Ludwig Beck

Ludwig Beck was a staff officer in the Reichswehr who became Chief of Staff of the German Army shortly after the Nazi rise to power in 1933. He supported Hitler's rearmament and rejection of the Treaty of Versailles, but believed Germany needed more time before another war. Growing disillusioned with Hitler's aggressive foreign policy, the regime's totalitarianism, and SS encroachment on military affairs, Beck resigned in 1938 after public disagreements over strategy. In retirement he became a leader of military resistance to Nazism, planning the 20 July 1944 plot with Claus von Stauffenberg. When the assassination attempt failed, Friedrich Fromm arrested Beck, who was executed by one of Fromm's men after his own suicide attempt went wrong.