Between The Wars
In the Reichswehr, Witzleben was promoted to company chief. In 1923, he found himself on the Fourth Division staff in Dresden as a major. In 1928, he became battalion commander in Infantry Regiment No. 6 and retained that position as lieutenant-colonel the following year. After being promoted to full colonel in 1931, he took over as head of Infantry Regiment No. 8 in Frankfurt (Oder). Early in 1933 came a transfer to the post of Infantry Leader VI in Hannover.
In the Wehrmacht, he was promoted to major-general on 1 February 1934 and moved to Potsdam as the new commander of the Third Infantry Division. He succeeded General Werner von Fritsch as commander of Wehrkreis (Military District) III (Berlin). In this position, he was promoted to lieutenant-general and in September 1935 became commanding general of Army Corps III in Berlin. In 1936, he was promoted to infantry general.
Even as early as 1934, Witzleben had come out against the Nazi regime when he and Erich von Manstein, Wilhelm von Leeb and Gerd von Rundstedt demanded an inquiry into Kurt von Schleicher's and Ferdinand von Bredow's deaths in the Night of the Long Knives. As a result of this and also his criticism of Adolf Hitler's persecution of General Werner von Fritsch, he was forced into early retirement. His "retirement" did not last, however, as Hitler would later need him when war broke out.
By 1938, Witzleben belonged to the group of plotters around Colonel-General Ludwig Beck, Generals Erich Hoepner and Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel, and Abwehr Chief Wilhelm Canaris. These men planned to overthrow Hitler in a military coup d'état which seemed feasible at the time of the Sudeten crisis in 1938. Witzleben's command, including the key Berlin Defense District, was to play a decisive role in the plan. But Hitler's success in the Munich agreement thwarted the conspirators' plans, which were not implemented.
Witzleben was also involved in Colonel-General Kurt Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord's 1939 conspiracy plans. The latter planned to seize Hitler outright in a kind of frontal assault while the former would shut down Nazi party headquarters, but this plan also fell through.
In November 1938, Witzleben had been installed as commander-in-chief of Army Group 2 in Frankfurt (Oder).
Read more about this topic: Erwin Von Witzleben
Famous quotes containing the word wars:
“The grief of the keen is no personal complaint for the death of one woman over eighty years, but seems to contain the whole passionate rage that lurks somewhere in every native of the island. In this cry of pain the inner consciousness of the people seems to lay itself bare for an instant, and to reveal the mood of beings who feel their isolation in the face of a universe that wars on them with winds and seas.”
—J.M. (John Millington)