On October 14th, 1944, a German Army Staff car pulled into the drive of a modest home in Herrlingen, Germany. The occupants, Generals Burgdorf and Maisel, had an appointment with the home's owner - Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox of North Africa fame.
Rommel was recuperating from wounds received on the Normandy front on July 17th. His car had been strafed by two RAF fighter planes, and Rommel had suffered a fractured skull and other wounds. Rommel had been returning from a visit with some of his subordinates, including SS Oberstgruppenfuehrer Josef "Sepp" Dietrich, commander of the 1st SS Panzer Korps. Rommel had queried Dietrich about whether he, Dietrich, would follow Rommel's order to surrender the Western Front if Hitler ordered him to fight on. Dietrich assured Rommel he would obey Rommel.
Rommel spent some time in the hospital after his wounding. During that time, Oberst Claus von Stauffenburg detonated a bomb at the Wolfsschantze in an attempt to kill Hitler on July the 20th. the attempt failed. Stauffenburg and several of his co-conspirators were shot that night. Others were not so fortunate.
A number were dragged before the People's Court and Roland Freisler to be ridiculed, convicted and sentenced to death. They were executed by hanging with piano wire from meat hooks. Others committed suicide, even if they weren't involved [Field Marshal von Kluge]. At least two mentioned Rommel;Luftwaffe Lt. Col. Cesar von Hofacker, under interrogation, and von Stulpnagel, on the operating table after a failed suicide.
The questions were what did Rommel know, and when did he know it, and how involved was he. Rommel's family always denied he wanted Hitler killed. they said he wanted him arrested and tried. So his involvement in the murder plot is somewhat sketchy [Col. Gen. Eberhardt said in his POW prison [while being surreptiously taped] that Rommel told him Hitler had to die, but that was the only direct evidence that Rommel wanted Hitler dead. What was clear, however, was that after several confrontations with Hitler, during which he urged Hitler in the strongest terms to consider a political solution to the war, Rommel was lining up his field commanders for a mass surrender to the Western Allies, and opening the entire western front.
Rommel's name was then referred to the German Army Court of Honor that decided whether or not to throw officers out of the Army, so they could be prosecuted in the People's Court. Rommel was to be turned over, but for one little problem from the government's point of view. Rommel was one of, if not the most popular figures in Germany. He was certainly the most popular general. So Hitler had to worry about whether putting Rommel on trial might cause the German public to wonder WHY Rommel would be plotting against Hitler.
Thus the visit by Burgdorf and Maisel. Rommel was given two options. Trial by the People's Court, execution to follow, or suicide by cyanide capsule, which they had conveniently brought with them. If Rommel chose trial, the rule of Sippenhaft [punishing the family] would be applied, and Rommel's family would be sent to a Concentration Camp. If he chose suicide, they would be spared, left alone, and Rommel would be given a state funeral, under the pretext of having died from his wounds. Rommel chose suicide.
Rommel then told his wife, Lucy, his son Manfred, and his aide, Aldinger what was going on. He said his farewells, got into the car with the generals, and drove off. Twenty minutes latyer, he was dead.
