WI Rommel survived WW2

[sikitu]

Inspired by the Richthofen thread, and by the fact that I am currently living in the town where the Desert Fox was born, does anyone see a realistic chance for him to survive WW2, and if yes, what might be his role in post-war Germany. Would he have to face trial in Nuremberg?

Ah, and please, no "20 July plot succeeds" ATL is accepted as the POD, because we discussed that more than enough IMHO.

Some ideas might be
-captured in Africa
-stays away from the 20 July group
-captured in France
(...)

 

[mattep74]

DAMN you, i was thinking of posting the exact thing when i went to bed yesterday.

pod is that he isnt injured by allied fighter bombers and when he hears about the coup and that hitler survives he takes a white sheet and drive across the frontline and deserts to the brittish OR that he phones the hq site that was bombed(cant spell the name correctly) and tells hitler that he is at his command

 

[DMA]

Good idea sikitu! Yes let's have Rommel survive WW2.

How about this - In the aftermath of Alamein Rommel is caught up in the German retreat & captured in a manner akin to how O'Connor was captured in Rommel's first offensive in North Africa. So Rommel sits out the war in Britain & misses all that happens in Germany during this time.

In the post-WW2 period, Rommel isn't charged with anything as Allied investigations into Rommel's actions etc find him innocent of any wrong doing. Rommel returns to his family in Germany in 1946.

When West Germany regains its right to govern, Rommel is pleaded to become Chancellor or maybe President(?). He is against it at first, but eventually accepts & is overwhelmingly democratically elected.

So is any of this plausible? And if so, what does Rommel do as the leader of West Germany in the post-WW2 world?

 

[Steffen]

Inspired by the Richthofen thread, and by the fact that I am currently living in the town where the Desert Fox was born, does anyone see a realistic chance for him to survive WW2, and if yes, what might be his role in post-war Germany. Would he have to face trial in Nuremberg?

Ah, and please, no "20 July plot succeeds" ATL is accepted as the POD, because we discussed that more than enough IMHO.

Some ideas might be
-captured in Africa
-stays away from the 20 July group
-captured in France
(...)

Oh, Heidenheim. Quite idillyc.

I could see him in the new Bundeswehr. His old chief of staff General Dr. Speidel did was involved, and with the charisma and reputation, he would be an obvious choice.

With him alive and a public figure, what about the career of his son, Manfred?
IOTL, he studied law and became a career civil servant and mayor of Stuttgart for 20 years. With his father around, i doubt he will have be that prominent in early years.

 

[Steffen]

Good idea sikitu! Yes let's have Rommel survive WW2.

How about this - In the aftermath of Alamein Rommel is caught up in the German retreat & captured in a manner akin to how O'Connor was captured in Rommel's first offensive in North Africa. So Rommel sits out the war in Britain & misses all that happens in Germany during this time.

In the post-WW2 period, Rommel isn't charged with anything as Allied investigations into Rommel's actions etc find him innocent of any wrong doing. Rommel returns to his family in Germany in 1946.

When West Germany regains its right to govern, Rommel is pleaded to become Chancellor or maybe President(?). He is against it at first, but eventually accepts & is overwhelmingly democratically elected.

So is any of this plausible? And if so, what does Rommel do as the leader of West Germany in the post-WW2 world?

I would seriously doubt either the allies would accept a general as chancellor,
nor would the population.

Also, I´d see him as totally unsuited for the role. As a career officer, he´s totally unused to that kind of decision making typical for democratic countries- even more so in a environment shaped by large parties, where he wouldn´t have ANY connections to the pre-Hitler networks, the catholic Zentrum having reached out to the protestants and formed a all- religion party and the social democrats on the other side.

There´s maybe a chance of him as a (largely ceremonial) Bundespräsident if we butterfly an earlier death of Heuss.

 

[DMA]

Fair enough. It was just an idea.

So it's OK for the Americans to have generals as national leaders, ie President, but not Germans I gather?

 

[sikitu]

Yeah, I also have doubts that the Allies and the population would accept Rommel as chancellor. This often turns up in AH stories, especially those in which some kind of 20 July plot is successful, but I think that also Rommel would probably not want that role.

On the other hand, a career in the Bundeswehr, even as CiC in 1955, might be possible. I think Rommel was universally respected as a soldier, so that I also agree that he would probably not have been accused of war crimes, or at least would have been found not guilty very soon.

And OT: Steffen, for sure you know Heidenheim. It was not my choice to live, but more or less a necessity... My wife and me will be moving again soon, somewhat closer to Stuttgart, but I will still have a 90 minutes train ride to go. Sometimes you must go for a compromise.

 

[Xen]

I wrote a timeline a while back about the war expanding into Spain, the Germans were unable to extend the Atlantic Wall in time allowing the allies to set up a foothold in Iberia. Rommel was sent to repel the invasion, but was captured by the British near Madrid. He spent the rest of the war in the Tower of London, he eventually betrayed Hitler believing the fuhrer was leading Germany to doom.

To make a long story short, at wars end Germany was united and essentially turned into a larger Austria or Finland, the Four Big Allies each held a set amount of troops in Germany as did Poland. The German monarchy was restored, and Rommel became the first Chancellor of the Kingdom of Germany.

 

[Norman]

What if Rommel survives the attempt on Hitler by escaping to the English? This would have been a political coup for the Allies, particularly if Rommel spoke against the Reich.

Would the West then have considered him for Chancellor?

 

[MUC]

He's gonna go into jail if he is captured by the Allies after 1944.

Why?

Thousands of concentration camp workers had to work on the Atlantic Wall, the construction of which he supervised.

 

[Wozza]

There is a great line in the Alternate History book the Moscow Option
it simply says "as Rommel said after the war..."

 

[Xen]

He's gonna go into jail if he is captured by the Allies after 1944.

Why?

Thousands of concentration camp workers had to work on the Atlantic Wall, the construction of which he supervised.

Not necessarily, he could easily exchange vital information about the Nazi Army for a guarantee he would not be prosecuted.

Of course that might make it hard for the allies to prosecute other Nazi's soldiers who said they were following orders, but Im sure the allies could come up with something, and its not beyond them to make that kind of a deal.

 

[zoomar]

I think a lot depends on what happens around the July 20 plot. Quite frankly a lot of lore has developed around Rommel's role in the plot and the fact that he was forced to take his own life. I could be wrong, but my understanding is that his participation was pretty much limited to the fact that he had gotten fed up with Hitler, knew about the plot, and didn't rat on anybody.

In the West's desire during the late 1940s and 1950's to find "good Germans" to help rehabilitate and remilitarize West Germany in the face of the Soviet threat, Rommel's "martyrdom" made him a great symbol for the new Germany and its Bundeswehr, as James Mason can attest.

Personally, I suspect that, had he survived the war (presumably because his tangental involvement in the July 20 plot was not ferreted out by the Gestapo), he would have been considered no different from lots of other Wehrmacht leaders. Not war criminals, but tainted by their willing participation in Germany's wars of aggression and silent toleration of the worse things Hitler was up to as long as Germany was winning the war. It would also not be forgotten that Rommel was, early in his career, a fairly ardent supporter of Hitler - probably more so many other Riechwehr high command leaders. He would have been retired, put out to pasture with his familiy, probably written a few books and memoirs, but not accepted by most modern Germans or the world at large as a potential chancellor or president of the new, increasingly pacifist and anti-nationalist Germany. Arguably, his son would not have had the political career he ended up with, either.