From top: Nazi General Edwin Rommel (at left); David Langwallner
Philosopher Isaiah Berlin‘s famous parable or table top discussion, ‘The Hedgehog and The Fox‘ (1953) is about different forms of intelligence. The Hedgehog knows one big thing, the fox many things. Perhaps the ideal human intelligence ought to combine both?
I have always been fascinated by the ‘Desert Fox’, Erwin Rommel. The reasons are obvious in my case. I have always been a Junker at one level but never quite a member of the establishment. I endorse the remark of Groucho Marx that one should never be a member of a club that would have one as its member. I also have an innate sympathy with the underdog and he was certainly in that position in the impossible war of The Afrika Corps. The man who won against impossible odds. A far better general than Montgomery.
Now, all judgments at one level must be context-specific. So, the negative. He was a National Socialist and a card-carrying member of the Nazi party. He was also a German General and initially very close to Hitler. He was a military man and, described by Desmond Young in his definitive biography, the perfect fighting animal. It is quite clear that he was a great military strategist, resourceful, winning against odds and brilliant in the game of bluff and counter-bluff.
The relationship between the Anglo-Saxon and Germanic race has always been complicated. Similar Hapsburgian blood in their royal families, thickened by dynastic and familial inter breeding didn’t help. They were never natural enemies, but twice got pitted against each other. So, the officer class of both establishments always had respect for fellow officers of the same perhaps ruthless disposition – mitigated by an old-fashioned sense of compassion or honour.
As illustrated by the performance by Von Stroheim as the German Commander in Renoir’s ‘La Grande Illusion‘ (1939), some of the Junker class had a measure of civility. Regarding the rules of combat and proper treatment of prisoners during wartime, it is quite clear that most American, German, Japanese and to a significantly lesser extent British generals did not observe them, but Rommel largely did.
‘La Grande Illusion,’ a film of the first world war, says a lot about the need for pacifism and the somewhat courtly treatment of prisoners of war. It also demonstrates the futility of any war or any form of conflict that descends into tribalism, nationalism and chauvinism which is where we are now headed.
Renoir elaborated in commentary on the film that all cultures are cliquish and have their own rules, their own protocols and their own way of dealing with those who do not observe the rules of the game or the rule of law.
When it opened, a largely right wing audience in France went berserk, like the reception in the Abbey Theatre to ‘The Playboy of the Western World’ in 1907. Renoir’s acid comment was in effect that these people were doomed and the audience reaction showed that “people who commit suicide do not do so in front of witnesses.” He had touched a raw nerve.
Rommel, though not Renoir, was a tolerably-civilised Junker and given the awfulness of the military mindset and the circumstances, a tolerably civilised human being compromised by his service to awfulness. The real mystery about him relates to his knowledge of the Van Stauffenberg plot and his final disenchantment with his mentor Hitler. He either knew of, or did not disavow, or plotted with the removal of Hitler – hence his death by cyanide pill in the back of the car.
As a new form of corporate and military industrial barbarism takes hold, the actual rakes of the game have shifted. Normal laws have given way to executive action, ouster clauses, emergency legislation driven by the pandemic and many of the decision makers now rough-hewn combatants engaging in inconsequential thinking that might be viewed historically in hindsight as a combination of blinkered vision and indeed war crimes or crimes against humanity.
When the rules of the game have become replaced by real or fake wars in an age of disinformation then the narrow tinsel of legality has broken down. Johnson venerates Churchill and references him like the Bible to in effect trumpet and blow up his own reputation. Churchill was a great man but also a war criminal not least in sanctioning Bomber Harris and the bombing of Dresden with the death of many innocent civilians as documented in Kurt Vonnegut’s ‘Slaughterhouse.’
So, Rommel does matter in a perilous age.
He was with a few contrary incidents very decent to prisoners of armed conflict and was a civilised European gentleman. Ultimately, he had enough of a barbaric and unstable regime and his subtle but recognisable opposition was enough.
Currently even that scant level of heroism within the establishment is perhaps enough. The last remnants of civilisation. And Renoir the hedgehog saw clearly in 1939 that we are on the brink of a precipice as we are now. People such as Rommel the Fox are needed to instill moderation. And for their unique skill sets of both military tactician and humanist.
David Langwallner is a barrister specialising in public law, immigration, housing and criminal defence including miscarriages of justice. He is emeritus director of the Irish innocence project and was Irish lawyer of the year at the 2015 Irish law awards. His column appears here every Tuesday and Friday. Follow David on Twitter @DLangwallner
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Rommel is fierce overrated.
Praising a nazi general .. for their humanity.. in 2021 .. for why? The underlying and seemingly singular reference to make this appraisal relevant is that we are on a precipice in our present day.. would general rommel .. a supposedly dignified leader employ technological might at his disposal if he were placed with the same objective of defeating an enemy? Perhaps the only thing that marks him and others of his era as noble is he did not have access to nuclear means.. his suicide should tell you that his nobility served only to allow him acknowledge what horrors he was responsible for and unable to deny. We do not need another rommel or notions which seek to revaluate the fair war.
darren the argument is about even allowing for his failings the need for decent establishment thinking if possible coupled with the other aspect renoir humanity
That’s fair enough its your piece. The military industrial complex and the prospect of total annailiation as we have now would have stopped even rommel in his tracks if it was he had such capabilities at all, both militarialy and as a man. It seems as though the engagement between falling monarchs and disolving orders would have been better attended to by demonstrating against war than seeking to help carve up north Africa for the profit of less noble parties. If that is not the lesson of war one and two then eff me it’s a precipice against all reason.
Well I agree it is merely a suggestion that if such people now all powerful have a touch of civility then much could be improved
Doubt it though
Just read this post. I remember writing an article for my school magazine in 1980 – “The Fox v. The Rat”. Montgomery won the war in North Africa. The Allies blew up the petrol reserves for the panzers, that was the end. The Fox was arrested following his failure and his implication of Valkyrie. Maybe, our history books weren’t the same?
I am not sure what history books you have read
I’m replying to my own comment. David refers to, “Slaughter House 5″ – ” My name is Jon Jonsonn, the people I meet when I walk down the street, they ask me my name, I say my name is Jon Jonsonn, I live in Wiscoson, I work in a timber yard there. ” Jon Jonsonn was the bombadier over Dresden. He went mad.
Kurt Vonnegut got it right, remorse, despite under orders.
The point about Dresden is well made and of course Churchill sanctioned it we are now in a defenceless age for ordinary people next article titanic
Why bring up Nazim – what’s the relevance? All I see is disparate types – I guess I answered my own question? The difference is that we are pretty well educated types. We, unlike the Nazi regime are not under a cloak of beliefs.
If I was of an age, during the second world war, I would hope I’d have been in a position to help. Supposition? Samuel Beckett, was awarded La Medale, etc… He wrote one p!ay, pretty much about waiting for another. He was active in the French Resistance.