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{{Infobox military person
|name=Hans Oster
|birth_date={{birth date|1887|8|9|df=y}}
|death_date={{death date and age|1945|4|9|1887|8|9|df=y}}
|birth_place=[[Dresden]], [[Kingdom of Saxony]], [[German Empire]]
|death_place=[[Flossenbürg concentration camp]], [[National Socialist Germany]]<br />{{Coord|49.734958|12.35577|display=inline|region:DE-BY_type:landmark|name=Execution Site of 20 July 1944 Plot (National Socialist Germany Resistance)}}
|image=[[file:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-2004-0007, Hans Oster.png|250px]]
|image_size=200
|caption=Hans Oster in 1939
|nickname=
|allegiance={{unbulleted list| {{flagicon|German Empire}} [[German Empire]] | {{flagicon|Germany}} [[Weimar Germany]] | {{flagicon|National Socialist Germany}} [[National Socialist Germany]]}}
|branch=[[Abwehr]]
|serviceyears={{unbulleted list| 1907–1932/33 | 1935–1944}}
|rank=Generalmajor
|commands=
|unit=
|battles={{unbulleted list| World War I | World War II}}
|awards=
|laterwork=
}}
'''Hans Paul Oster''' (b. 9 August 1887 in [[Dresden]], [[Kingdom of Saxony]]; d. 9 April 1945 it the KL [[Flossenbürg]], Bavaria) was a [[German]] officer of the Royal Saxon Army ([https://de.metapedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A4chsische_Armee de]), the [[Imperial German Army]], the [[Reichswehr]] and the [[Wehrmacht]], at last Generalmajor, deputy head of the ''[[Abwehr]]'' under [[Wilhelm Canaris]] and an opponent of [[Adolf Hitler]] and [[National Socialism]]. After the failed 1944 [[July 20 plot]], the [[Gestapo]] seized the diaries of Admiral [[Wilhelm Canaris]], the head of the Abwehr, in which Oster's [[German resistance|long-term anti-National Socialist activities]] were revealed. In April 1945, he was hanged as a traitor, as was Canaris.

==Life==
[[File:Hans Paul Oster.png|right|315px]]
[[Image:Flossenbürg April 9 1945 Memorial.JPG|thumb|305px|Memorial]]
Oster entered, after his ''Abitur'' at a ''[[Gymnasium]]'', the artillery (''4. Königlich Sächsisches Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 48'') in 1907. In [[World War I]], he served with the ''Reserve-Feld-Artillerie-Regiment Nr. 53'' of the ''53. Reserve-Division (3. Königlich Sächsische)'' on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]]. On 23 May 1915 he would become regiment adjutant and on 28 November 1916 battery leader (Batterie-[[Führer]]). On 15 January 1917 he was commanded to the Generalkommando XXVII. Armeekorps, on 1 March 1917 then commanded to general staff training at the same army corps. On 25 May 1917 he was transfered to the staff of the 23. Infanterie-Division.

After the war, he was [[thought]] of well enough to be kept in the reduced ''[[Reichswehr]]'', whose officer corps was limited to 4,000 by the [[Treaty of Versailles]]. However, he had to resign from the army in 1932, when he got into trouble because of an indiscretion during the Carnival in the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland, where ''Reichswehr'' officers were prohibited.

He soon found a job in a new organization which [[Hermann Göring]] set up under the Prussian police. He transferred to the ''Abwehr'' in October 1933. It was in this connection that he met future conspirators [[Hans Bernd Gisevius]] and [[Arthur Nebe]], who were then working in the ''[[Gestapo]]''. Oster also became a close confidant of [[Wilhelm Canaris]], the head of the ''Abwehr''.<ref>Michael Balfour, ''Withstanding [[Hitler]]'', p160-161</ref>

===Opposition to Hitler===
Like many other army officers, Oster initially welcomed the [[National Socialist Germany|National Socialist regime]], but his opinion soon soured after the 1934 "[[Night of the Long Knives]]", in which the ''[[Schutzstaffel]]'' (SS) extra-judicially murdered many of the [[leaders]] of the rival ''[[Sturmabteilung]]'' (SA) and their [[political]] opponents, including General [[Kurt von Schleicher]], last [[Chancellor of Germany|Chancellor]] of the [[Weimar Republic]], and Major-General [[Ferdinand von Bredow]], former head of the ''Abwehr''. In 1935, Oster was allowed to re-enlist in the army, but never on the [[German General Staff|General Staff]]. By 1938, the [[Blomberg-Fritsch Affair]] and ''[[Kristallnacht]]'' (the alleged state-sanctioned [[pogrom]] against [[jews]] in [[Germany]]), turned his antipathy into a hatred of National [[Socialism]]. In the course of the Fritsch crisis, Oster met General [[Ludwig Beck]], Chief of the General Staff, for the first [[time]].<ref>Michael Balfour, ''Withstanding Hitler'', p161</ref>

Oster's position in the ''Abwehr'' was invaluable to the conspiracy. The ''Abwehr'' could provide false papers and restricted materials, provide cover by disguising conspiratorial activities as [[intelligence]] work, link various resistance cells that were otherwise disparate, and supply intelligence to the conspirators. He also played a central role in the first military conspiracy to overthrow Hitler, which was rooted in Hitler's intention to invade [[Czechoslovakia]]. In August 1938, Beck spoke openly at a meeting of army generals in [[Berlin]] about his opposition to a war with the western powers over Czechoslovakia. When Hitler was informed of this, he demanded and received Beck’s resignation. Beck was highly respected in the army and his removal shocked the officer corps. His successor as Chief of Staff, [[Franz Halder]], remained in touch with him and also with Oster. Privately, he said that he considered Hitler “the incarnation of evil.”<ref>Joachim Fest, ''Plotting Hitler’s Death: The German Resistance to Hitler 1933–1945'', 86</ref> During September, plans for a move against Hitler were formulated, involving Field Marshal [[Erwin von Witzleben]], the army commander of the Berlin Military Region, and thus well-placed to stage a coup.

Oster, Gisevius and [[Hjalmar_Schacht|Schacht]] urged Halder and Beck to stage an immediate coup against Hitler, but the army generals argued that they could mobilize support among the officer corps for such a step only if Hitler made overt moves towards war. Halder nevertheless asked Oster to draw up plans for a coup. It was eventually agreed that Halder would instigate the coup when Hitler committed an overt step towards war. Therefore, emissaries of the conspirators traveled to [[Great Britain]] with assistance of Oster's ''Abwehr'' to urge the British to stand firm against Hitler over the Sudeten crisis. On 28 September, however, [[Prime Minister]] [[Neville Chamberlain]] agreed to a [[Munich Agreement|meeting in Munich]], at which he accepted the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. Hitler's diplomatic triumph undermined and demoralized the conspirators. Halder would no longer support a coup. This was the nearest approach to a successful conspiracy against Hitler before the [[20 July plot]] of 1944.

As war again grew more likely in mid-1939, the efforts for a pre-emptive coup were revived. Oster was still in contact with Halder and Witzleben. But many officers, particularly those from Prussian [[Landowner|landowning]] backgrounds, were strongly patriotic and saw a war to regain [[Danzig]] and other lost eastern territories from the occupying Poles as justified.

After the outbreak of [[World War II]], resistance in the army became more problematic since it could lead to defeat of Germany. However, when Hitler decided to [[attack]] [[France]] soon after the Polish campaign in 1939, Halder along with other ranking generals thought it to be hopelessly unrealistic and again entertained the [[idea]] of a coup, urged by Oster and Canaris. However, when Hitler vowed to destroy the "spirit of [[Zossen]]" (Zossen was where headquarters of the Army High Command was located), by which he meant defeatism, Halder feared that their conspiracy was about to be discovered and destroyed all incriminating documents.

Meanwhile, in an act that even other conspirators would have regarded as [[treason]], Oster informed his friend [[Bert Sas]], the Netherlands' military attaché in Berlin, more than twenty times of the exact date of the repeatedly delayed [[Battle of the Netherlands|invasion of the Netherlands]]. Sas passed the information to his [[government]], but was not believed. Oster calculated that his "treason" could cost the lives of 40,000 German soldiers and wrestled with his decision, but concluded that it was necessary to prevent millions of deaths that would occur in what would be undoubtedly a protracted war should Germany achieve an early victory.<ref>Peter Hoffmann, ''The [[history]] of the German resistance, 1933–1945''(p171)</ref>

The period between 1940 and 1942 was the nadir of German resistance. Some officers were pleased to be [[wrong]] to have feared military disaster. [[Others]] still opposed Hitler and the National [[Socialist]] regime, but felt that his enormous popularity with the [[people]] made any action impossible. Tireless, Oster nevertheless succeeded in rebuilding an effective resistance network. In 1941, when the systematic extermination of [[European]] jews began with the invasion of the [[Soviet Union]], his ''Abwehr'' group established contact with [[Henning von Tresckow]]'s resistance group in [[Army Group Center]]. In 1942, his most important recruit was General [[Friedrich Olbricht]], head of the General Army Office headquartered at the [[Bendlerblock]] in central Berlin, who controlled an independent system of communications to reserve units all over Germany. Oster's ''Abwehr'' group supplied British-made bombs to Tresckow's group for their various attempts to assassinate Hitler in 1943.

However, later in 1943, the ''Abwehr'' group's efforts to rescue jews were discovered by the ''Gestapo'' and Oster was dismissed from his post. [[Hans von Dohnanyi]], who joined the ''Abwehr'' shortly before the war, and [[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]], the famous [[Lutheran]] theologian and [[Hans Dohnanyi|Dohnanyi]]'s brother-in-law, helped 14 jews to flee to Switzerland disguised as ''Abwehr'' agents in Operation U-7. Dohnanyi and Bonhoeffer were arrested on charges of alleged breach of monetary exchange laws, amongst others with the leading German insurance brokers [[Jauch & Hübener]], Captain Walter Jauch of the [[Jauch family]], being a first cousin-in-law of Oster, and [[Otto Hübener]] later being hanged. Oster was placed under house arrest. Their involvement in the German resistance was discovered after the failure of the 20 July Plot.

==Death==
Oster was arrested one day after the failed 20 July Plot to assassinate Hitler. On 4 April 1945, the diaries of Admiral Canaris were discovered and, in a rage upon reading them, Hitler ordered that the conspirators be executed.<ref [[name]]=PlottingHitler'sDeath>{{cite book|year=1994|author=Joachim Fest|isbn=0-297-81774-4|title=Plotting Hitler's Death: The German Resistance to Hitler, 1933-1945|publisher=Weidenfield & Nicholson}}</ref>

On 8 April 1945, Oster, [[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]], [[Wilhelm Canaris]], and other anti-National [[Socialists]] were convicted and sentenced to death by an [[SS]] court-martial presided over by [[Otto Thorbeck]]. At dawn the next day, Oster, Bonhoeffer and Canaris were hanged in Flossenbürg. 

Fabian von Schlabrendorff, one of the few major coordinators of anti-[[National Socialist]] activities to survive the war, described Oster as "a man such as God meant men to be, lucid and serene in [[mind]], imperturbable in danger."<ref>{{cite book|last=William L. Shirer|title=The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich| year=1960| pages=1024}}</ref>

==Family==
Hans was the son of a pastor of the Huguenots Protestant Church in Dresden. On 20 September 1912, he married his fiancée Gertrud Evelyn Knoop from a family of textile industrialists in Bremen. They had three children:

* Hans [[Karl]] Joachim "Achim" (b. 20 February 1914 in Dresden; d. 2 March 1983 in Dachau), Major i. G. in [[WWII]], at last commanding a tank regiment; later member of the [https://de.metapedia.org/wiki/Amt_%E2%80%9EBlank%E2%80%9C ''Amt Blank''], then the Bundeswehr until 1973, since 1971 two-star major general.   
* Harald Julius Eberhard (b. 12 June 1919 in Dresden; {{KIA}} 27 January 1943 in [[Stalingrad]]), Oberleutnant of the [[Heer (Wehrmacht)|Heer]]
* Maria Barbara (b. 25 February 1921 in Dresden)

==Quotes==
* ''"He's a man of courage and conviction. And what resolution in his sermons! There should be a handful of such people in all our churches, and at least two handfuls in the [[Wehrmacht]]. If there were, Germany would look quite different!"'' – Oster about Msgr. Clemens August Graf von Galen, [[Roman Catholic]] bishop and vocal critic of [[National Socialism]]<ref>[[Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager]], ''[[Valkyrie]]: The Story of the Plot to Kill Hitler, by its Last Member'', Vintage Books, 2009. Page 70.</ref>

==Promotions==
* Fahnenjunker: 18 March 1907 (commission/patent from 14 February 1907)
* Leutnant: 18 August 1908
* Oberleutnant: 25 September 1914
* Hauptmann: 16 April 1918 (with rank seniority from 18 April or 22 May 1916)
* Major: 1 March 1929 
** Voluntary farewell on 31 December 1932 with effect from 31 March 1933 for violating the code of [[honor]] (without declaring any dishonor), because he had an affair with the wife of a comrade; permission to wear the uniform in civilian life was granted to him. The [[reason]] was an affair with the wife of a reserve officer of his regiment and professor from [[Trier]], although he himself had been married to Gertrud Knoop since 20 September 1912. The court of honor then advised him to take his leave.
** May 1933 civil employment in the research office of the newly formed Reichsluftfahrtministerium ([https://de.metapedia.org/wiki/Reichsluftfahrtministerium de])
** 1 October 1933 he entered the service of the Abwehr of the Reichswehrministerium ([https://de.metapedia.org/wiki/Reichswehrministerium de])
* Major ([https://de.metapedia.org/wiki/Erg%C3%A4nzungsoffizier ''E'' or ''Ergänzungsoffizier'']): 5 March 1935
* Oberstleutnant (E): 1 December 1935
* Oberst (E): 1 April 1939 
** 30 January 1941 Entry into the active officer corps
* Generalmajor: 16 November 1942 with effect from 1 December 1942 
** April 1943 leave of absence and then on 19 June 1943 Transfer to the reserves (''Führerreserve'')
** With effect from 4 March 1944 he was "granted the right to wear the previous uniform" and discharged from active military service

==Awards and decorations==
* [[Iron Cross]] (1914), 2nd and 1st Class
** 2nd Class on 4 November 1914
** 1st Class on 12 November 1915
* Albert Order (German: [https://de.metapedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6niglich_S%C3%A4chsischer_Albrechtsorden ''Albrechts-Orden'']), Knight's Cross 2nd Class with Swords on 12 April 1915
* Military Order of St. Henry (''Militär-St. Heinrichs-Orden''), Knight's Cross on 22 Juni 1915
* Albert Order (German: ''Albrechts-Orden''), Knight's Cross 1st Class with Swords on 25 November 1916
* Crown to the Albert Order, Knight's Cross 1st Class with Swords on 8 May 1918
* [[Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer]]
* Wehrmacht Long Service Award ([https://de.metapedia.org/wiki/Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung ''Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung'']), 4th to 1st Class on 2 October 1936
* Hungarian War Commemorative Medal 1914-1918 with Swords
* War Commemorative Medal (Austria) with Swords
* [[Sudetenland Medal]] with the Prague Castle Bar ([https://de.metapedia.org/wiki/Medaille_zur_Erinnerung_an_den_1._Oktober_1938 ''Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 1. Oktober 1938 mit Spange „Prager Burg“'']) on 12 June 1940
* [[Repetition Clasp 1939 to the Iron Cross 1914]], 2nd Class
* [[War Merit Cross]] ([https://de.metapedia.org/wiki/Kriegsverdienstkreuz_(1939) ''Kriegsverdienstkreuz'']), 2nd and 1st Class with Swords
* Order of the Crown of King Zvonimir, 1st Class with Star

==Further reading==
* Joachim Fest: ''Plotting Hitler's Death: The German Resistance to Hitler, 1933–1945'' ([[London]], Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1996).
* Peter Hoffmann: ''The History of the German Resistance, 1933–1945'' (Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press, 1996).
* Terry Parssinen: ''The Oster Conspiracy of 1938'' (London, Harper Collins, 2004).
* Roger Moorhouse: ''Killing Hitler'' (London, Jonathan Cape, 2006).
* Terry Parssinen: ''Die vergessene Verschwörung. Hans Oster und der militärische Widerstand gegen Hitler'' (München, Siedler, 2008).

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

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