X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Oberkommando der Wehrmacht


Ex parte Quirin

All had received instructions in Germany from an officer of the German High Command to destroy war industries and war facilities in the United States, for which they or their relatives in Germany were to receive salary payments from the German government.

Klaus Bonhoeffer

Through his brother Dietrich, he had contacts with the church resistance, and through his brothers-in-law, Justus Delbrück, Dohnanyi and Rüdiger Schleicher, he had many contacts in the military resistance to Hitler, especially in the circle about Wilhelm Canaris in the Abwehr of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht.

Oberkommando der Wehrmacht

The OKW was established by decree of 4 February 1938 on the occasion of the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair, which had led to the dismissal of Reich War Minister and Commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, Generalfeldmarschall Werner von Blomberg.

During the subsequent High Command Trial in 1947/48, several OKW members were charged with war crimes, especially for the Commissar Order to shoot Red Army political commissars in German-occupied countries, the killing of POWs and participation in the Holocaust.


German surrender at Lüneburg Heath

The German officers returned the next day at 18:00 with an additional delegate, (Colonel Fritz Poleck) representing the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, (the German armed forces high command).

Legal status of Germany

These incidents preceded the unconditional surrender of the German armed forces (Wehrmacht), signed by representatives of the High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) on May 7 in Reims and on May 8 in Berlin-Karlshorst (often incorrectly referred to as "Germany's surrender"), from which, due to its nature as a purely military capitulation, no legal consequences for the legal status of the German Reich arose.

Ober

Ober is the German for "upper", used mainly in compounds (where it takes a general meaning of "high", as in Oberland = "highlands", Oberkommando = "high command").

Operation Slapstick

The German High Command fully expected Italy to surrender and, in preparation, had secretly established a new Army Group headquarters commanded by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at Munich.

Walter Warlimont

Walter Warlimont (born 3 October 1894 in Osnabrück, Germany; died 9 October 1976 in Kreuth near the Tegernsee) was a German officer and war criminal known for his role as a deputy chief in the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), Germany's Supreme Armed Forces Command during World War II.

Wessel Freytag von Loringhoven

Wessel Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven (10 November 1899, Groß-Born, Courland Governorate – 26 July 1944, Mauerwald, East Prussia), was a colonel in the High Command of the German Armed Forces (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, or OKW) and a member of the German Resistance against German dictator Adolf Hitler (Widerstand).


see also