|
|
Biographies
|
|
|
| Alexander Freiherr von Falkenhausen (October 29, 1878 - July 31, 1966) |
|
|
| Alexander Freiherr von Falkenhausen, formerly a military commander in Turkey, entered the Reichswehr after the First World War. Later he was elected to the state parliament in Saxony as a member of the German National People's Party (DNVP). Falkenhausen disapproved of the National Socialists' takeover and arranged to be sent to China as a military advisor in 1934. Under pressure from Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, he returned to Germany out of consideration for his family in 1934. In Berlin, he established contact with the resistance circles around Ludwig Beck and Carl Goerdeler and maintained liaison with opposition sympathizers in the Counterintelligence community and Foreign Office and with members of the Kreisau Circle. From 1940 to 1944, he was military commander of Belgium and northern France. In the wake of the unsuccessful attempt on Hitler's life on July 20, 1944, Falkenhausen was arrested on July 29, 1944; he was then imprisoned in several concentration camps. After he had been liberated, the Allied occupation authorities extradited him to Belgium in 1948. There he was sentenced in 1951 to several years in prison but was released shortly thereafter. |
|
|
© 1996 - 2009 Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand