Otto Moritz Walter Model (; 24 January 1891 – 21 April 1945) was a German during World War II. Although he was a hard-driving, aggressive panzer commander early in the war, Model became best known as a practitioner of defensive warfare. His relative success as commander of the Ninth Army in the battles of 1941–1942 determined his future career path.
Model first came to Hitler's attention before World War II, but their relationship did not become especially close until 1942. His tenacious style of fighting and loyalty to the Nazi regime won him plaudits from Hitler, who considered him one of his best field commanders and repeatedly sent him to salvage apparently desperate situations on the Eastern Front as commander of Army Group North, Army Group North Ukraine and Army Group Centre.
In August 1944 Model was sent to the Western Front as commander of OB West and Army Group B. His relationship with Hitler broke down by the end of the war after the German defeat at the Battle of the Bulge. In the aftermath of the defeat of Army Group B and its encirclement in the Ruhr Pocket, Model took his own life on 21 April 1945.
Early life and career Otto Moritz Walter Model was born in Genthin, Saxony, the son of Otto Paul Moritz Model, a music teacher at a local girls' school, and his wife Marie Pauline Wilhelmine Demmer. He had a brother, Otto, who was seven years older. He belonged to a middle-class, non-military family. Model's decision to burn all his personal papers at the end of World War II means relatively little is known about his early years. He attended school at the (citizen school) in Genthin. The family moved to Erfurt in 1900, and then to Naumburg, where he graduated with his from the , a humanities-oriented secondary school, on Easter 1909.
Through the influence of his uncle Martin Model, a reserve officer in the 52nd Infantry Regiment von Alvensleben, he joined that regiment as an officer cadet () on 27 February 1909. He was promoted to on 19 November 1909, and was admitted to the army officer cadet school () in Neisse (now Nysa, Poland), where he was an unexceptional student, and was commissioned a (2nd lieutenant) in the 52nd Infantry Regiment on 22 August 1910. He made few friends among his fellow officers and soon became known for his ambition, drive, and blunt outspokenness. These were characteristics that marked his entire career. He became the adjutant of his regiment's 1st Battalion in October 1913.
World War I The 52nd Infantry Regiment was mobilized on the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, and formed part of the 5th Division, which fought on the Western Front. It saw action in the Battle of Mons in August and the First Battle of the Marne in September before occupying a static position in the Soissons sector. Model was promoted to on 25 February 1915. In May 1915, he was severely wounded near Arras when a bullet hit his shoulder blade, and he spent a month in hospital. He distinguished himself in the fighting around Butte-de-Tahure in September, for which he was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class on 19 October. On 3 November he was wounded by artillery fragments in his right shoulder and spent another six weeks in hospital. He was wounded again on 26 April 1916 in the Battle of Verdun, this time by shell fragments in the right thigh.
Model's deeds brought him to the attention of his divisional commander who, despite misgivings about his "uncomfortable subordinate", recommended Model for German General Staff training. He completed the abbreviated eight-month staff officers' course and returned to the 5th Division as adjutant of the 10th Infantry Brigade. This was followed by postings as a company commander in both the 52nd Infantry Regiment and the 8th Life Grenadiers. In June 1917, Lieutenant Colonel Georg Wetzell, who had been the chief of staff of III Corps, of which the 5th Division was a part, in 1914 and 1915, selected Model for duty on the (Army General Staff). Model became an ordnance officer. In late 1917 he was part of a group of junior staff officers who accompanied Colonel Hans von Seeckt to Constantinople to assess the Ottoman Empire's ability to continue prosecuting the war and the possibility of employing German troops in the Middle East.
Model was promoted to Hauptmann (captain) in March 1918, and soon after was assigned to the staff of the Guard Ersatz Division as division supply officer (IIb). As such, he fought in the German spring offensive of that year. The Guard Ersatz Division fought in Operation Michael against the British in March, and in the Second Battle of the Marne against the French in July. On 30 August he became the supply officer of the 36th Reserve Division. The division participated in the Battle of the Lys and the Escaut in October and November.
Inter-war years Under the terms of the armistice of 11 November 1918 that ended the fighting, the German Army had thirty days to depart France and Belgium. The 36th Reserve Division crossed the border into Germany at Aachen on 20 November, but making its way back to its home station at Danzig was no simple feat in the chaotic conditions that prevailed in immediate post-war Germany. 36th Reserve Division commander Major General Franz von Rantau gave Model the credit for the division reaching Danzig more or less intact.
Model considered leaving the army, but was dissuaded by his uncle Martin. In November 1919, von Seeckt selected Model as one of the 4,000 officers in the 100,000-man post-war Reichswehr permitted by the Treaty of Versailles. After the 36th Reserve Division was demobilised, he became the adjutant of the Danzig-based XVII Corps from January to June 1919. He then joined the staff of the 7th Brigade in Westphalia. In early 1920, he became a company commander in the 14th Infantry Regiment at Konstanz, which was sent to the Ruhr in March 1920 to help crush the Ruhr uprising. Following von Seeckt's example, Model kept aloof from politics in the chaotic period that marked the birth of the Weimar Republic, but the experience of the early 1920s left him with an abhorrence of communism.
While billeted in the Ruhr, Model became acquainted with Herta Huyssen, and they were married in Frankfurt on 11 May 1921. They had three children: a daughter, Hella, who was born in 1923; a son, , who was born in 1927, and a second daughter, Christa, who was born in 1929. On 1 October 1921, Model was posted to the 18th Infantry Regiment in Munich, where he commanded the regimental machine gun company. After a few months he returned to staff duty with the artillery staff of the 6th Division. He was influenced by the thinking of its commander, Fritz von Loßberg, who rejected the concept of an elastic defence in favour of a more rigid defence in depth.
In October 1925, following the standard alternation of staff duty with troop duty, Model assumed command of the 9th Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment. This was part of the 3rd Division, which was heavily involved in testing the technical innovations of that era. He returned to staff duty in September 1928, as an officer in the training section at 3rd Division headquarters. He lectured in tactics and war studies for the basic General Staff training course, with presentations on the First Battle of the Marne and the Battle of Tannenberg, and authored a 1929 study of August Neidhardt von Gneisenau. His students included Adolf Heusinger, Alfred Jodl, Siegfried Rasp, Hans Speidel and August Winter, who later became generals. Model was promoted to in October 1929.
In 1930 he was transferred to the Training Branch of the Truppenamt, where he served under Colonels Wilhelm von List, Walter von Brauchitsch, and Walther Wever. He became close friends with Friedrich Paulus, a fellow officer on the staff. In August 1931, he accompanied Brauchitsch, Wilhelm Keitel and Ernst-August Köstring on a visit to Germany's secret training areas in the Soviet Union. Model spent a fortnight with the Red Army's 9th Rifle Division at Rostov, and this formed the basis of a paper he wrote on the Red Army's weapons technology. He was promoted to (lieutenant colonel) in November 1932.
Model returned to troop duty in November 1933, as commander of a battalion of the 2nd Infantry Regiment, part of the 1st Division, which was stationed at Allenstein in East Prussia. As the Army began to expand again in 1934, each of the battalions became a regiment, and in October 1934, Model became the commander of the new 2nd Infantry Regiment, with the rank of (colonel).
In October 1935, Model was appointed to head the 8th Department (Technical) of the (OKH), the revived Army general staff. In this role he was responsible for the development of new weapons, particularly artillery. He was one of the officers who advocated for the creation of armoured divisions and corps. He was promoted to (major general) on 1 March 1938. He led a test firing of the 21 cm Mörser 18 on mock Czech fortifications, which did not impress Adolf Hitler. Like many army officers at the time, Model was a supporter of the Nazi Party, and his time in Berlin brought him into contact with senior members of the government, but after Franz Halder became chief of staff of the OKH in September 1938, there was a purge of pro-Nazi officers from OKH, and Model was reassigned, becoming the chief of staff of the IV Corps in Dresden.
World War II
Invasion of Poland Preparations for the invasion of Poland started in May 1939. The IV Corps became part of the Tenth Army, under the command of Walter von Reichenau, which in turn formed part of Gerd von Rundstedt's Army Group South. World War II began in Europe when IV Corps crossed the border into Poland on 1 September. For the IV Corps, the campaign lasted only eleven days, but there was some hard fighting. On 28 September, the IV Corps was designated the controlling headquarters of the Lublin area. The Lublin Ghetto became one of the first of its kind.
Battle of France On 20 October, Model was appointed the chief of staff of the Sixteenth Army on the recommendation of Brauchitsch, who was now the Commander-in-Chief of the Army. The Sixteenth Army's commander was Ernst Busch. He was an ardent supporter of the Nazi Party, to which he owed his advancement to an army command ahead of several more senior officers, despite his undistinguished record of service in Poland. Brauchitsch hoped that Busch and Model would form a good working relationship, since their politics were similar and social backgrounds were humble. At the same time, he hoped that Model would provide expertise on fast-moving operations for Busch, whose tactical ideas were considered reactionary.
Under the plan for the attack on France, the Sixteenth Army formed part of Rundstedt's army group, now renamed Army Group A. The Sixteenth Army was given the minor role of protecting the left flank, with seven divisions recently mobilised from reservists that were largely equipped with Czech weapons. During the winter, the alternative Manstein Plan (Case Yellow) was adopted, which shifted the main attack to Army Group A. In war games held in February, Model played the commander of the Sixteenth Army while Busch played the French commander, General Maurice Gamelin. Using stolid operational movements, Busch was able to halt the German advance.
Model, who was promoted to on 1 April 1940, had to cope with the Sixteenth Army's composition being completely changed in March and April. The Sixteenth Army's mission was still to cover the flank, but its frontage became much wider, and the imperative for a rapid advance meant that Model spent much of his time overseeing logistical arrangements. When the Germans attacked on 11 May, Gamelin pursued the Dyle Plan rather than the cautious operations that Busch had favoured, and the infantry of Army Group A advanced much faster than expected, leading to an important German victory.