Erich Fellgiebel

Erich Fellgiebel
Born	4 October 1886(1886-10-04) Pöpelwitz, Silesia
Died	4 September 1944(1944-09-04) (aged 57) Berlin, Nazi Germany
Allegiance	German Empire (to 1918) Weimar Republic (to 1933) Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Heer
Years of service	1905–1944
Rank	General der Nachrichtentruppe
Commands held	Chief of communications for the armed forces
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Relations	Walther-Peer Fellgiebel (son)

Fritz Erich Fellgiebel (4 October 1886 – 4 September 1944) was a career German Army officer and a "July 20th" conspirator in the plot to assassinate Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

Military career

Fellgiebel was born in Pöpelwitz, near Breslau, Silesia. At the age of 18, he joined a signals battalion in the Prussian Army as an officer cadet. During the First World War, he served as a captain on the General Staff. At the war's end, he was assigned to Berlin as a General Staff officer. His service had been exemplary, and in 1928 he was promoted to major.

Fellgiebel was promoted lieutenant colonel in 1933, and became a full colonel the following year. By 1938, he was a major general. That year, he was appointed Chief of the Army's Signal Establishment and Chief of the Wehrmacht's communications liaison to the Supreme Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht). Fellgiebel became General der Nachrichtentruppe (General of the Communications Troops) on 1 August 1940. Adolf Hitler did not fully trust Fellgiebel, considering him too independent-minded, but needed Fellgiebel's expertise.

He was the first to understand the use that the German military could have of an encryption machine called Enigma, and worked to have it adopted by the Wehrmacht.

As head of Hitler's Signal services, Fellgiebel knew every military secret, including Wernher von Braun's rocketry work at Peenemünde.

Resistance activities

Through his acquaintance with Colonel General Ludwig Beck, his superior, and then Beck's successor, Colonel-General Franz Halder, Fellgiebel contacted the anti-Nazi resistance group in the Wehrmacht.

In the 1938 conspiracy, he was supposed to cut communications throughout Germany while Field Marshal von Witzleben would occupy Berlin.

Fellgiebel was involved in the preparations for Operation Valkyrie and during the attempt on the Führer's life (20 July 1944) Fellgiebel tried to cut Hitler's headquarters off from all telecommunication connections, which he only partly succeeded in doing. When it became clear that the attempt had failed, Fellgiebel had to override the communications black-out he had set up.

Fellgiebel's most famous act that day was his telephone report to his co-conspirators after he was informed that Hitler was still alive: "Etwas schreckliches ist passiert! Der Führer lebt!" ("Something awful has happened! The Führer lives!").

Trial and death

Fellgiebel was arrested immediately at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia, where the attempt had taken place. He was charged before the Volksgerichtshof ("People's Court"). On 10 August 1944, he was found guilty by Roland Freisler and sentenced to death. He was executed on 4 September 1944 at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.

Memorials

The Bundeswehr's barracks, a signals and intelligence school ("Führungsunterstützungsschule") in Pöcking-Maxhof is named the General-Fellgiebel-Kaserne in his honour.

Fictional portrayal

Vernon Dobtcheff portrayed him in a 1990 television movie, The Plot to Kill Hitler.

Fellgiebel was portrayed by Harald Krassnitzer in the 2004 German TV movie Stauffenberg.

He was portrayed by actor and comedian Eddie Izzard in the 2008 Bryan Singer thriller Valkyrie.

See also

• List of members of the July 20 plot

Literature

• Macksey, Kenneth: Without Enigma: the Ultra & Fellgiebel riddles. – Shepperton: Allan, 2000. – ISBN 0-7110-2766-8
• Wildhagen, Karl Heinz (Hrsg.): Erich Fellgiebel, Meister operativer Nachrichtenverbindungen. – Wenningsen: Selbstverl., 1970
• Anthony Cave Brown, Bodyguard of Lies, Harper & Row, 1975

External links

• Erich Fellgiebel in the German National Library catalogue (German)

Sources

• Account of the Operation (in German)
• Linked German article
• Brief article about Fellgiebel