page_title: Hans Speidel
section_title: Cold War
hierarchical_section_title: Hans Speidel / Cold War
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Note: This description has been identified as biased or incorrect: GDR propaganda language. ADN-ZB, 1.12.1955 Sie sind wieder da-die eingefleischten Militaristen An der Spitze derjenigen, die durch Adenauers Kriegsminister Blank ihre Ernennungsurkunde als Offiziere und Spieße für die NATO-Söldner-Division Bonns erhielten, stehen zwei alte eingefleischte Militaristen Heusinger und Speidel. Heusinger-einst Fahnenjunker in der kaiserlichen Armee und später Angehöriger der Reichswehr hatte von 1937 bis 1944 dem Generalstab der Hitlerarmee angehört und als Chef der Operativen Abteilung die Pläne für die Überfälle auf Deutschlands Nachbarvölker, speziell auf die UdSSR, mit ausgearbeitet. Gleiche Verbrechen plant er heute, so schrieb er am 10.10.1953 in den "Bonner Heften" "...angreifen, wo immer eine Chance sich dafür bietet. Mit dieser Kampfmethode sollte der Westen dem Osten gegenübertreten..." Kriegsverbrecher Speidel gilt bei den NATO-Strategen als der Frankreich -"Spezialist". Als Gehilfe des Nazimilitärattaches in der Pariser Botschaft half er mit, im französischen Offizierskorps die fünfte Kolonnezu organisieren. Später war er Generalstabschef der VIII. Italienischen Armee an der Stalingradfront, wo unter seinem Kommando die italienischen Söldner rücksichtslos in den Tod getrieben wurden. Bei seinem Rückzug demonstrierte er die Taktik der "verbrannten Erde". Mit diesen beiden Militaristen beabsichtigen die Bonner Revanchepolitiker, die Politik des "kalten Krieges" in einen heißen umzuwandeln. UBz: Von links nach rechts: Heusinger, Blank und Speidel.
context_page_description: Hans Speidel was a Wehrmacht general during the Second World War and the Cold War, who served as Supreme Commander of the NATO ground forces in Central Europe from 1957 to 1963.
  Speidel served as Generalleutnant and chief of staff to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel during the Second World War. Speidel was a Mussolini-style fascist and nationalist who agreed with the Nazi invasions and territorial aspects of the Nazi regime's policies, but like Benito Mussolini, strongly disagreed with their racial policies. This led him to participate in the 20 July Plot to assassinate Hitler, after which he was jailed by the Gestapo. At the end of the war, he escaped from Nazi prison and went into hiding.
  During the early Cold War, Speidel emerged as one of the leading German military figures, and played a key role in German rearmament and integration into NATO. He is thus regarded as one of the founders of the Bundeswehr. He was the first officer to be promoted to full General in West Germany and served as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Land Forces Central Europe from 1957 to 1963, with headquarters at the Palace of Fontainebleau in Paris.
context_section_description: In 1950, Speidel was one of the authors of the Himmerod memorandum which addressed the issue of rearmament (Wiederbewaffnung) of the Federal Republic of Germany after World War II.  As an important military adviser to the government of Konrad Adenauer, he was instrumental in the creation of the Bundeswehr, and later as a four-star general (the first to be awarded this rank by the Bundeswehr, together with Adolf Heusinger), he oversaw the smooth integration of the Bundeswehr into NATO.
  According to an article in Der Spiegel, which cited documents released by the Bundesnachrichtendienst in 2014, Speidel may have been part of the Schnez-Truppe, a secret illegal army that veterans of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS established up from 1949 in Germany.
  After the war Speidel served for some time as professor of modern history at Tübingen and in 1950 published his book Invasion 1944: Rommel and the Normandy Campaign before being involved in both the development and creation of the new German Army (Bundeswehr) which he joined, reaching the NATO rank of full general. He was subsequently appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied NATO ground forces in Central Europe in April 1957, a command that he held until retirement in September 1963. His headquarters were at the Palace of Fontainebleau in Paris.
  In 1960, Speidel took legal action against an East German film studio which portrayed him as having been privy to the assassinations of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou in 1934, as well as having betrayed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to the Nazis after the 20 July Plot in 1944. He successfully claimed damages for libel. Hans Speidel died in 1984 at Bad Honnef, North Rhine-Westphalia, aged 87.
caption: November 1955 (left to right): Adolf Heusinger, future Chief of Staff of Bundeswehr; Theodor Blank, Minister of Defence, West Germany; and Speidel
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