Werner Eduard Fritz von Blomberg was born in Stargard, Pomerania, September 2, 1878. He was the first of four children of Lieutenant Colonel Emil Leopold von Blomberg (1840-1904) and his wife Emma von Chepe Weidenbach. He had two younger brothers: Hans (1886–1914) and Hugo (1888–1918), and the younger sister Margaret (1875–1940). Children were brought up military. A father who was constantly absent took little part in the process. The family often changed their place of residence: Werner studied in Hanover, Kleve and Bensberg.
Werner von Blomberg: military biography
At the age of 16, Werner entered the cadet corps in Lichterfeld, near Berlin, where he studied from 1894 to 1897. Upon completion, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant. For the next seven years, he served in the infantry in command and staff posts.
April 4, 1904 Blomberg married the daughter of Major Charlotte Helmich (1880-1932), with whom he will have five children: two sons and three daughters.
In 1904, Werner's father died, and in the same year he was sent to the Military Academy in Berlin, where he remained until 1907. On May 18, he was promoted to senior lieutenant, and in October for a short time fell into the Hanover regiment.
On April 1, 1908, Werner von Blomberg was sent to the General Staff, where he and his military skills were noticed. In 1911 he became the head of the topographic department.
In 1912, Blomberg served as captain in the 1st Lorraine Infantry Regiment in Metz, and in early 1914 he became company commander.
World War I
With the outbreak of World War I, Blomberg, as an officer in the General Staff of the 19th Infantry Reserve Division, was sent to the Western Front. In Belgium, the first battle took place, in which the brother of Werner Hans was killed.
This was followed by Saint Quentin, where his unit was attacked by several French divisions. Werner’s divisions managed to retreat with battles. September 14, he was awarded the Iron Cross II degree. In October 1914, he was slightly injured by shrapnel.
In the winter of 1915, Blomberg’s division fought in Champagne. The German offensive to the west failed, and the war went into the trench phase. March 22, 1915 he was promoted to major. In late April, the battered division was transferred to the reserve in Alsace, and from mid-May was deployed in the Vosges. Then Werner was transferred to the Eastern Front, where he fought for a short time in Lviv and Gorlitsy.
Blomberg proved himself in the battles of Aene and Soissons during the summer offensive of 1918. He distinguished himself so much that Kaiser Wilhelm II on June 3, 1918 personally presented him with the highest Prussian military award - the Order of Merit.
When the war was finally lost, the 7th Army began a chaotic retreat. After its disbandment in January 1919, Blomberg returned to his family in Hanover.
Service in the Reichswehr
In the summer of 1919 he was called to the border fortress of Kohlberg, and then to Berlin as a representative of the command in the Reichswehr, and was a speaker in the newly created Ministry of Defense. Thus, he got the opportunity to participate in the creation of a new army.
From 1927 to 1929 Blomberg was the head of the military service - a small likeness of the General Staff. In this capacity, he traveled to the Soviet Union. Here, Werner had the impression that the Soviet communist regime rested on two pillars - the party and the armed forces. He did not know that all the commanders were members of the party, and that Stalin had purged the commanders in 1929-1930.
Nevertheless, the trip inspired Blomberg. In contrast to most senior officers, filled with sentimental memories of the sunken monarchy, Werner showed democratic tendencies.
In the fall of 1930, Minister Grener sent him on a study tour to the United States.
The decisive factor in the future fate of Blomberg was his hostile relations with the influential Minister of Defense, Major General Kurt von Schleicher. Werner left Berlin and became commander of a military district in East Prussia and commander of an infantry division located there.
In 1932, at the age of 43, Werner's wife, Charlotte, died.
Blomberg General
Soon, Werner was sent to the headquarters of the League of Nations in Geneva as head of the German military delegation to negotiate disarmament, in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
On January 29, 1933, Werner von Blomberg received a telegram asking him to immediately arrive at President von Hindenburg in Berlin. It was planned to appoint Hitler as Chancellor and von Papen as Vice Chancellor, instead of General von Schleicher, and Blomberg was to become Minister of Defense. Formally, this violated the constitution, since only a civilian could occupy this post, so a special decree was issued. At the same time he was promoted to general from infantry.
General Werner von Blomberg immediately summoned his friend Colonel Walter von Reichenau from Konigsberg to Berlin and entrusted him with the management of his office. During his election trip, Hitler met with Reichenau and assured him that if elected Chancellor, he would rearm Germany.
Massacre with the SA
After the appointment, Blomberg had a problem - Hitler already had his own Nazi army, the SA, which in January 1933 amounted to 400 thousand people. It was commanded by Captain Ernst Rem. And after the association of the SA with the Union of Front-line soldiers “Steel Helmet”, the number of brown shirts reached 2 million people.
Between the SA and the Reichswehr, friction began. On the other hand, the SA was a reserve of volunteers in case of renewal of conscription. In addition to the army, the SA had other enemies - Minister of Aviation German Goering and SS leader Himmler, who intended to turn Hitler's guard into the only significant armed national socialist force in the Reich. In the spring, Reichenau learned about the impending open conflict, and in June 1934 Blomberg managed to convince Hitler to conclude an alliance between the army and the party. In addition, he published an article on the two pillars of the Third Reich - an open warning to the SA. Confident of Rem's conspiracy, Werner von Blomberg compiled a list of 78 persons to be arrested, and on June 28 brought the Reichswehr to full alert.
But the SS saved the army from work. The bloody massacre of SA leaders and conservatives, whose victims fell von Schleicher and von Bredov, allowed Hitler to immediately proclaim himself the supreme national judge.
Field Marshal
In March 1935, the Führer announced the resumption of conscription and the formation of 36 divisions and 12 army corps. The Ministry of Defense became the Ministry of War. On Hitler's birthday, April 22, 1936, Werner von Blomberg received the rank of Field Marshal and became commander in chief of the Wehrmacht.
In 1937, he represented Hitler at the coronation ceremony of King George VI in London.
Demon in the rib
At the same time, Blomberg led a secret life. Since 1934, in the evenings, he changed into civilian clothes and ordered the driver to take him to the indicated place, leaving instructions on where to pick him up in a few hours. The widower was looking for amorous adventures - a strange pastime for the Minister of War. During these escapades in early 1937, he met an attractive girl named Margaret Grun. 60-year-old Werner fell in love with this “sophisticated love” creature. He became her slave, called Eve and decided to marry.
In December 1937, Werner informed General Keitel of his intention, and that his future wife was of modest origin. To protect himself from possible attacks, Blomberg invited Hitler and Goering to become witnesses at his wedding.
Fateful wedding
On January 12, 1938, a civil ceremony was held in the great hall of the Ministry. And two weeks later, the farce collapsed. It turned out that the newly made Frau von Blomberg is known to the police and has a criminal record for distributing pornography.
Hitler was speechless from humiliation. On January 27, 1938, the field marshal was forced to leave, as stated, for his "state of health." Finally, after learning that General von Fritsch, the commander in chief of the army, was accused of homosexuality, he advised the Führer to personally lead the Wehrmacht. Hitler did as Blomberg said.
Werner von Blomberg became persona non grata in Germany. His name was forbidden to be mentioned. To hush up the scandal, the Fuhrer personally paid Werner a world tour. Blomberg made only half the journey, settling in Bad Wiessee.
Opal and death
In early 1939, he contacted Keitel with great caution, naively proposing to terminate his second marriage, provided that Hitler reinstated him. Naturally, he rejected the offer, noting Keitel that he had already proposed such a solution to Blomberg, and he refused. To hide the past of his second wife, Werner performed an unusual act: in the genealogical directory of the European aristocracy (Gothic almanac) he gave “Eve” the name “Elzbet Grunov”. A dubious enterprise, given that records of this nature should have documentary evidence.
With the collapse of the Third Reich in 1945, the former Minister of War was arrested. He died in custody in Nuremberg on March 14, 1946 from a heart attack. Two of his son officers died on the battlefield for the "Fuhrer, the people and the motherland."