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

Axel von dem Bussche-Streithorst

Major Axel Baron von dem Bussche-Streithorst

On 5 October 1942, when he was 23 years old, Axel von dem Bussche-Streithorst found himself at Dubno airfield in the Ukraine. By chance, he witnessed the mass shooting of five thousand Jews.

He saw everything. The Ukrainian SS, in calm, orderly fashion, compelled Jews – including many women and children – to dig a pit, strip in the snow and lie face-down in the pit. The SS shot them. More Jews were compelled to strip and lie on the freshly killed or still-writhing bodies of those in the pit. They, too, were shot in the back of the head or the nape of the neck.

Bussche was no fool. He knew what he was seeing. These SS men were acting under orders. The initiative for mass murder of the Jews must have come from the government – to which he had sworn allegiance.

He considered personally ordering the slaughter to stop by invoking emergency paragraph 227 of the criminal law – the right to defend others against unlawful attack. Not only did he, as a Wehrmacht officer, have no jurisdiction to give orders to the SS, but even if the SS had taken any notice of him, the ‘special treatment’ would have gone on next day.

He later thought he should have stripped off his own clothes and joined the Jews by lying down in the death pit. 

Bussche was traumatised by this experience. He was determined to do anything in his power to remove Hitler and his regime. He declared that there were only three ways left for German officers to preserve honour: to die in battle, to desert, or to rebel.

In October 1943, Claus von Stauffenberg asked Bussche whether he was prepared to attempt to assassinate Hitler. Bussche said he was. They briefly discussed using a pistol, and then agreed it was too risky. Only one shot could probably be counted on, and even at short range the chance of this killing the target was uncertain.

Claus then raised the possibility of Bussche conducting the demonstration of new uniforms for Hitler, fusing a bomb, and clasping the Führer in a death embrace. After all, Bussche was an ideal candidate for demonstrating uniforms. He looked very ‘Aryan’, he had fought all across the eastern front from Leningrad to the Crimea, and was highly decorated for bravery.

Bussche agreed.

He conferred with several officers as to the best means and equipment for the task. General Stieff arranged for a one-kilogram charge used for bridge demolition to be delivered to Bussche. He wanted a four-and-a-half-second hand-grenade fuse. Although it hissed, he thought he could cover the sound by clearing his throat and coughing.

For soldiers a long way from the front, obtaining grenades was no simple matter. When the grenades were to hand Bussche modified the fuse to allow a simple movement to set it off. The initial plan was to strap the explosives to his body, but he found he could conceal it all in one of the capacious pockets of his wide army trousers.

Bussche had a back-up plan – he secreted a long thin knife in the sole of his boot.

All was ready. The conspirators waited for Hitler to carry out the uniforms inspection. Hitler did not give advance notice of his movements, but his aides provided an approximate date. The conspirators were given a ‘preliminary warning’.

From 23 to 25 November 1943 Bussche held himself in readiness for the assassination. Finally, he received a summons to see General Stieff. Bussche expected the final details of the uniform inspection, but instead Stieff informed him that Allied bombs had destroyed the uniforms Hitler was to have inspected. Until fresh uniforms could be made, Bussche should return to his unit on the eastern front.

In January 1944, Claus rang Bussche to have him return for the rescheduled inspection. Bussche sought the necessary permission from his commanding officer – who was not party to the conspiracy. The general was not prepared to have a key officer leave the front to model uniforms. Claus rang the commanding officer to intercede. The general would not relent.

A few days later, Bussche was severely wounded and lost a leg. He was hospitalised for months. The conspirators had to look elsewhere. Bussche carried the small box containing his bomb from hospital to hospital until he eventually threw it into a lake after Claus’s attempt later that year.

His injuries put Bussche out of the resistance and the war. 

In post-war Germany Bussche qualified as a lawyer. He married Camilla von Stauffenberg (previously married to a cousin of Claus's). He worked for the BBC for a time before he became a diplomat and then a headmaster. He was involved in the evangelical church in Germany, and the World Bank.

When he died in 1993, his best friend was Richard von Weizsäcker, president of Germany.

 

Edited extract from TREASON: Claus von Stauffenberg and the Plot to Kill Hitler