Historian Reacts - Erwin Rommel by Simple History

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[melkor]

You are wrong about what Rommel’s strategy it was the opposite most wanted to counter attack once the allies had landed Rommel though that counterattacking would be useless since any attack would not work since they had lost air superiority so Rommel saw that they had to beat the allies as they were landing and not give them an inch of ground.

He did request more tank divisions Hitler only gave him one however which he used to push back the allies once they had indeed landed but he could only push back at the place Rommel’s tank division was which wouldn’t work if Rommel couldn’t push anywhere else so the counterattack failed.

[TobiasRD]

German here. Opinions on Rommel today tend to largely range from ambivalent to positive, with people generally considering him (alongside Stauffenberg) one of the few Wehrmacht officers who it's generally okay to admire. Emphasis is usually put on his focus on "War without hate" and his strategic disagreements with the Nazi regime, although he does also (in my opinion deservedly) receive some criticism for his involvement with the Nazi Party, with the general consensus being that he was what we would call a "Mitläufer" (literally "One who walks along"), who pragmatically worked within the framework of the Party to benefit himself and his career.

It is worth noting that Rommel's legacy is hugely influenced by the post-war German culture, when people desperately tried to find "good" WW2 Germans to look up to as part of the larger, multi-decade process of cultural reckoning. Obviously, figures like Rommel and aforementioned Stauffenberg were easy picks there. Unlike, say, Manstein and Guderian, the positive reputation stuck, though.

[forgottenfamily]

Military History Visualized has a video where he gives some interesting opinions on the subject of Rommell. Specifically, he argued that Rommell was convenient for a few reasons:
1) He wasn't where most of the attrocities were located
2) He was dead
3) He was the general the western allies had most frequently fought against and so if he was great, the generals that defeated him were greater
4) Giving the Germans they wanted to be their allies a hero to think about who was dead and not uber-Nazi was beneficial

[fdlman]

I read most of "infanterie greift an" Rommel's first book, and the things the guy went through in WW1 were incredible. He would stay awake for days while wounded, and still accomplish objectives. Definitely a brilliant commander.

[denniseggert]

As a german he is viewed very differently here, some speaking highly of him some cursing him as a follower of Hitler. Noticable for me is that he seemed to have made a strong positiv impression on his former foes, when i was in britain i had once a conversation with someone who started to praise him when the topic of WW2 came up.
I do respect him, while he followed the Nazi´s he was certainly no hardliner of the ideology but someone with a patriotic mind fighting for his country very enthusiastic in both world wars and his tactical abilities to achive much with very limited ressources is commendable.

[Hardrada_]

My university actually is located at Erwin-Rommel-Street.
Commemorations such as this still exist in numerous German cities, and for various controversial people.

There is actually a big debate going on right now, as to how to deal with all these ambivalent heroes of the past, quite akin to the debate on confederate monuments in the U.S..
Although in our case, this debate hasn't really arrived in the public eye yet and is moreso held among academic circles, if my observations are accurate.

[Dutchfalco]

Fun fact: Erwin Rommel still holds the record for the fastest Tour de France in history. Eat your heart out, Chris Froome!

[Tim_]

For Rommels reception here in Germany, it’s also worth noting that Erwin Rommel‘s son, Manfred Rommel, was mayor of Stuttgart, the capital city of the state of Baden-Württemberg from 1974 to 1996. He was really popular and his views were quite liberal and progressiv. Today the International Airport here in Stuttgart is named after Manfred Rommel.

[MMChoza]

I'm really enjoying your content and reactions these past few days. It keeps my mind occupied in most interesting historical events and people. Keep it coming

[ohlgu]

Another morning, another video, exactly how I wish to my day.

[fraso]

The barracks ("Kaserne") of the Panzerbrigade (Tank Brigade) 21 "Lipperland" in Augustdorf are still called "Generalfeldmarschall Rommel Kaserne". Because he disobeyed criminal orders and he was close to the military resistance the German Ministery of Defence decided, that his name can be used to name property of the Bundeswehr and that he belongs to the military tradition of Germany. This was formulated in an anouncement in Mai 2018.

[johnmichaelchance]

My JROTC CO always spoke highly of Erwin Rommel whenever he came up in WW1 and WW2. He said even though he fought for the Germans he was a brilliant mind when it came to warfare.

[kjyost]

Discussing Rommel (6:40-7:00) in 1943 being pulled from North Africa ignores the fact that he was mentally unwell, suffering from liver infections, and exhausted. He had already left Africa once in 1942 to recuperate right before the 2nd Battle of El-Al and was sent back before he was ready.

[Laramariamaus]

2:06 maybe also important: many people actually blamed the democratic politicians. They thought that they were responsible for loosing the war because these politicians were the ones who signed the treaties after the military leaders said they were out. This was one main reason why people didn't rallye trust the new democratic system from the beginning.
Sorry of there are some mistakes, I'm from Germany and only learned English in school.

[jstc]

Germany is a bit torn when it comes to Rommel because we don’t really know either if he was indeed involved in the Stauffenberg plot and whether he really supported nazism or just pretended to do so in order to protect his family and his country, being in the military way before nazism was a thing in Germany.

There is a memorial made by his former subordinates who always thought very highly of him. However this memorial gets ‘demolished’ (spray paint, ...) by left extremists.

There are also three barracks named after him, most famously the in Augustdorf in which my father served his mandatory military service.

It is rather hard to find a consensus about him but I feel like the majority tends to think of him as 'not really a Nazi‘ or 'a Nazi that got disillusioned' and rather as a general who fought to protect his country and people and not so much for the ideology.

I personally think that he in fact knew about the assassination plot but kept quit about it (=passive resistance) and I‘ve heard from numerous people that they think so as well. In this sense I feel like it’s important to mention that even passive resistance could mean a death sentence during the Nazi-Regime as it did for Rommel. It’s a bit sad that this gets rather overlooked internationally and people tend to think that every single German was a Nazi at that time even though there were many who risked and lost their life in order to try to get rid of that terror-regime. This also shows just how successful and powerful the propaganda was that it actually succeeded in convincing the world that every German stood behind Nazism.

Also having three barracks named after him gives an idea about how we feel about him because Germany is famously still keeping on punishing those who were involved in those crimes after all these years and won’t rest until the last person got their just sentence. Keeping that in mind it would be impossible to have those three, one being quite big, barracks named after a 'war criminal‘.

So in general the German opinion about him is something between unsure and (somewhat) positive.

[XaviRonaldo]

The Rats of Tobruk are famous for holding out for months against superior forces but what people don't realise is they were better supplied. They received regular supplies from Egypt via the port while the Afrika Corps had a logistical nightmare supplying their troops across desert.

[coltonbarnes]

Its really sad what happend to him, a patriotic general, who admired his soldiers, never a devout nazi, and was killed for trying to kill hitler so close to the wars end.

[noone.]

my grandad fought in North Africa against Rommel and he had a high opinion of him as an enemy.

[CardsMan]

I grew up in a neighborhood where all the streets were named for WWII places and people. St. Lo, Remegan, Okinawa, Hurtgen Forest, Krieger, Jutland, Iwo Jima, Tobruk Lane, Burma Road, Kassarine Pass, Eisenhower, Calais, Ardennes..

[burntbybrighteyes]

I can confirm that Rommel is one of the very few who is still "allowed" to be seen in a more ambivalent light instead of outright demonization in Germany. There are a few examples that show this. For example the "General-Feldmarschall Rommel Kaserne" is the last barrack that is still named after a ww2 commander (who was not directly involved in the Bomb Plot). There was also a destroyer named after him in the 60s. Although I have to say that paradoxically the more time passes the less the people in Germany are able to have differentiated thoughts about the germans of ww2 and see them all as one dimensional villains, which is not a very mature way to look at it.