Erich Hoepner

Erich Hoepner (September 14, 1886 – August 8, 1944) was a German general in World War II. A successful panzer leader, Hoepner was executed after the failed July 20 Plot in 1944.

Life

Hoepner was born in Frankfurt an der Oder, Brandenburg, and served as a cavalry officer in the German Army during World War I. He remained in the Reichswehr in the Weimar Republic and reached the rank of General in 1936. Hoepner was an early advocate of armoured warfare and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general and given command of the XVI Panzer Corps in 1938.

Hoepner, often called "Der Alte Reiter" (the old cavalryman), led forces in the invasions of Poland (1939) and France (1940), receiving the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. He was promoted to the rank of colonel-general in 1941 and given command of the Fourth Panzer Group for the invasion of the Soviet Union. Hoepner pulled back his forces in the face of the massive Russian counteroffensive at Moscow in January 1942, and was relieved of his command.

While Hoepner was opposed to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, he was also an early opponent of Adolf Hitler's rise to power, and he participated in several conspiracies to overthrow Hitler. In a 1938 attempt, his forces were assigned the task of suppressing the SS following the planned assassination of Hitler; the plot failed and Hoepner's role went undiscovered.

Hoepner played an active part in the earliest conspiracies against Hitler. Like other conservative resisters, Hoepner thought Hitler's strategic decisions would lead to the ruin of Germany. Following the Fall of France, the fears that Hitler's expansionist policies would bring ruin upon Germany appeared to have been wrong, and Hoepner became less critical of Hitler. It was only after Operation Barbarossa had stalled at the gates of Moscow, and he himself humiliatingly sacked by Hitler, that he became active again.

Hoepner was a participant in the July 20 Plot in 1944, but he was caught after the attempt failed. He was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo, given a summary trial by the "Volksgerichtshof", and sentenced to death. He was hanged naked on August 8, in Berlin's Plötzensee Prison.

Awards

* Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Classes
* House Order of Hohenzollern
* Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (27 October 1939)

References

* Walther-Peer Fellgiebel (2000), "Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939-1945". Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 3-7909-0284-5
* Geralf Gemser, "Darf eine Schule diesen Namen tragen? Zur Vorbildwirkung des Wehrmachtsgenerals Erich Hoepner" [May a school carry for this names? To the model effect of the armed forces general Erich Hoepner] , German, Marburg 2005, ISBN 3-8288-8927-1

External links

* [http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/HoepnerErich/ Biography] at the German Historical Museum of Berlin de icon
* [http://www.tectum-verlag.de/8927_Geralf_Gemser_Darf_eine_Schule_diesen_Namen_tragen_Zur_Vorbildwirkung_des_Wehrmachtsgenerals_Erich_Hoepner_Milit%E4rischer_Widerstand_Nationalsozialismus_20_Juli_1944_Zweiter_Weltkrieg_Wehrmacht.html Darf eine Schule diesen Namen tragen?] de icon
* [http://archiv.tagesspiegel.de/archiv/22.09.2004/1359752.asp Umstrittener Patron] , article in "Der Tagesspiegel" de icon