Alexander von Falkenhausen

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Alexander von Falkenhausen
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R27580, Freiherr Alexander von Falkenhausen, SA-Führer.jpg
Born (1878-10-29)October 29, 1878
Gut Blumenthal, Province of Silesia, German Empire
Died July 31, 1966(1966-07-31) (aged 87)
Nassau, Rhineland-Palatinate, West Germany
Allegiance  German Empire (to 1918)
 Weimar Republic (to 1933)
 Republic of China (to 1938)
 Nazi Germany
Years of service 1897–1930, 1934 - 1944
Rank General der Infanterie
Awards Pour le Mérite

Alexander Ernst Alfred Hermann Freiherr von Falkenhausen (October 29, 1878 – July 31, 1966) was a German general. He was an important figure during the Sino-German cooperation to reform the Chinese Army. During World War II Germany ended its support for China and Falkenhausen was forced to withdraw from China. Back in Europe he later became the head of the military government of Belgium from 1940–44 during its occupation by Germany.

He married twice, firstly to Paula von Wedderkop (8 October 1879 - 3 March 1950) and secondly, in 1960, to Cecile Vent (16 September 1906 - 1977), both without issue. He is related to Ludwig von Falkenhausen, who was the governor-general of Belgium during the German occupation, from 1917 until 1918, during the First World War, and a direct male line descendant of Karl Wilhelm Friedrich, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, by his mistress Elisabeth Wünsch.

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Early life and military career [edit]

Alexander von Falkenhausen was born at Blumenthal, near Neisse (now Nysa, Poland) in Silesia, one of seven children of Baron Alexander von Falkenhausen (1844–1909) and his wife, Elisabeth. He attended Gymnasium in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) and then the cadet school at Wahlstatt (now Legnickie Pole, Poland.

In his youth, Alexander showed an early interest in Eastern Asia and its culture. He traveled and studied in Japan, Northern China, Korea and Indochina for a few years (1909–1911).

Falkenhausen was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the German Army in 1897 and served as a military attaché in Japan prior to the First World War. He was awarded the Pour le Mérite during the war while serving with the Ottoman Army in Palestine. After the war he stayed in the much-reduced Germany Army and later headed the Dresden Infantry School in 1927.

Adviser to Chiang Kai-shek [edit]

In 1930, von Falkenhausen retired from the service and went to China to serve as Chiang Kai-Shek's military advisor in 1934. In 1937 Nazi Germany officially allied themselves with the Empire of Japan, who by then had launched a war against the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War as part of the Sino-German cooperation to reform the Chinese Army. As a goodwill gesture to Japan, Germany recognized the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo and withdrew German support to China, including forcing Falkenhausen to resign his advisor post by threatening to have his family back in Germany punished for treachery. After a brief goodbye dinner party with Chiang Kai-Shek's family, Falkenhausen promised to Chiang Kai-Shek that he would never reveal any battle plans he had taught him to the Japanese.

According to some sources (especially from Communist Chinese during late 1930s), Falkenhausen still kept contact with Chiang Kai-Shek after his return to Germany and would occasionally send him European luxury items and food to the Chiang household and his officers.

During his 72nd birthday in 1950, Falkenhausen received a million dollar[citation needed] cheque from Chiang Kai-shek as his birthday gift and a personal note declaring him a "Friend of China".

Military governor for Belgium [edit]

Recalled to active duty in 1938, he served as an infantry general on the Western Front until his appointment as military governor for Belgium in May 1940. While serving as military governor his administration published 17 decrees against the Jewish population of Belgium as preparatory measures leading in June 1942 to the Final Solution and the deportation of 28,900 Jews.

His deputy for economic affairs, Eggert Reeder was responsible for the destruction of "Jewish influence" in the Belgian economy, leading to mass unemployment of Jewish workers, especially in the diamond business. Some 2250 of these unemployed were thus sent to forced labour camps in Northern France in order to build the Atlantic Wall for the Organisation Todt. Some 43,000 non-Jewish Belgians were also deported to German camps of which 13,000 died. Hundreds of resistance fighters were shot by the German army during the occupation.

Involvement in the conspiracy against Hitler [edit]

Von Falkenhausen was a close friend of two anti-Hitler conspirators, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler and Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, and soon came to detest Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, offering his support to von Witzleben for a planned coup d'état. After the failure of the July 20 Plot in 1944, von Falkenhausen spent the rest of the war transferred from one concentration camp to another. In late April 1945 he was transferred to Tyrol together with about 140 other prominent inmates of the Dachau concentration camp, where the SS left the prisoners behind. He was recaptured by the Fifth U.S. Army on May 5, 1945.[1]

Trial and acquittal [edit]

Falkenhausen and Reeder were both sent to Belgium for trial in 1948, where they were held in jail.

Placed on trial in Brussels from 9 March 1951 and defended by lawyer Ernst Achenbach (1909–1991), they were tried for their role in the deportation of more than 30,000 Jews from Belgium, and not for their deaths in Auschwitz. During his trial, von Falkenhausen was vouched for by a Chinese woman named Qian Xiuling who was living in Belgium, who together with various Belgian Jews provided copious evidence that both men had tried to save Belgian and Jewish lives. They were both found guilty on 9 July, and sentenced to 12 years hard labour in Germany. But on return to West Germany, having served one third of their sentence as required by Belgian law, on 30 July they were pardoned by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967).

Falkenhausen died in Nassau, Rhineland-Palatinate.

Dates of rank [edit]

Decorations and awards [edit]

This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the German Wikipedia.

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ Peter Koblank: Die Befreiung der Sonder- und Sippenhäftlinge in Südtirol, Online-Edition Mythos Elser 2006 (German)

External links [edit]

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