Franz Halder, (born June 30, 1884, Würzburg, Germany—died April 2, 1972, Aschau im Chiemgau, West Germany), German general who, in spite of his personal opposition to the policies of Adolf Hitler, served as chief of the army general staff (1938–42) during the period of Germany’s greatest military victories in the early years of World War II.
Halder was born to a military family with ties to the Bavarian army dating from the 17th century. He began his military career in 1902 as a member of the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment of the Royal Bavarian Army. He was commissioned a lieutenant two years later, and he soon built a reputation as an able staff officer. Halder attended the Bavarian War Academy (1911–14), and, although he did not receive a frontline command during World War I, the static slaughter of the Western Front made him a proponent of maneuver-warfare doctrines such as those expounded by British strategists Basil Liddell Hart and J.F.C. Fuller.
