Rudolf Schmundt (13 August 1896 – 1 October 1944) was a German officer and adjutant to Adolf Hitler. Between 1942 and 1944, he was chief of the German Army Personnel Office. Schmundt was injured during the 20 July 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler and died a few months later from his wounds.

Biography

Schmundt was born in

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...

(then in Germany) and served as a lieutenant for the German Army during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

he attained the rank of General of the Infantry on 1 September 1944, and became the Chief of the Personnel Department of the German Army. Throughout the war, Schmundt was one of Adolf Hitler's many adjutants, and flew with Erwin Rommel in early 1941, just before the Afrika Korps was created. Grafik - Lagebesprechung Wolfsschanze, 20

Grafik - Lagebesprechung Wolfsschanze, 20

Schmundt was one of the casualties of the failed 20 July plot, planned to kill the German dictator

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...

. One of the conspirators, Colonel

Claus von Stauffenberg Colonel Claus Philipp Maria Justinian Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (; 15 November 1907 – 21 July 1944) was a German army officer best known for his failed attempt on 20 July 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Lair. Despite ...

, placed a bomb in a briefcase beside Hitler. Colonel

Heinz Brandt Heinz Brandt (11 March 1907 – 21 July 1944) was a German officer. During World War II he served as an aide to General Adolf Heusinger, the head of the operations unit of the General Staff. He may have inadvertently saved Adolf Hitler's life, ...

moved it behind a heavy table leg and unwittingly saved Hitler's life, but as a consequence, he lost his own. Severely injured in the assassination attempt, Schmundt initially made a promising recovery, but ultimately died of complications resulting from his injuries on 1 October 1944 at the Carlshof hospital. After Schmundt's death, all current Generals and Field Marshals were summoned by Hitler to attend a funeral service at the Tannenberg Memorial, in east Prussia. As reported by Hauptmann Alexander Stahlberg (aide to Field Marshal Von Manstein) in his book ''Bounden Duty'', the group were entrained back to Berlin and Schmundt was buried, on Hitler's orders, in

Invalids' Cemetery The Invalids' Cemetery (german: Invalidenfriedhof) is one of the oldest cemeteries in Berlin. It was the traditional resting place of the Prussian Army, and is regarded as particularly important as a memorial to the German Wars of Liberation o ...

. Hitler did not attend either ceremony. Schmundt was posthumously awarded the German Order on 7 October 1944. He was replaced as the Chief of the Personnel Department by General

Wilhelm Burgdorf Wilhelm Emanuel Burgdorf (15 February 1895 – 2 May 1945) was a German general during World War II, who served as a commander and staff officer in the German Army. In October 1944, Burgdorf assumed the role of the chief of the Army Personnel O ...

, the Deputy Chief.

Decorations

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia es ...

of 1914, 1st and 2nd class * Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 * Wehrmacht Long Service Award * Golden Party Badge * German Order (7 October 1944, posthumously) * Wound Badge of 20 July (posthumously)

References

* Hermann Weiß: Biographisches Lexikon zum Dritten Reich, Frankfurt, 2002, p. 411,. * Johannes Hürter: Schmundt, Rudolf. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, p. 267. * Reinhard Stumpf: General der Infanterie Rudolf Schmundt; in:

Gerd R. Ueberschär Gerd R. Ueberschär (born 18 August 1943) is a German military historian who specialises in the history of Nazi Germany and World War II. He is one of the leading contributors to the series ''Germany and the Second World War'' and, together with ...

(Hrsg.): Hitlers militärische Elite. Vom Kriegsbeginn bis zum Weltkriegsende Bd. 2, Primus Verlag, Darmstadt 1998. {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmundt, Rudolf 1896 births 1944 deaths Military personnel from Metz People from Alsace-Lorraine Prussian Army personnel Generals of Infantry (Wehrmacht) Burials at the Invalids' Cemetery Recipients of the Iron Cross (1914), 1st class Recipients of the German Order (decoration) Reichswehr personnel Adjutants of Adolf Hitler German military personnel killed in World War II 20th-century Freikorps personnel German Army personnel of World War I