Wilhelm Burgdorf

Wilhelm Burgdorf
Wilhelm Burgdorf
Born	(1895-02-15)15 February 1895 Fürstenwalde
Died	Berlin
Allegiance	German Empire (to 1918) Weimar Republic (to 1933) Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Heer
Rank	General der Infanterie
Commands held	Infanterie-Regiment 529
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Wilhelm Emanuel Burgdorf (15 February 1895 – 1/2 May 1945) was a German general. Born in Fürstenwalde, Burgdorf served as a commander and staff officer in the German Army during World War II.

Military career

Burgdorf joined the German Army (Reichsheer) at the outbreak of World War I as an officer cadet and was commissioned as an infantry officer in Grenadier Regiment 12 in 1915. Between the wars he served in the Reichswehr and was promoted to captain in 1930. In 1935 he became an instructor in tactics at the military academy in Dresden with the rank of major and was appointed an adjutant on the staff of the IX corps in 1937. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1938 and served as the commander of the 529th Infantry Regiment from May 1940 to April 1942. In May 1942, he became Chief of Department 2 of the Army Personnel Office. Burgdorf became the Deputy Chief in October 1942, when he was promoted to Generalmajor. Burgdorf was promoted to Chief of the Army Personnel Office (Heerespersonalamt) and Chief Adjutant to Adolf Hitler in October 1944. At that time, he was further promoted in rank to Generalleutnant, and one month later (on 1 November 1944), to the rank of General der Infanterie. Burgdorf retained that rank and position until his death.

In 1944 Burgdorf decreed: Every officer and every judge of the Wehrmacht have to act with strongest measures against doubters in the German victory. "An officer who expresses himself disparaging about the state leadership is intolerable in the Nazi state."

Erwin Rommel

As part of Burgdorf's function as Hitler's chief adjutant, he played a key role in the death of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Rommel had been implicated as having a peripheral role in the bomb plot of 20 July 1944, in which an attempt was made to assassinate Hitler. Hitler recognised that to haul the most popular general in Germany before a People's Court would cause a scandal throughout Germany and accordingly arranged a face-saving maneuver.

On 14 October 1944, Burgdorf, with General Ernst Maisel, arrived at the Rommel household. Burgdorf had been instructed by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel to offer Rommel a choice – take poison, receive a state funeral, and obtain immunity for his family and staff, or face a trial for treason. Rommel drove away with Burgdorf and Maisel. Rommel's family received a telephone call 10 minutes later informing them that Rommel had committed suicide.

Berlin

Shortly before the Battle of Berlin, Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager overheard Burgdorf say: "When the war is over, we will have to purge, after the Jews, the Catholic officers in the army." Boeselager was a Roman Catholic Wehrmacht officer and vocally objected, citing his own decorations for heroism in combat. He left before Burgdorf answered.

Burgdorf joined Hitler in the Führerbunker when the Soviets assaulted Berlin. On 28 April, Hitler discovered that Heinrich Himmler tried to negotiate a surrender to the western Allies via Count Folke Bernadotte. Burgdorf took part in Hitler's court-martial of Hermann Fegelein, Himmler's SS liaison officer and Eva Braun's brother-in-law. SS-General Wilhelm Mohnke presided over the tribunal, which included SS-General Johann Rattenhuber and General Hans Krebs. Fegelein was so drunk that he was crying, vomiting and unable to stand up; he even urinated on the floor. It was the opinion of the judges that he was in no condition to stand trial. Therefore, Mohnke closed the proceedings and turned Fegelein over to Rattenhuber and his security squad.

On 29 April 1945, Burgdorf, Krebs, Joseph Goebbels, and Martin Bormann witnessed and signed Hitler's last will and testament. After midnight, in the early hours of 2 May 1945, following the earlier suicides of Hitler and Goebbels, Burgdorf and his colleague Chief of Staff Hans Krebs committed suicide by gunshot to the head. Soviet personnel found the bodies of Krebs and Burgdorf in the bunker complex.

Awards and decorations

• Iron Cross (1914)
  • 2nd Class (24 January 1915)
  • 1st Class (14 August 1916)
• Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords (27 August 1917)
• Military Merit Cross, 3rd class with war decoration (Austria-Hungary, 27 February 1918)
• Knight's Cross, 2nd class of the Friedrich Order with Swords (18 July 1918)
• Hanseatic Cross of Hamburg (18 October 1918)
• The Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 (20 December 1934)
• Wehrmacht Long Service Award 2nd Class (2 October 1936)
• Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939)
  • 2nd Class (15 June 1940)
  • 1st Class (17 June 1940)
• Eastern Front Medal
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 29 September 1941 as Oberst and commander of Infanterie-Regiment 529

Dates of ranks

• Unteroffizier—24 December 1914
• Fähnrich—31 January 1915
• Offizier-Stellvertreter (Officer-Deputy)—2 April 1915
• Leutnant preliminary without patent—18 April 1915
• Leutnant with patent from 22 November 1913—5 April 1917
• Leutnant with rank seniority of 1 September 1915—1 July 1922
• Oberleutnant effective as of 1 June 1925 and rank seniority of 1 June 1925—1 June 1925
• Oberleutnant effective as of 1 April 1925 and rank seniority of 1 April 1925—31 July 1925
• Hauptmann effective as of 1 February 1930 and rank seniority of 1 February 1930—1 February 1930

• Rittmeister and on 1 May 1933 again Hauptmann—6 March 1933
• Major effective as of 1 November 1935 and rank seniority of 1 November 1935—1 November 1935
• Oberstleutnant effective as of 1 August 1938 and rank seniority of 1 August 1938—31 July 1938
• Oberstleutnant with rank seniority of 1 October 1937—14 August 1940
• Oberst effective as of 1 September 1940 and rank seniority of 1 September 1940—14 September 1940
• Generalmajor effective as of 1 October 1942 and rank seniority of 1 October 1942—28 September 1942
• Generalleutnant effective as of 1 October 1943 and rank seniority of 1 October 1943—8 October 1943
• General der Infanterie effective as of 1 November 1944 and rank seniority of 9 November 1944—15 December 1944

See also

• Last will and testament of Adolf Hitler

References

Explanatory notes