Ludwig Beck

Ludwig Beck , 1880-1944, German general, leader of resistance to Hitler. A highly cultivated career soldier, he served on the general staff during World War I and by 1933 had become in effect head of the army general staff. He opposed Hitler's plans for aggression and his attempts to destroy the independence of the army. In 1938 he resigned in protest against the planned attack on Czechoslovakia. With Carl F. Goerdeler he thereafter conspired to overthrow the regime. Their efforts were repeatedly frustrated until July 20, 1944, when a bomb was placed in Hitler's conference room. Hitler escaped. Beck was arrested and shot.

Beck, General Ludwig (1880–1944),anti-Nazi German Army officer who served as a staff officer during the First World War. From October 1933 he was head of the Truppenamt, the clandestine staff organization set up after the German General Staff had been banned by the Versailles settlement. When the Truppenamt became the German Army's General Staff again in July 1935 he remained at its head and was promoted lt-general that October. But he was implacably opposed to Hitler's regime and in August 1938 he resigned in protest against Hitler's proposal to invade Czechoslovakia (see origins of the war). He was promoted general on retiring and was not employed again. He remained a leading opponent of the Nazis and was designated head of state by those planning to remove Hitler. Arrested when the July 1944 bomb plot failed (see Schwarze Kapelle), he bungled his suicide and had to be finished off by an army sergeant.