The Hammerstein-Equords

A career officer, Kurt Gebhard Adolf Philipp Freiherr (Baron) von Hammerstein-Equord served on the General Staff during the First World War.

After the war he rose to the rank of Generaloberst (Colonel General – equivalent in rank to a full general in the British army or a four star general in the US army).

From 1930, he was commander-in-chief of the Reichswehr – the German army.

Hammerstein-Equord repeatedly warned President Hindenburg not to make Hitler chancellor.

On 26 January 1933, Hindenburg assured him he had no intention of appointing ‘that Austrian corporal’ chancellor. Four days later Hindenburg did just that.

In January 1934, under pressure from Hitler, Hammerstein-Equord was forced to resign as commander-in-chief of the Reichswehr.

He remained an ardent opponent of Hitler. He gave his daughter Maria-Theresa names of Jews scheduled for deportation or arrest, enabling her to hide them. Close to Ludwig Beck, Hammerstein-Equord supported Beck’s coup attempts.

He and his wife had seven children. Three of his daughters joined the Communist Party.

In 1939, Hammerstein-Equord was recalled to duty.

He repeatedly tried to lure Hitler to inspect his troops on the western front, where he intended the Führer to meet with a ‘fatal accident’. Hitler did not accept the invitations.

Hammerstein-Equord is often remembered for his system of classifying troops:

I divide my officers into four groups. There are clever, diligent, stupid, and lazy officers. Usually two characteristics are combined. Some are clever and diligent -- their place is the General Staff. The next lot are stupid and lazy -- they make up 90 percent of every army and are suited to routine duties. Anyone who is both clever and lazy is qualified for the highest leadership duties, because he possesses the intellectual clarity and the composure necessary for difficult decisions. One must beware of anyone who is stupid and diligent -- he must not be entrusted with any responsibility because he will always cause only mischief.

In 1938, his son Kunrat (born in 1918) joined the army.

In 1940 his son Ludwig (born in 1919) joined the army.

Ludwig Hammerstein-Equord

After Kunrat was wounded, he trained as a lawyer. He became an instructor at the tank training school in Krampnitz.

In 1943, Hammerstein-Equord senior died of cancer.

After sustaining severe injuries on the eastern front, Ludwig was assigned to Berlin.

Ludwig was recruited to the resistance by Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg. He later worked with Olbricht and Stauffenberg in the Bendlerblock.

Kunrat and Ludwig had close contact through their family with many resistance members, including Carl Goerdeler, Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin, Axel von dem Bussche-Streithorst, Fabian von Schlabrendorff and Philipp von Boeselager.

Kunrat liaised with military districts to prepare them for the coup.

Ludwig was at the Bendlerblock on 20 July 1944 and took an active role in the coup. He was one of the officers who arrested the SS officer Pifrader when he came to question Claus von Stauffenberg that day. He was also present for the exchange of shots towards the end of the evening, in which Claus von Stauffenberg was wounded.

Once it became clear the coup had collapsed, Ludwig was able to use his knowledge of the Bendlerblock’s intricacies (he had lived there as a boy while his father was commander-in-chief) to effect his escape.

He lived underground with a Berlin family until the end of the war. The family was also hiding a Jewish woman.

His brother Kunrat obtained forged documents, escaped and lived as a vagrant in the Rhineland until the war was over.

Their mother and other family members were arrested under the doctrine of Sippenhaft (kin vengeance) and held in Buchenwald concentration camp and later at Regensburg prison. They survived the war.

After the war their brother Franz (born in 1921) became active in the World Council of Churches and worked extensively for Jewish-Christian dialogue.

Ludwig survived the war and was reunited with his family. He became a journalist and later a radio director.

He died on 26 February 1996.

Kunrat went into business. He died on 13 June 2007.

This is an edited extract from TREASON; Claus von Stauffenberg and the Plot to Kill Hitler

The Boeselager brothers

Georg von Boeselager

Philipp von Boeselager

Georg and Philipp Boeselager were born into a Catholic and aristocratic family in 1914 and 1917 respectively.

Georg enlisted in the army in 1934. With the outbreak of war, he won rapid promotion and several decorations for gallantry. He was opposed to Hitler whom he saw as the antithesis of his religious upbringing.   

His younger brother Philipp was the aide to Field Marshal von Kluge, who commanded Army Group Centre on the Russian front. In June 1942 Philipp received a message from the SS which included the note ‘special treatment for five gypsies’ which he did not understand. He was present when Kluge asked the SS officer the meaning of the phrase. Kluge was told that all the Jews and Gypsies the SS picked up were shot.

Philipp became a firm opponent of the regime.

In late 1942 and early 1943 Georg, by then a cavalry captain, was also based with Army Group Centre.

On 13 March 1943 Hitler visited Army Group Centre headquarters in Smolensk – largely to discuss with Kluge ‘Operation Citadel’ – the proposed attack on the Red Army’s salient around Kursk.

Georg Boeselager deployed a unit of heavily-armed cavalry officers and NCOs willing to assassinate Hitler as he drove through forest from the airfield to headquarters.

There was also a plan for nine officers, including both Boeselager brothers, to shoot Hitler at lunch in the mess. However, on the morning of the proposed assassination (or possibly the previous day) Kluge forbade it. The attempt did not go ahead.

Georg also proposed an attack with his troops on the Wolf’s Lair to assassinate Hitler, but his superiors considered that the loss of life could not be justified.

Philipp helped construct the ‘Cointreau’ bomb which Fabian von Schlabrendorff gave to Heinz Brandt to take onto Hitler’s aircraft that day. It failed to detonate.

Shortly before Claus von Stauffenberg’s assassination attempt and coup in July 1944, Georg visited Field Marshal von Kluge on the western front and tried to persuade him to take the initiative by opening the front to the west. Georg also helped obtain the plastic explosive used in the attempt on Hitler’s life on 20 July 1944.

On 19 July 1944, in anticipation of the coup, Philipp disengaged 1,200 cavalry troops from the front line near Rybno in Belarus and they began the long ride west to take transport for Berlin. Their role would be to surround and neutralize SS units as well as Gestapo headquarters.

They rode all night without rest and did not slow to a walk over cobbled streets, but maintained a steady trot – normally strictly forbidden where there was any risk of a fall.

At about 3 pm the troops arrived at the small village of Lachovka, just east of Warsaw. They had ridden some 250 kilometres without stopping, bypassing Brest-Litovsk on the way. They had almost reached their transport, and now rested for a few moments. Here Philipp was passed a message from his brother Georg ‘Everyone to the old foxholes!’

This was code to indicate the assassination had not been carried out. Philipp immediately ordered his troops back into the saddle to reverse the arduous journey. The conspirators would not have these troops in Berlin.

Philipp and his 1200 cavalrymen continued the march back to the front lines in the east – already considerably closer than when they left. A friend and fellow officer, Captain Hidding, rode his mount over a mine and was killed. Boesalager had to extract the bloodied maps of Berlin – with all their objectives marked out in pencil – from Hidding’s saddlebags before anyone else could find them. Major Boeselager expected to be closely questioned on his return, but the chaos at the front did not permit time for any questioning.

The Boeselagers escaped initial suspicion. However, when the Gestapo investigators sent a message to his old unit in France requesting that ‘First Lieutenant von Boeselager’ be detained for questioning, they replied they knew of no such officer (he had long since been promoted).

On 29 August 1944, Georg was killed in action on the eastern front. Philipp survived the war. His full role was not disclosed until many years later.

He wrote an account of his experiences: Valkyrie: the Plot to Kill Hitler. He died on 1 May 2008 – one of the last surviving conspirators against Hitler.

This is an edited extract from TREASON: Claus von Stauffenbergand the Plot to Kill Hitler