Kurt Gebhard Adolf Philipp Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord (26 September 1878 – 24 April 1943) was a German general (Generaloberst) who was the Commander-in-Chief of the Reichswehr, the Weimar Republic's armed forces. He is regarded as "an undisguised opponent" of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime.
Early life
Hammerstein was born to a noble family, which had already produced several famous officers, in Hinrichshagen, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, German Empire in 1878.Hans Magnus Enzensberger: Hammerstein oder Der Eigensinn. Eine deutsche Geschichte. Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp 2008, His parents were the head forester (Oberförster) of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Heino von Hammerstein, and his wife Ida, née Gustedt (also from a noble family). After his initial schooling, Hammerstein joined the Cadet Corps in Plön in 1888 at the age of ten, followed by the Prussian Cadet Corps Berlin-Lichterfelde in 1893. He officially entered the Imperial German Army on 15 March 1898 upon his promotion to lieutenant (Secondelieutenant) in the 3rd Foot Guards.
In 1907, Hammerstein-Equord married Maria von Lüttwitz, the daughter of Walther von Lüttwitz
The future Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher (1882–1934) served in the same unit with Hammerstein, and they soon became friends. From 1905 to 1907, Hammerstein served in Kassel. From 1907 to 1910, he attended the Prussian Military Academy (Kriegsakademie) and in 1911, he was posted to the deployment section of the Great General Staff.
During the First World War, Hammerstein served as adjutant of Georg von Waldersee and then as a General Staff officer in various military units, including as a First General Staff Officer of the VIII Reserve Corps in 1915, at the Great General Staff in 1916, and as first General Staff Officer in charge of operations and tactics in the staff of a General Command in 1918.Compare:
In 1914, Hammerstein commanded a company in Flanders, where he earned the Iron Cross. In 1916, he participated in the Battle of Turtucaia during the Romanian Campaign. He was promoted to major in 1917.
Weimar Republic
Upon the declaration of the Weimar Republic, Hammerstein was transferred to the Reichswehr. He served under his father-in-law, General Walther von Lüttwitz, in the staff of the Freikorps Lüttwitz in 1919 and was promoted to lieutenant colonel one year later. That year, he refused to participate in the Kapp Putsch, which was supported by Lüttwitz. He subsequently transferred to Group Command II, based in Kassel, as its chief of staff.
In 1922, he became a battalion commander in the Munich area. In 1924, he was transferred to the staff of Military District III in Berlin. In 1929, he briefly served in the Group Command I. On 1 October 1929, he was promoted to Major General and named chief of the Truppenamt, becoming the de facto chief of the General Staff. In the Weimar Republic, the renaming was necessary as the Great General Staff had been prohibited by the Allies in the Treaty of Versailles after the First World War. His predecessor was General Werner von Blomberg, who had come into conflict with the government over the possibility of a two-front war against both France and Poland, which he deemed as favorable. By contrast, Reichswehrminister Wilhelm Groener and Chancellor Heinrich Brüning preferred Hammerstein's aversion to political extremism and military risks.
Hammerstein worked out first tactical concepts for the army to provide for a sustained defence in case of an attack until the League of Nations intervened. However, in 1930, he created the first mobilization plan since 1923, which sought to triple the number of infantry divisions from seven to 21. In 1930, General Wilhelm Heye, Commander-in-Chief of the Reichswehr, retired. Now defense minister, Schleicher, with support from Brüning, made Hammerstein Heye's successor. On 1 November 1930, he assumed the post with a simultaneous promotion to General of Infantry. Hammerstein quickly created a rearmament program, demanding the formation of at least 42 divisions.
As a close friend of Kurt von Schleicher, Hammerstein repeatedly warned President Paul von Hindenburg of the dangers of appointing Adolf Hitler, the leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, as Reich Chancellor. In response, Hindenburg assured Hammerstein that "he would not even consider making that Austrian corporal the minister of defense or the chancellor".
However, barely four days later, on 30 January 1933, pursuant to a request by Hindenburg, Hitler formed a cabinet as Chancellor in a coalition with the German National People's Party. Because of his opposition to Hitler, Hammerstein tendered his resignation in October 1933. It was accepted in December and became effective on 31 January 1934. He was succeeded by General Werner von Fritsch.
Nazi Germany
Night of the Long Knives
From 30 June 1934, Hitler implemented a program of large-scale arrests, murders, intimidation and elimination of suspected and known opponents, under the pretext of an imminent coup by SA-Chief Ernst Röhm. Some prominent opponents like Hammerstein and former Chancellor Franz von Papen were not affected by the purge, possibly thanks to a personal request by Hindenburg, according to some historians. In a report conducted by communist agents, however, it was said that Hammerstein "is in these days, the center of Berlin officer circles". Comrades from the Ministry would have protected him "since they had feared at any moment his arrest". General Erwin von Witzleben together with the generals Wilhelm von Leeb and Gerd von Rundstedt, demanded an investigation of the murders of Schleicher and Ferdinand von Bredow from Commander-in-Chief Fritsch.Klaus-Jürgen-Müller: Witzleben – Stülpnagel – Speidel: Offiziere im Widerstand (pdf; 3,2 MB). In: Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand Berlin (Hrsg.): Beiträge zum Widerstand 1933–1945. Heft 7, Among those officers who protested the killing of their comrades was Major Hans Oster.
Hammerstein and Field Marshal August von Mackensen attempted first to reach Hindenburg personally to stop the purge. On 18 July, they sent him a memorandum in a blue file folder, the so-called Blue Book.Die Weltbühne, Vol. 30, No. 27–52, pp. 1601–1603 According to others, it did not reach Hindenburg before his death. On 13 July 1934, Hitler tried to justify the purge in a Reichstag speech, notably by accusing Schleicher and Bredow of subversive collaboration with Röhm and conspiracy with other countries for the purpose of a "national-Bolshevik coup". Criticism of said accusations by military personnel was not supported by Minister of War Werner von Blomberg, who upheld Hitler's claims and promised evidence.
However, when such evidence did not appear, and criticism continued, Hitler finally gave in. In a closed meeting about another topic, with leading elements of the government, the party and the Reichswehr present, Hitler said "studies" had shown that Generals Schleicher and von Bredow had been shot "by mistake". However, that information was to be kept secret, and all military officers were forbidden to attend Schleicher's funeral. Defying that order, Hammerstein sought to attend the funeral and was enraged when the SS refused to allow him to attend the service and confiscated the wreaths that the mourners had brought.Wheeler-Bennett, John The Nemesis of Power, London: Macmillan, 1967 page 328.
Second World War
At the beginning of the Second World War, Hammerstein was briefly recalled to military service. On 10 September 1939, he was named as commander of Army Detachment A, which guarded the western borders during the Invasion of Poland.
Hammerstein was transferred to command Wehrkreis (Defense District) VIII in Silesia and was relieved from his command by Hitler for his "negative attitude towards National Socialism". Hammerstein retired again on 21 September 1939 but continued to be active in the German Resistance. Hammerstein-Equord was involved in several plots to overthrow Hitler, including in the run-up of the failed 20 July 1944 plot.
Illness, death and legacy
Years before his death, Hammerstein had developed a slow-growing mass below his left ear but declined to seek medical advice. In January 1943, Doctor Ferdinand Sauerbruch informed him that he had cancer, which had by then metastasized. Surgery, the only potentially curative treatment at the time, was thus futile, and Hammerstein was told that he was expected to survive for only six months. Although his medical team admitted that the cancer had advanced beyond any hope of recovery, Hammerstein underwent radiation treatment, causing serious side-effects and great discomfort. His son, Kunrat, ordered that the therapy be discontinued after he had been informed that the treatment was purely palliative.Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord, Kunrat (1963): Spähtrupp. Stuttgart, West Germany: Henry Goverts, p. 198.
Hammerstein-Equord spent the final weeks of his life in considerable pain in his house in Dahlem, an affluent district of Berlin. Although he was aware that he was under surveillance by the Gestapo, he continued to voice his criticism of the regime to visitors. Among them, the art historian Udo von Alvensleben noted in his diary after meeting him in mid-February 1943: "I am ashamed to have belonged in an army, that witnessed and tolerated all the crimes", is Hammerstein's final conclusion.von Alvensleben, Udo (1971): Lauter Abschiede. Tagebuch im Kriege. Berlin: Ullstein, p. 257.
On 16 April, agents of the Gestapo and SD visited Hammerstein after which he fell into a coma from which he never recovered. He died in his home on 24 April 1943.Paasche, Gottfried. "General von Hammerstein & Hitler: An Exchange" , The New York Review of Books, June 10, 2010, accessed April 14, 2011.Dakin, Rose. "My Great-Uncles Tried To Kill Hitler" , 'slate.com', January 12, 2009, accessed April 14, 2011 His family refused an official funeral at Berlin's Invalidenfriedhof because that would have meant that his coffin would have been draped in the Reichskriegsflagge with the swastika. He was instead interred at the family grave in Steinhorst, Lower Saxony. Hitler ordered the sending of a wreath with a message of condolence, but the wreath was not on display at the funeral since it had been "forgotten" in a Berlin subway by Hammerstein's family.
Heinrich Brüning, the leader of the Center Party who had served as chancellor between 1930 and 1932, called Hammerstein-Equord "the only man who could remove Hitler — a man without nerves". According to the memoirs of Kunrat von Hammerstein, Hammerstein-Equord had spoken of "organized mass murder" of the Jews before the summer of 1942. He supplied his daughter Maria-Therese von Hammerstein-Paasche with the names of Jews who were scheduled for deportation or arrest to enable her to warn or to hide them. Two of his sons, Ludwig and Kunrat, took part in the plot to replace the Nazi regime with a new government on 20 July 1944, and fled Germany after its failure. His widow and two younger children were deported to a concentration camp and freed only after the Allies had liberated the camps in 1945.
Family and children
At home, von Hammerstein-Equord reported planned actions against Jewish and other persecuted people so that his elder children could warn their many Jewish contacts. Two of his daughters, Marie Luise von Hammerstein and Helga von Hammerstein, had been members of the secret service of the Communist Party of Germany since the late 1920s and helped to inform the Soviet Union on Hitler's political and military intentions, which the latter had detailed in a secret speech to leading generals on 3 February 1933.Andrew Meier: The Lost Spy. An American in Stalin's Secret Service. Verlag W. W. Norton & Co., 2009, 402 S., Ypsilon (Pseudonym): Pattern for world revolution. Verlag Ziff-Davis, 1947, 479 S.