Erich Hoepner: German General Hanged for Dare to Disobey Hitler’s Orders
On July 20, 1944, only hours after German officers nearly succeeded in assassinating Adolf Hitler at his fortified Wolf’s Lair headquarters in East Prussia, the Führer resumed his schedule as if death had not brushed past him. He met with Benito Mussolini, presenting to the world an image of invincibility while quietly setting in motion one of the most brutal manhunts in Nazi history.
Among those eventually hunted was a decorated general who had once commanded hundreds of thousands of troops in Hitler’s war machine. His name was Erich Hoepner, and his life would illustrate how even highly successful commanders could become victims of the regime when they dared to place the lives of their soldiers above the Führer’s increasingly delusional commands.
Erich Kurt Richard Hoepner was born on September 14, 1886, in Frankfurt an der Oder, a city along the German-Polish border. Four years later, his family relocated to Berlin, where he attended the Kaiserin Augusta Gymnasium, an elite institution serving the sons of Germany’s educated classes. In 1910, Hoepner married Irma Gebauer, the daughter of a successful manufacturer. The marriage produced 2 children, who would later suffer for their father’s choices.
Ambitious and determined to rise within the military hierarchy, Hoepner enrolled in the Prussian War College in Berlin in 1913, the most prestigious military academy in the German Empire. When the First World War erupted on July 28, 1914, he deployed to the Western Front as a company commander. He distinguished himself in combat and was promoted to captain of cavalry. By the Armistice on November 11, 1918, he had been awarded both the Iron Cross First Class and Second Class, decorations signifying exceptional service in a war of unprecedented scale and destruction.
The Weimar Republic emerged from Germany’s defeat, and the Treaty of Versailles reduced the German Army to 100,000 men. Hoepner remained in the Reichswehr, the truncated force permitted under the treaty. For officers who remained, the smaller army offered opportunities for advancement. When Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party seized power in 1933, Germany’s military entered a period of rapid expansion and transformation.
By 1936, Hoepner had risen to the rank of Generalmajor. In 1938, he assumed command of the 1st Light Division, an early armored formation that would become part of Germany’s expanding Panzer forces. That same year brought political upheaval within the German military establishment. War Minister Werner von Blomberg was forced to resign following a scandal involving his marriage, and shortly thereafter Army Commander-in-Chief Werner von Fritsch was removed under fabricated accusations. Hitler exploited the crisis, replacing experienced commanders with officers whose loyalty to him outweighed independent military judgment. He consolidated direct control over the armed forces, eliminating remaining institutional restraints.
Hoepner watched these developments with growing concern. During the Sudeten Crisis of 1938, when Germany threatened war with Czechoslovakia over the Sudetenland, he joined the Oster Conspiracy, a plot led by Generalmajor Hans Oster and other conservative officers who believed Hitler was driving Germany toward a catastrophic war. Hoepner’s assigned role was to lead the 1st Light Division into Berlin and seize key positions from the SS should the coup be activated. The conspiracy collapsed when British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Premier Édouard Daladier signed the Munich Agreement on September 30, 1938, granting the Sudetenland to Germany and removing the immediate pretext for intervention.
In March 1939, Hoepner led his Panzer forces into the remaining Czech territories. The following month he was promoted to General der Kavallerie. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, initiating the Second World War. Before the campaign, Hoepner told his troops that their mission demanded merciless annihilation of the enemy. His XVI Army Corps advanced 230 kilometers in a single week, reaching Warsaw as part of the 10th Army. In October, he received the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross for his operational effectiveness.
The German offensive in the West began on May 10, 1940. Within 6 weeks, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands had fallen in what became known as the Battle of France. Hoepner’s corps, attached to the 6th Army, spearheaded operations at Lille, Dunkirk, and Dijon.
In May 1940, the SS Division Totenkopf, an elite Waffen-SS formation known as the Death’s Head Division, was temporarily subordinated to Hoepner’s command. This assignment created immediate tension. Reports reached him that SS troops were mistreating prisoners. On May 24, he issued a clear directive: any soldier caught abusing prisoners would face immediate court-martial.
Three days later, soldiers of the Totenkopf Division executed nearly 100 surrendered British prisoners in what became known as the Le Paradis massacre. When Hoepner learned of the killings, he demanded an investigation and called for the dismissal of the division’s commander, Theodor Eicke, if the allegations proved accurate. Eicke defended himself before SS leader Heinrich Himmler, alleging that British troops had used illegal expanding bullets. Despite substantial evidence, neither Eicke nor his division faced meaningful consequences. The matter was suppressed. Hoepner, who never joined the Nazi Party, regarded Eicke as a butcher and increasingly despised the Waffen-SS for its brutality and disregard for military law.
Following France’s defeat, Hoepner was promoted to Generaloberst in July 1940. Preparations soon began for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Hoepner was appointed commander of the 4th Panzer Group, assigned to Army Group North under Field Marshal Wilhelm von Leeb, with the objective of advancing toward Leningrad.
In May 1941, Hoepner issued a directive to his troops framing the coming conflict as an existential struggle between the German people and what he described as Slavic and Bolshevik forces. He called for the war to be conducted with unprecedented harshness and aimed at the destruction of the Soviet state.
Operation Barbarossa commenced on June 22, 1941. Approximately 3 million German soldiers, supported by Finnish, Romanian, Hungarian, Italian, Slovak, and Croatian forces, invaded the Soviet Union. Within weeks, German forces occupied Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Hoepner’s 4th Panzer Group played a central role in the rapid advance through the Baltic states, securing critical bridges over the Daugava River in northern Latvia.
In July 1941, he instructed his troops to treat loyal civilian populations fairly, while attributing acts of sabotage to communists and Jews. Like other German formations on the Eastern Front, the 4th Panzer Group enforced the Commissar Order, which mandated the execution of captured Red Army political officers in violation of international law. Between July 2 and July 8, 1941, the group executed 101 commissars. By July 19, 172 such executions had been reported.
By late July, positioned south and east of Narva in Estonia, Hoepner’s forces were poised to assault Leningrad but lacked the strength for a decisive breakthrough. On August 29, Field Marshal von Leeb ordered a blockade of the city, anticipating its eventual capitulation. In late September, Hoepner’s 4th Panzer Group was transferred to Army Group Center to participate in the drive toward Moscow.
Within Army Group Center, Hoepner’s forces were assigned a key role in Operation Typhoon, the planned offensive against the Soviet capital. The German assault initially achieved significant success. In early October 1941, the 4th Panzer Group helped encircle Soviet forces near Vyazma, severing critical supply lines and communications essential for Moscow’s defense.
Despite this operational victory, Field Marshal Günther von Kluge, commanding the 4th Army, ordered a pause to consolidate German positions. The decision frustrated Hoepner and strained relations between the two commanders. Hoepner believed his forces could both eliminate the encircled Soviet troops and continue advancing toward Moscow, thereby maintaining momentum and preventing the Red Army from regrouping.
On October 7, the first snowfall fell, quickly melting into deep mud. The rasputitsa, the seasonal quagmire that rendered roads nearly impassable, severely impeded German mobility. Armored vehicles bogged down, supply lines faltered, and Soviet forces gained time to reinforce defenses.
After clearing the Vyazma pocket on October 14, German units resumed their advance. Yet heavy rains and deteriorating conditions continued to hinder progress. Hoepner’s forces advanced to within approximately 30 kilometers of Moscow. By early November, however, his units were exhausted from continuous operations, suffering from equipment failures, supply shortages, and increasingly effective Soviet resistance.
The decisive breakthrough necessary to encircle Moscow proved unattainable. By early December, the German offensive had stalled. On December 5, confronted with grim reports and recognizing that Moscow lay beyond reach, Hoepner halted the attack. That same day, the Red Army launched a massive counteroffensive, driving German forces back from the capital.
In January 1942, as Soviet pressure intensified, Hoepner requested permission from Army Group Center’s commander, Field Marshal von Kluge, to withdraw his overstretched troops, despite Hitler’s strict “stand fast” order forbidding retreats. Kluge indicated that he would raise the issue with Hitler and advised Hoepner to prepare for a possible withdrawal.
Convinced that further delay would lead to unnecessary losses, Hoepner ordered his troops to begin withdrawing on January 8, 1942. Concerned about Hitler’s reaction, Kluge promptly reported Hoepner’s actions to the Führer. Hitler reacted with fury.
When confronted, Hoepner defended his decision, stating that his highest duty was to the soldiers entrusted to his command. On January 8, 1942, Hitler dismissed him from the Wehrmacht for cowardice and disobedience. He was stripped of his rank, decorations, and pension and forbidden to wear his uniform, measures that exceeded established military law.
Hoepner challenged the dismissal in court and succeeded in regaining his pension, as the judiciary at that time retained limited independence from direct political interference.
By 1944, Germany’s strategic situation had deteriorated dramatically. On June 6, 1944, Allied forces launched Operation Overlord, landing in Normandy and opening a long-anticipated Western Front. Within the German officer corps, many had concluded that Germany was headed toward disaster and that Hitler’s removal was essential.
On July 20, 1944, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg placed a bomb inside a briefcase beneath the conference table in Hitler’s briefing room at the Wolf’s Lair. He was unable to arm a second device. After Stauffenberg departed, the briefcase was inadvertently moved behind a heavy table leg. The explosion detonated but failed to kill Hitler.
Unaware of Hitler’s survival, conspirators in Berlin attempted to activate Operation Valkyrie, a plan intended to seize control of the government using reserve army units. Initial actions suggested progress, but delays, confusion, and miscommunication undermined the effort. Once Hitler’s survival was confirmed, the coup collapsed.
Hitler ordered an extensive purge of all suspected participants. Hoepner, who had been designated to assume a senior command role in the homeland should the coup succeed, was arrested at his home by the Gestapo in the early hours of July 21, 1944. He was subjected to interrogation and torture but refused the opportunity to commit suicide, insisting instead on a trial.
He was brought before the People’s Court, presided over by the fanatical judge Roland Freisler. The proceedings were theatrical and abusive. Like other defendants, including Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, Hoepner was subjected to verbal humiliation. He was forced to wear ill-fitting civilian clothing and was denied his dentures, a calculated effort to degrade him publicly.
Under the regime’s practice of collective punishment, his wife, daughter, son, brother, and sister were also arrested. The women were sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. His son was imprisoned at Buchenwald.
On August 8, 1944, at the age of 57, Hoepner was sentenced to death by hanging. By Hitler’s explicit order, the sentence was carried out the same day at Berlin-Plötzensee Prison. Hitler had decreed that those convicted in connection with the assassination attempt were to be hanged “like cattle.”
Hoepner was executed using a thin hemp rope suspended from a meat hook. This method often prolonged the dying process, sometimes for up to 20 minutes. The general who had once commanded vast armored formations died alone, slowly strangled by the regime he had served for decades.
Erich Hoepner’s life reflected the trajectory of many German officers who rose within Hitler’s war machine, participated in aggressive campaigns, and at times embraced the ideological brutality of the Eastern Front. Yet when he ultimately chose to defy orders he believed would needlessly sacrifice his soldiers, and when he joined a final effort to remove Hitler from power, he was destroyed without hesitation.
His final act of disobedience in January 1942—ordering a withdrawal to preserve his troops—had already cost him his career. His involvement in the July 20 plot cost him his life. In the end, neither his decorations nor his service shielded him from a regime that tolerated no dissent and punished perceived betrayal with ruthless finality.
