Joachim Otto August Achatius von Kortzfleisch (3 January 1890-20 April 1945) was a German general who served in the Wehrhmacht during World War II and helped foil the 20 July plot.
Biography[]
Joachim von Kortzfleisch was born in Braunschweig, German Empire in 1890, a distant cousin of Claus von Stauffenberg. He served in a machine gun battalion of the Imperial German Army during World War I before rising through the ranks of the Reichswehr and Wehrmacht, becoming a Lieutenant-General at the outbreak of World War II. By 1944, he was given command of Military District III (Berlin), and he refused to obey Ludwig Beck's orders during Operation Valkyrie, reminding the conspirators that Adolf Hitler was not dead, and that they had sworn an oath to him. He was promptly arrested and replaced by Karl Freiferr von Thungen, but he was released after the coup was foiled. He was given command of the Rhine Bridgehead of Army Group B in March 1945, and he and several other German soldiers were killed by US Army soldiers after running into an American patrol at Schmallenburg-Wulwesort, Sauerland and giving a Nazi salute rather than surrendering.