Maisel, Ernst.

Maisel, Ernst, born 16-09-1896 in Landau, Germany. On 04-01-1915 he became a volunteer in the Royal Bavarian 12th Field Artillery Regiment (FAR 12) of the Bavarian Army and was in the fields of the first war. Hauptmann Maisel married his fiancée Liselotte Barth on 15-08-1935. At the rank of Oberstleutnant while serving with the 42^nd Infantry Regiment. He was wounded in 1916 (Battle of the Somme) and on 08-10-1916 was promoted in den Regimentsstab des FAR 12. Op 16-04-1918 he was wounded again (Flanders). He ended the first war and joined the Freikorps „von Epp“ on 07-04-1919. On 06-04-1942 as an Oberst in 42^th Infantry Regiment he was awarded with the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross . As a Generalmajor from 01-06-1943, he was Chief of the Office Group for Officers’ Education and Welfare of the Army Personnel Office. One of his responsibilities in this appointment was to be court protocol officer of the Army court of honor that investigated army officers suspected of involvement in the July 20 plot. On 17-07-1944, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel  was being driven to the front lines in France to try to get back his troops support. His car was bombed between Livarot and Vimoutiers by Allied air planes. Rommel was seriously injured. He was moved to a Luftwaffe hospital, where he gained consciousness on July 24^th.

   Although Rommel was unconscious during Hitler’s assassination attempt, he was still a suspect. On top of that, Rommel was taking full blame of the Normandy breakthrough from Hitler. Rommel was also a great rival of Hitler. If Hitler was killed, then Rommel would be head of the country and the war would be over. Hitler found the assassination a perfect opportunity to get rid of Rommel for good. Rommel was in his home in Herrlingen, near Ulm, to recover.

   In the capacity of court protocol officer, Generalleutnant der Artillerie, instructed by Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel to offer Rommel a choice – take poison, receive a state funeral, and obtain immunity for his family – or face a treason trial, Ernst Maisel, at order of Wilhelm Keitel,  Adolf Hitler accompanied his superior General der Infanterie, Wilhelm Emauel Burgdorf, Burgdorf committed suicide age 50, on 02-05-1945, in the Führerbunker, to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s home in southern Germany as a witness to the completion of Rommel’s suicide on 14-10-1944. Maisel was present in Rommel’s study when Burgdorf offered Rommel the choice of facing the People’s Court or commit suicide, but was not present when Burgdorf provided Rommel with a cyanide capsule. While he accompanied Burgdorf in escorting Rommel, in a vehicle, to the location where Rommel was to take the cyanide capsule, Maisel was once again dismissed by Burgdorf, thus only saw the Field Marshal’s remains but did not witness the process. Near the end of the war, he was promoted to the rank of Generalleutnant on 01-10-1944, age 48 and was placed in command of the 68^th Infantry Division . The youngest Generalleutnant in WWII, with 36, was Theodor Tolsdorff.  Maisel was captured by the Americans on 07-05-1945 and was imprisoned until March 1947.

Death and burial ground of Maisel, Ernst.

In questions after the war about Rommel’s suicide, Maisel’s name was first mentioned in the German public in other circles, as was reported in late February 1948 in the press, that the Bavarian Ministry of Justice material against Maisel. because he was accused of being involved in the poisoning of field marshal Rommel. In the summer of 1949, there was a first case against Maisel in front of the courtroom in Rosenheim, before which he declared at the last meeting with Generalfelkdmarshal Erwin Rommel, in the presence of General Burgdorf, did not know anything about the poison and the intent to kill; however, the proceedings ended with M. being classified in the group after a week’s trial on 04-07-1949

Ernst Maisel died at the old age of 82, on 16-12-1978, in Schönau am Königsee, Bavaria and is buried with his wife Liselotte, born Barth, who died very old age 98, on 19-09-2011, on the Bergfriedhof of Berchtesgaden, Plot: Field 5, Sectie B, Row 1, Grave 3. Close by the graves of Vice Admiral, Hans Erich Voss,  and Hitler’s sister Paula

 Close  and a favorite actress of Hitler, Magda Schneider.

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