Halder, General Franz

Halder, General Franz (1884–1972),anti-Nazi German Army officer whose talent as a staff officer during the First World War led to promotion to maj-general in 1936, to lt-general in February 1938, and to his succeeding Beck as chief of the Army's General Staff (OKH) in September 1938.

Halder was a practising Christian (a Protestant) from a Bavarian family with ancient military traditions, but his initial determination to use his position as chief of staff to oppose the Nazi regime was never converted into action. His first opportunity came during the Czechoslovakian crisis of 1938 (see origins of the war). Brauchitsch, the army's C-in-C, refused to act, but there were others who were prepared to stop Hitler leading Germany into a war for which the army was not prepared. In the event it was the Munich agreement which saved Hitler; interviewed in 1969, Halder pointed his finger at his British interlocutor and said: ‘it was your prime minister, your prime minister who ruined our hopes by giving in to Hitler!’ (quoted in C. Barnett, Hitler's Generals, London, 1989, p. 105).

Halder's expertise as a staff officer taught him the importance of mobility in warfare. It was a lesson he did not apply to Hitler's satisfaction when planning the proposed invasion of Czechoslovakia in September 1938—perhaps he was distracted from his task by the proposed coup d'état—but he scored a notable success when he orchestrated a swift victory in the Polish campaign in October 1939.

However, he viewed with horror the decision to launch a western offensive in the autumn of 1939 and for weeks contemplated plans to assassinate Hitler. But caught between Hitler's demands and those of the conspirators, his nerve broke—indeed, a fellow officer reported him as suffering a complete nervous collapse—and he ordered the cancellation of another coup.

By the time the offensive was launched in May 1940 the General Staff's plan had been altered to incorporate Manstein's bolder stroke (see FALL GELB). Halder, by now unenthusiastic about overthrowing Hitler, was converted late to this plan but afterwards claimed it was his. That it worked so well, and led to the fall of France the following month, was one of the German General Staff's greatest achievements—and Halder's.

However, the General Staff's plan for the invasion of the USSR in June 1941 (see BARBAROSSA) proved less successful. Although it produced stunning early victories, Halder's intelligence staff had miscalculated the Red Army's strength and therefore the possibility of a swift campaign. When this became clear Halder could not prevent Hitler imposing his own plans on the General Staff, and even when Brauchitsch was dismissed in December 1941 Halder deemed it his duty to the army to remain at his post. But as soon as Hitler's offensive into the Caucusus became bogged down (see German–Soviet war), Halder was made the scapegoat; in September 1942 he was dismissed, and was not re-employed.

Halder was not directly involved in the July 1944 bomb plot against Hitler's life (see Schwarze Kapelle), but he and his family were arrested when it failed, and he was imprisoned in Flossenbürg and then Dachau. After the war he served with the US Army's Historical Division for fourteen years, and in 1961 was given the Meritorious Civilian Service Award, the highest US civilian award for services to the state (see also decorations).

Bibliography

Burdick, C., and Jacobsen, H.- A. (eds.), The Halder Diary, 1939–1942 (London, 1988; ed. version of three-volume Halder Diaries, ed. H.- A. Jacobsen, 1962–4).