Henning von Tresckow

Henning von Tresckow
Potential Reichsminister für Nationale Verteidigung of the Greater German Reich Incumbent
Personal details
Native name	Hermann Henning Karl Robert von Tresckow
Date of birth	January 10, 1901
Place of birth	Magdeburg, Province of Saxony, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Age at start	60 years old
Nationality	German
Role	Potential Security Minister of Germany (Speer Cabinet)
Political party	Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (Tr: National Socialist German Workers' Party)
Ideology	Aristocratic Conservatism

Henning von Tresckow (born January 10, 1901) is a German Field Marshal and the security minister of Speer's cabinet in the case of a Speer victory in the German Civil War. He is a member of the Gang of Four. Within his role in the Gang of Four, von Tresckow constantly pushes for reforms within the bloated politicized Wehrmacht and he has made it his goal to reform it to the Prussian standards of discipline, honour, and professionalism.

Biography

Early Life.

von Tresckow was born in Magdeburg into a noble family from the Brandenburg region of Prussia with 300 years of military tradition that provided the Prussian Army with 21 generals. His father, Leopold Hans Heinrich Eugen Hermann von Tresckow, later a cavalry general, had been present at Kaiser Wilhelm I's coronation as the emperor of new German Empire at Versailles in 1871. His mother, Marie-Agnes, was the youngest daughter of Count Robert von Zedlitz-Trützschler, a Prussian Minister of Education.

He received most of his early education from tutors on his family's remote rural estate; from 1913 to 1917, he was a student at the gymnasium in the town of Goslar. He joined the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards as an officer cadet aged 16 and became the youngest lieutenant in the Army in June 1918. In the Second Battle of the Marne, he earned the Iron Cross 2nd class for outstanding courage and independent action against the enemy. At that time Count Siegfried von Eulenberg, the commander of the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, predicted that "You, Tresckow, will either become chief of the General Staff or die on the scaffold as a rebel."

Interwar Era.

After World War I, Tresckow stayed with the famed Infantry Regiment 9 Potsdam and took part in the suppression of the Spartacist movement in January 1919, but resigned from the Weimar Republic Reichswehr Army in 1920 in order to study law and economics. He worked in a banking house and embarked on a world journey visiting Britain, France, Brazil and the eastern United States in 1924 before he had to abandon it to take care of family possessions back home. Like members of many prominent Prussian families, Tresckow married into another family with long-standing military traditions. In 1926, he married Erika von Falkenhayn, only daughter of Erich von Falkenhayn, the chief of the General Staff from 1914 to 1916, and returned to military service, being sponsored by Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg. Nevertheless, he was not a typical Prussian officer. He wore his uniform only when it was absolutely required and disliked the regimentation of army life. He liked to recite Rainer Maria Rilke, and spoke several languages, including English and French.

In 1934, Tresckow began General Staff training at the War Academy and graduated as the best of the class of 1936. He was assigned to the General Staff's 1st Department (Operations), where he worked in close contact with Generals Ludwig Beck, Werner von Fritsch, Adolf Heusinger and Erich von Manstein.

Trivia

In OTL, Tresckow only rose to the rank of Major General, however given his meritorious service and never acting against Hitler, it is likely he would eventually become a field marshal.

Von Tresckow would be one of the members that involved themselves in various coup plots against Hitler, conspiring to assassinate him. He would be a participant in the famous 20 July plot against Hitler, organising various officers within Army Group Centre and forming attempts to kill Hitler. Prior to the 20th July plot, at least 3 attempts were made on Hitler's life by the coup plotters.

He would commit suicide when the assassination attempt on Hitler and the following coup in Berlin had failed, and died on the frontlines in Królowy Most near Białystok on 21 July. To protect his fellow conspirators, he staged an appearance of partisan attack by firing his pistols before detonating a grenade below his chin.

He would be initially buried in the family home in Wartenberg. When the Nazis learned about his connections to Operation Valkyrie in late August, his body was exhumed and taken to the crematorium in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. His wife was arrested on 15 August, and her children taken away under the Nazi policy of Sippenhaft (shared family guilt); however, early in October she was released and survived the war.