Friedrich Paulus (23 September 1890 – 1 February 1957) was a Field Marshal of Nazi Germany during World War II. Paulus commanded the German Sixth Army at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942-43, during which he was forced to surrender. While in Soviet captivity, he became a critic of the Nazi regime, and he died in East Germany in 1957.
Biography[]
Friedrich Paulus was born in Guxhagen, German Empire in 1890, and he joined the Imperial German Army in February 1910. When World War I broke out, he fought in France, and he later served in Macedonia, France, Romania, and Serbia, ending the war as a captain. After the armistice, he served as a brigade adjutant in the Freikorps, and he was one of only 4,000 officers to be retained by the Reichswehr after the war's end. In 1935, he became chief of staff for the panzer headquarters, and he became a Major-General in May 1939 and chief of staff for the German Tenth Army, which saw action in the invasion of Poland later that year. In August 1940, following his service in the Netherlands and Belgium, Paulus was prmoted to Lieutenant-General. In November 1941, he was promoted to General der Panzertruppe and commander of the German Sixth Army after Walther von Reichenau was promoted to command all of Army Group South. He would not assume this command until January 1942, however, and he led the drive on Stalingrad that summer. The Battle of Stalingrad initially went well for the Germans, but the Sixth Army found itself surrounded by the Red Army as the result of Operation Uranus, the Soviet counterattack. Paulus obeyed Adolf Hitler's orders to hold his forces' positions in Stalingrad under all circumstances rather than attempt a breakout, and he was promoted to Field Marshal. However, he eventually agreed to surrender to the Red Army instead of fighting until the end, disobeying Hitler's orders to kill himself (as a Catholic, he opposed suicide). On 31 January 1943, Paulus and his staff surrendered to the Soviets, and he said, "I have no intention of shooting myself for this Bohemian corporal," expressing his hatred for Hitler. At first, a captive Paulus refused to collaborate with the Soviets, but he became a vocal critic of the Nazi regime after the 20 July plot. He appealed to Germans to surrender, and he would act as a witness for the prosecution at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946. In 1953, he was allowed to move to East Germany after leaving Soviet captivity, and he died in Dresden in 1957 at the age of 66.