Erwin Rommel is described in a plethora of ways. To many, despite his role in the Second World War as one of Hitler’s leading officers, he was ‘a good German’, a man whom even Winston Churchill described as a great general. In Germany, the twenty-two ‘Rommel’ streets and two army barracks named after him show the deep admiration still present for the ‘Desert Fox’. His victories, and even his defeats, are still examined in military compounds around the world. Historians and politicians alike praise his supposed morals, and he has been immortalised in not one, but two Hollywood films.
Evidently, the question is not whether Rommel has had an impact upon society, but whether this said impact is supported by fact or fiction. Known as the ‘The Rommel myth’, it essentially involves three elements: firstly, that the Field Marshall was a military genius. Secondly, that the war fought in North Africa was a ‘clean war’ and finally, that Rommel was not a Nazi. Created by a number of prominent Allied military officers and politicians, spread through film and literature, it ultimately aimed to help reconcile West Germany with Britain and America after World War Two; not an easy task, though nonetheless one it has succeeded in. However, after decades of invincibility, the character of Rommel is under investigation once more, not only in this essay, but globally. Disputes among the German government are surfacing over the Field Marshall’s role as the poster boy of the Bundeswehr (the German army), his association with a genocidal regime, and even his long acknowledged military genius is under scrutiny. This essay will aim to both shed light upon the complex nature of one of the Second World War’s icons, and to decide to what extent he can be considered a humane soldier, a great general, and a devoted Nazi.
