The Desert Fox
Reading the Hourly History biography of the German Field Marshal nicknamed the Desert Fox, aka Erwin Rommel, reminded me how complicated the time he lived in was, how messy wars are, and how complicated real life is. Like many Germans, Rommel had felt betrayed by the German government that had surrendered in World War I. As Germany imploded under the weight of the harsh terms of the peace treaty, the government looked to its army brass to train folks “not as wartime soldiers but as a quickly assembled force of riot police”: “Instead of fighting glorious battles against foreign aggressors, Rommel now had to fight his own people.” Unhappy at the prospect of Germans shedding German blood, Rommel would often lean towards “negotiation than force” when dealing with internal mayhem. In an increasingly dysfunctional republic, made worse by the Great Depression and runaway inflation, the possibility of German communists taking control grew larger. Rommel was horrified ...