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Three weeks ago Generaloberst Walther von Brauchitsch was little more than a name outside Germany, an untried general who was supposed to be a good organizer but no theorist, whose rise to the position of Commander in Chief of the German Land Forces had been due at least partly to his willingness to back Adolf Hitler where more experienced generals would not. This week Brauchitsch was a name to put beside those of Moltke, Ludendorff and Schlieffen: not only was he Germany's No. 1 Krieger (warrior), but he had fostered, planned and led the Blitzkrieg—and proved its validity up to the hilt.
In Germany, Heinrich Alfred Hermann Walther von Brauchitsch is almost as obscure as he is abroad, and for two reasons: 1) Germans are rationed only one hero and his name is Adolf Hitler; 2) Brauchitsch is the typical German Army officer, self-effacing, obedient and personally dull. Only time he ever got himself talked about was last year, when he divorced his first wife to marry young and pretty Charlotte Schmidt, daughter of a Silesian judge. Nevertheless, he possesses the thoroughness, persistence and greatness in his field that have made the Army the highest expression of German efficiency and perhaps the greatest Army in the world.
Son of a cavalry general stationed in Berlin, he grew up there, got the best schooling to be had in Germany, at the Französisches Gymnasium of Berlin, and in 1900, aged 19, became a lieutenant in the Royal Elizabeth Guard Grenadiers. The Grenadiers wore corsets and led a gay social life; Lieutenant Brauchitsch, whose nature was somewhat more vigorous, persuaded his father to get him transferred to an artillery regiment. By 1914 he had risen to the rank of captain. Throughout the four years of World War I he remained a General Staff officer, saw no fighting. In 1918 he shared the fate of thousands of other officers and was relegated to the reserve corps, his career apparently at an end.
But when Seeckt reorganized the Reichswehr in 1919, Brauchitsch got an appointment as a major in Stettin. By 1922 he was head of artillery in the Defense Ministry, a key figure in Germany's miniature Army. He became a lieutenant colonel in 1925 and served a turn in a Prussian artillery regiment. In 1930 he was back in the Defense Ministry as director of military training, with the rank of colonel. His career seemed to lie in office work, and after serving briefly as chief of staff of the 6th Artillery Regiment he was given the routine assignment of inspecting the artillery. He became a major general in 1931, chief of artillery in March 1932.
No politician, but an ambitious careerist, Brauchitsch had studied hard during the years he spent in a swivel chair. He mastered his own specialty, artillery, then went on to pore over the more theoretical aspects of warfare. He became a firm believer in a strong defense as a prelude to any kind of warfare, and, with Adolf Hitler's, his eyes were turned to the East as the next battleground for the Reich.