck (29 June 1880 – 20 July 1944) was a German general and Chief of the German General Staff during the early years of the Nazi regime in Germany before World War II. Ludwig Beck was never a member of the Nazi Party, though in the early 1930s he supported Adolf Hitler’s forceful denunciation of the Versailles Treaty and belief in the need for Germany to rearm. Beck had grave misgivings regarding the Nazi demand that all German officers swear an oath of fealty to the person of Hitler in 1934, though he believed that Germany needed strong government and that Hitler could successfully provide this so long as he was influenced by traditional elements within the military rather than the SA and SS.

In serving as Chief of Staff of the German Army between 1935 and 1938, Beck became increasingly disillusioned in this respect, standing in opposition to the increasing authoritarianism of the Nazi regime and Hitler’s aggressive foreign policy. It was due to public foreign policy disagreements with Hitler that Beck resigned as Chief of Staff in August 1938. From this point, Beck came to believe that Hitler could not be influenced for good, and that both Hitler and the Nazi party needed to be removed from government. He became a major leader within the conspiracy against Hitler, and would have been provisional head of state had the 20 July plot succeeded. When the plot failed, Beck was arrested and he offered to commit suicide with a pistol.

Plotting

In the following years, Beck lived in retirement in his Berlin apartment and ceased to have any meaningful influence on German military affairs. His opposition to Hitler had brought him in contact with a small number of senior officers intent on deposing the dictator and his home became the headquarters of the small circle of opposition. He increasingly came to rely upon contacts with the British in the hope that London would successfully exert its influence on Hitler, where he had failed to, through threats and warnings.

Beck and his conspirators knew that Germany faced certain and rapid defeat if France and Great Britain came to the Czechs’ aid in 1938. Accordingly, they contacted the British Foreign Office, informed Britain of their plot, and asked for a firm British warning to deter Hitler from attacking Czechoslovakia. In September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, French President Édouard Daladier and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini signed the Munich Agreement, compelling Czechoslovakia to give up the Sudetenland, which put an end to the crisis, and hence Beck’s efforts at a putsch.

In the autumn of 1939, Beck was in contact with certain Germany Army officers, politicians, and civil servants, including General Halder, Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, Carl Goerdeler, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, and Colonel Hans Oster about the possibility of staging a putsch to overthrow the Nazi regime. By this time, Beck had come to accept that it was not possible to overthrow the Nazi regime while keeping Hitler in power. In the event of the putsch being successful, Germany was to be governed by a triumvirate of Beck, Goerdeler and Schacht who would negotiate a peace with Britain and France that would allow Germany to keep most of the Nazi conquests made up until that time, including Austria, all of western Poland, and the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia. In January–February 1940, a series of meetings between Goerdeler, Beck, Hassell and Johannes Popitz produced agreement that when the Nazi regime was overthrown that Beck was to head the Council of Regency that would govern Germany. In 1940–1941, Beck spent much time discussing together with Goerdeler, Hassell, and Erwin von Witzleben certain aspects of the new proposed state after the successful overthrowing of the Nazi regime.

Notes

Pre-war conflict with Hitler

Beck resented Adolf Hitler for his efforts to curb the army’s position of influence. Beck tried very early—as Chief of the General Staff—to deter Hitler from using the grievances of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia, the population of which was mostly ethnic-German, as an excuse for war against the latter state in 1938.