Hero Against Hitler: General Ludwig Beck

This was first published 11/4/11


"Heroes Against Hitler:" Ludwig Beck

One of the most important figures in the German resistance to Hitler was Colonel General Ludwig Beck. He was born in what is now a part of Wiesbaden in the German state of Hessen. Beck served in World War One and remained in the treaty-limited army after the war. At first Beck was favorable toward Hitler, whose plans to expand the army were seen by him as a positive sign in Germany's restoration from the defeat of 1918. He became Chief of the General Staff (Chef des Generalstabes),* and as such had knowledge of Hitler's various military plans. Beck was NOT antiwar, and he believed wars, although limited in size, would be impossible to avoid as Germany moved to regain its position within Europe. His differences with Hitler largely centered around his belief that Hitler was moving too fast, and that a Hitler-planned attack on Czechoslovakia in 1938 would bring Britain and France, and possibly the Soviet Union into a war against an unprepared Germany,** bringing her a devastating defeat,*** a view shared by other top generals, but not all. Beck worked for months trying to convince Hitler not to attack Czechoslovakia, seemingly believing Hitler had been influenced by other military advisers to attack Czechoslovakia. Such was Hitler's hold over the people around him, who wanted to believe mistakes were the fault of others, not the Führer. Beck, however, came to realize that Hitler was the main culprit, only bolstered in his beliefs by others. In the late summer of 1938, Beck resigned his position, and thus lost any influence over future military policies.

As Hitler pushed the question of Germans in Czechoslovakia to the front burner, Beck and other opponents of the regime wanted Britain and France to take a hard stand against Hitler's demands, and thus give the German resistance a chance to topple the Nazis from power. The opposite happened, as an agreement with Britain and France was signed in Munich giving Hitler control of the German areas of Czechoslovakia, and this diminished the immediate desire of many conspirators to unseat the Nazi government, as Hitler rose to new heights of popularity. Beck remained an active leader in trying to recruit opponents of the regime, which certainly took a turn in his direction with the severe losses suffered by German forces in Russia. It all ended with the bomb planted in Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia on July 20, 1944. The bomb exploded, but Hitler survived and the plot to take over the German government, with Beck as its temporary head, fell apart. Beck was taken into custody the same day by the head of the German Replacement Army ("Ersatzheer") and attempted to commit suicide, but only wounded himself. Another officer then finished the job. Beck and some other members of the resistance to the Nazis were given a memorial in Berlin, which still exists today. Beck is seen by many as the first major opponent of the Nazi regime and a sort of leader of the German resistance; after all, he was a high ranking general.

* The German General Staff was a group of select, highly dedicated, well trained professional officers who were experts in all aspects of warfare. They were noted for their detailed planning going well back into the 1800s, first as part of the Prussian army, and then in unified Germany from 1871, and it is largely due to this group that the German reputation for detail and efficiency in military matters developed. To many outsiders, they became the symbol of Prussian/German militarism, because their very lives were so devoted to military matters, and thus, war.

** Prominent British historian A.J.P. Taylor later essentially argued that Hitler's talk of war against Czechoslovakia was more of an act to get his way, and that his convincing performance made the western powers back down and give him the German areas of Czechoslovakia. Of course, other historians have argued that Hitler wanted such a war. Since Hitler didn't really have a single close friend to whom he confided his innermost thoughts, nor did he keep a diary to anyone's knowledge, I suppose we'll never really know for certain, and these are all academic arguments. After getting the agreement from Britain and France for Germany to receive the heavily German-populated Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia (the Czechs weren't even invited), Hitler did, at times, complain the agreement had deprived him of a war against Czechoslovakia. Whether this was talk for effect as a prelude to his next move is another historical debate.

*** The idea that Czechoslovakia would have fallen as easy prey to Hitler's forces is optimistic, in my opinion. The Czechs were well trained, equipped, and motivated, with formidable fortifications along their mainly mountainous borders with Germany (mountainous terrain gave them another advantage). Czech military equipment was so good, much of it was later used by the Germans to equip some units of their army, after all of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Hitler. This would have been far from a walk over, and had it taken place, it may have brought Hitler and his regime down.

WORD HISTORY:
Ship-The ultimate origins of this word are uncertain, although some tie it to an Indo European source, "skei(b)," that meant "cut, rip," and then Old Germanic used it with the idea being of a ship "cutting through the water, ripping up the water," or of, "cutting or ripping out logs to make floating vessels." The idea of a "water going vessel" does seem to come from Old Germanic, which had "skipam" or "skipan," with that meaning, "water going vessel." This then helped produce Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "scip," with the same meaning. The spelling "ship" has been around for many centuries in English. The verb form, "to ship," came from the noun in the latter part of the 1200s or the early 1300s. Common throughout the other Germanic languages: West Frisian "skip," German "Schiff," Low German "Schipp" (although some low dialects have "Schepp"), Dutch "schip," Norwegian and Icelandic "skip," Swedish "skepp," and Danish "skib." By the way, Old Italian borrowed the word as "scifo," meaning "small boat," from Old High German/Lombardic^ "skif/scif." This was borrowed into French as "esquif," "small open boat," and in the 1500s this then was borrowed into English as "skiff."

^ Lombardic was a Germanic language spoken by the Germanic tribe, the Lombards, who settled in northern Italy, and gave their name to the Italian region of "Lombardy" (Lombardia). A moment of silence, please, as Lombardic died out several centuries ago.