page_title: Otto Ernst Remer
section_title: 20 July 1944 Plot
hierarchical_section_title: Otto Ernst Remer / Military career / 20 July 1944 Plot
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. Major Remer, Kommandeur des Wachbataillons Berlin, der den Putschversuch der Offiziere [am 20.7.1944] vereitelte, im Zeitspiegelgespräch mit Paul Gnuva, dem Leiter der Gruppe Zeitgeschehen des Großdeutschen Rundfunks. Abgebildete Personen: Remer, Otto-Ernst: Generalmajor, Ritterkreuz (RK), Heer, Vorsitzender der Sozialistischen Reichspartei (SRP), Bundesrepublik Deutschland (GND 119198908)
context_page_description: Otto Ernst Remer was a German Wehrmacht officer in World War II who played a major role in stopping the 20 July plot in 1944 against Adolf Hitler. In his later years he became a politician and far right activist. He co-founded the Socialist Reich Party in West Germany in the 1950s, and is considered an influential figure in post-war neo-Fascist politics in Germany.
context_section_description: In March 1944 Remer was appointed as the commanding officer of Wachbataillon Großdeutschland. On 20 July 1944 Wehrmacht officers staged a coup d'etat and attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler by means of a bomb-attack at the "Wolf's Lair" in East Prussia. Remer, who was in Berlin at the time, first heard news of it from members of the Nazi Party, and waited for official word of Hitler's fate.
  In the evening of 20 July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg, the officer who had carried out the attack upon Hitler arrived back in Berlin, and, believing that he had succeeded in killing him, issued orders to Remer to arrest several senior Nazi Government officials, claiming that they were part of a coup. Upon being ordered by General Paul von Hase to arrest Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, Remer went to Goebbels' office to do so. However, on arrival Remer was met by Goebbels' protestations that Hitler was still alive, and had issued counter-orders to those Remer was enforcing. When Remer asked for proof, Goebbels picked up the phone and asked to be put through to Hitler at the "Wolf's Lair", then handed him the telephone receiver, upon which Remer heard Hitler's voice, ordering him to crush the plot in Berlin with the troops under his command. Remer with this realised that he had been taking orders from the mutineers, and returning with his troops to the Berlin Military Headquarters, Bendlerblock, he arrested the plotters, including Stauffenberg. General Friedrich Fromm had the plotters immediately summarily executed by firing squad, despite Remer protestations that he had been told to keep the plotters alive if possible pending further orders from Hitler, who was returning to Berlin. (General Fromm himself would subsequently be executed by firing squad upon Hitler's orders on his return). That same night Remer was promoted two ranks to Oberst (Colonel). 
  For the rest of the war, Remer commanded the Führerbegleitbrigade (FBB), a field unit formed from a Grossdeutschland cadre, in East Prussia, and during the Ardennes Offensive. He was captured by the United States Army towards the end of the war, and remained a prisoner of war until 1947.
caption: Remer gives an interview to the Reich Broadcasting Corporation in the aftermath of the 20 July Plot.
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