Cäsar von Hofacker

Caesar von Hofacker, auch Cäsar von Hofacker (* 11. März 1896 in Ludwigsburg; † 20. Dezember 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee), war als deutscher Offizier der Luftwaffe am Attentat vom 20. Juli 1944 auf Hitler beteiligt.

BIOGRAPHY Son of Eberhard von Hofacker and Countess Albertine von Uxkull-Gyllenband, Caesar von Hofacker was born 11 March 1896 in Ludwigsburg and trained as a lawyer. Holding a senior position in the United Steel works he joined the German Army in 1939. Then von Hofacker served as head of the Iron and Steel section of the military administration in Paris.

Hofacker was on the staff of Carl von Stülpnagel, the Military Governor of France. A cousin of Colonel von Stauffenberg, in 1943 Hofacker began attempts to recruit senior generals in the plot to overthrow Adolf Hitler. He enlisted the active support of Field Marshal Edwin Rommel for the planned coup d'etat against Hitler in the summer of 1944.

Other than Major Georgi, Colonel Hofacker was the only other known conspirator in the Luftwaffe. As a Luftwaffe group commander, Hofacker made no secret of his loathing for Hitler among friends and colleagues. He considered Hitler's attitude toward France 'short-sighted and imprudent, and in every moral respect disastrous.'

Managing to get transferred to General Stülpnagel's entourage in Paris as liaison officer, Hofacker became his right hand man in the conspiracy.

He played a crucial role in the Paris side of the coup attempt of July 20, 1944, accompanying General Stülpnagel to Field Marshal von Kluge's headquarters at La Roche Guyon. There he announced that the entire SS and Gestapo contingent in all of Paris had been arrested on Stülpnagel's initiative and delivered an impassionate speech exhorting Kluge to throw his weight behind Stauffenberg's coup attempt. After Kluge refused to do so, Hofacker returned with Stülpnagel to Paris.

A threatened revolt by Admiral Theodor Krancke's Naval Marines, coupled with Kluge's reticence and the collapse of the coup in Berlin, forced Hofacker and Stülpnagel to release their SS and Gestapo captives. They spent the rest of the night of July 20-21 diffusing the crisis and shredding documents to save as many of their colleagues as possible from arrest. Over the next few days, Hofacker made plans to return to Germany and go underground to avoid arrest but was captured in Paris on July 26.

Brutally tortured by the Gestapo for days, Hofacker proudly assumed sole responsibility for all conspiratorial events that transpired in Paris. His interrogators later admitted to their admiration for his immense courage. But repeated excruciating torture eventually caused Hofacker to implicate Rommel in the conspiracy.

At his trial, Hofacker remained defiant toward People's Court judge Roland Freisler. According to one observer, Hofacker's condemnation of Hitler was so devastating that his interrogators could hardly tear themselves away and thereafter concluded that he was 'the most dangerous internal enemy to the regime' in all of France.

Caesar von Hofacker was executed by hanging on 20 December 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee.

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https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_von_Hofacker

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