History UsefulNotes / ErwinRommel

* In ''ComicBook/TheDesertPeach'', he is the older brother to the fictional CampGay titular character, [[HistoricalCharactersFictionalRelative Colonel Pfirsich Rommel.]]

!! Fictional appearances:

* He was portrayed by Werner Hinz in ''Film/TheLongestDay'', with this famous speech:

* Creator/UlrichTukur played him in the German made-for-TV movie ''Film/{{Rommel}}'' (2012), which was also distributed on DVD in France as ''Rommel, le guerrier d'Hitler''.
* In ''ComicBook/TheDesertPeach'', he is the older brother to the fictional CampGay titular character, [[HistoricalCharactersFictionalRelative Colonel Pfirsich Rommel.]]
* He's aptly featured on the cover of the RealTimeStrategy video game ''VideoGame/AfrikaKorpsVsDesertRats''.
* He served as one of the historical inspirations for the ''Franchise/StarWars'' character [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Grand Admiral Thrawn]].
* Ernst Joachim Eugen Rommel from ''[[Anime/StrikeWitches Strike Witches Operation Victory Arrow vol.2]]'' is based from him, and younger than Erwin was during World War II.

* In ''ComicBook/TheDesertPeach'', he is the older brother to the fictional CampGay titular character,[[HistoricalCharactersFictionalRelative Colonel Pfirsich Rommel.]]

* In ''ComicBook/TheDesertPeach'', he is [[HistoricalCharactersFictionalRelative the older brother]] to the fictional CampGay titular character, Colonel Pfirsich Rommel.

* In ''ComicBook/TheDesertPeach'', he is the older brother to the fictional CampGay titular character, Colonel Pfirsich Rommel.

In popular culture Rommel is remembered as an honourable, capable armored officer who resisted Hitler and refused to carry out the illegal Commando Order and Night and Fog Decrees, as well as paying the forced laborers who helped him build his Atlantic Wall. He was one of just two Axis soldiers targeted for assassination by the Western Allies (Soviet attempts are ''still'' classified), so afraid were the Western Allies of him (the other was [[UsefulNotes/IsokoruYamamoto]], who ''was'' successfully assassinated). After his death Churchill paid him fulsome tribute, and even more so when he discovered the truth of the July Plot. His writings on his experiences in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII were edited and published after the war as ''The Rommel Papers'' by the military theorist Captain Liddel Hart (supporter of the notable military theorist JFC Fuller). Association with Rommel and other surviving generals including Heinz Guderian and Erich von Manstein (who used Hart to promote themselves and the myth of the Wehrmacht as a 'clean' institution untainted by racism and War Crimes) catapulted Hart to fame. The title Rommel had planned for them was ''Krieg ohne Hass'': "''War without Hate''".

In popular culture Rommel is remembered as an honourable, capable armored officer who resisted Hitler and refused to carry out the illegal Commando Order and Night and Fog Decrees, as well as paying the forced laborers who helped him build his Atlantic Wall. He was one of just two Axis soldiers targeted for assassination by the Western Allies (Soviet attempts are ''still'' classified), so afraid were the Western Allies of him (the other was Isokoru Yamamoto). After his death Churchill paid him fulsome tribute, and even more so when he discovered the truth of the July Plot. His writings on his experiences in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII were edited and published after the war as ''The Rommel Papers'' by the military theorist Captain Liddel Hart (supporter of the notable military theorist JFC Fuller). Association with Rommel and other surviving generals including Heinz Guderian and Erich von Manstein (who used Hart to promote themselves and the myth of the Wehrmacht as a 'clean' institution untainted by racism and War Crimes) catapulted Hart to fame. The title Rommel had planned for them was ''Krieg ohne Hass'': "''War without Hate''".

In all three countries 'Rommel' was a household name, and his forces had not needed to conduct significant anti-partisan or national security (anti-communist, Gypsy, Jew, etc) operations. During the war itself he had been lauded as an 'honourable' man by the likes of UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill and UsefulNotes/BernardLawMontgomery. It did not take much to imply that Rommel's 'honourable' conduct had been representative of the German military as a whole, and that all the German commanders that British and American people had never heard of (von Mellenthin, Guderian, Hoth, Balck, Kluge, von Bock, von Manstein, Model, etc) were every bit as 'honourable' as he had been. The US public was already familiar with the concept of a 'good' man and a 'good' military serving evil in the form of [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar Robert Lee, the Confederate Army general (and brutal slave owner) and a key figure in the 'Lost Cause' mythology]] and so took the concept to heart fairly readily.

For the better part of two years, the only two German generals known to the British public were Gerd von Rundstedt and Erwin Rommel - the latter of which inflicted defeats upon British Commonwealth forces despite numerical parity or inferiority in most battles (this should be noted that this was usually a result of Rommel focusing all his strength on a specific point in the more thinly spread Commonwealth lines, negating numerical advantage/disadvantage completely. It was something he was very good at, but it's weakness is that you cannot capitalise on its success-see below). On the German side, for the better part of two years the only German general known to be fighting forces of equal racial-cultural status ('the English') was Rommel; when he won he was a genius, and when he lost there was little to no shame in him losing to them. And, when the Americans entered the war, Rommel was their first and greatest foe in North Africa (1942-3) and the western part of the Normandy Front (mid-1944) - and the inexperienced US Army repeatedly failed to defeat him. Between these three media machines, Rommel's abilities was hyped to mythical proportions. Among all three combatant countries, he attained a reputation as a god of war incarnate.

For the better part of two years, the only two German generals known to the British public were Gerd von Rundstedt and Erwin Rommel - the latter of which inflicted repeated defeats upon British Commonwealth forces despite numerical parity or inferiority in most battles. On the German side, for the better part of two years the only German general known to be fighting forces of relatively equal racial-cultural status ('the English') was Rommel. When the Americans entered the war, Rommel was their first and greatest foe in North Africa (1942-3) and the western part of the Normandy Front (mid-1944) - and the inexperienced US Army repeatedly failed to defeat him. Between these three media machines, Rommel's abilities was hyped to mythical proportions. Among all three combatant countries, he attained a reputation as a god of war incarnate.

He was a gifted tactician, but he was unable to conceptualise warfare at a level larger than his immediate line of sight - the so called ''Operational level of warfare''. He also did not understand how the logistics of a line-of-sight battlefield was a ''very'' different beast to that conducted over many dozens or even hundreds of kilometres. His refusal of initiative to his subordinates and his constant touring of the front lines meant that when he was promoted to Operational-level command, the bulk of his forces went only semi-commanded and semi-informed (or not at all) for many hours or even days at a time. This meant that while the five-kilometre section of the front lines that Rommel was on at any given moment was relatively well-run, the other twenty-to-two-hundred were (appreciably) less so than under most contemporary German operational commanders.

His son Manfred went on to be a capable and popular mayor of Stuttgart for the CDU (the major conservative party) which may have helped delay the critical assessment of the man behind the myth in Germany. To this day the [[UsefulNotes/WeAreNotTheWehrmacht Bundeswehr]] uses Erwin Rommel's name and tradition, though — like almost anything the Bundeswehr does — this is not well liked by the political left in Germany.

In 1970, the German ''Bundeswehr'' named a ''Lutjens''-class destroyer for him. He always wore a braided scarf knitted for him by Gertrud. Because of this, even he has sometimes been given a HistoricalHeroUpgrade and HistoricalBadassUpgrade beyond what the historical record supports, especially since he was one of the German commanders to most consistently fight the Western Allies and (supposedly) WeAllLiveInAmerica or the rest of the West. Most portrayals correctly show he was no blood soaked ghoul or total incompetent; but many also overlook how he supported [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany two less]] [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany than savory]] governments and suffered a FatalFlaw duo of arrogance and selfishness, whether it was refusing Hitler's orders to execute Commandos and Jews or [[KickTheDog ignoring or insulting his Italian allies in North Africa]]. Suffice it to say that he was an archtypical NobleDemon who "fought for the wrong side": decent in his own way, but still an eager servant of the most evil regime the world has ever known.

When UsefulNotes/WorldWarI broke out in 1914, Rommel served in France with the 6th, however, seeking action, he transferred to the elite German ''Alpenkorps''. He quickly began to display some of the same skills and flaws that would both make his legend and help his downfall. After quickly acquiring a track record as a brave, resourceful officer who had excellent tactical judgement and a cool head under pressure, he won a 2nd class Iron Cross in 1914 and a 1st class one in 1915. For his service in Italy at the Battle of the Isonzo in 1917, in which he captured an Italian fortification of 7000 men with a force of only 100, he was awarded the ''Pour le Merite'', UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany's highest military honour. His account of that battle and his service in France and Romania was published as ''Infanterie Greift an'', or ''Infantry Attacks''[[note]][[Film/{{Patton}} General George Patton]] would like it to be known that he HAS READ THIS BOOK![[/note]] in 1937. It is still considered a valuable primer in infantry tactics, but it included some of his flaws, including his escape from an Italian attack that all but destroyed his command staff. He managed to make his way back to imperial lines on his own, [[AesopAmnesia still convinced that the Italian military was sub-par]] 'and' [[HarsherInHindsight without considering he might need to adapt his strategy.]] When WWI ended, Rommel remained in the newly formed ''Reichswehr''. His Swabian heritage and accent initially caused him career problems in a service dominated by Prussian aristocrats, leading Rommel to refuse promotion to the "Troops Office" - the [[BlatantLies completely-harmless-and-totally-non-threatening-human-resources-office-that-definitely-isn't-the-General-Staff-Germany-wasn't-allowed-under-the-Versailles-Treaty.]] Instead, he became Colonel of an ''Alpenkorps'' Battalion, and later held several teaching posts in the German Army. During one occasion, he refused to allow SS units to parade before his battalion in front of Hitler and Goebbels. They backed down. Later, Hitler appointed him Colonel of the ''Führerbegleitbataillon'', his personal protection brigade. During this time, Rommel had a spat with a Nazi newspaper, ''Das Reich'', which had written a fictitious biography of him as an ardent Nazi and early Party supporter. He had a son, Manfred, born in 1928

* He appeared as the villain in Creator/BillyWilder's 1942 film ''Film/FiveGravesToCairo'', where he was played by Creator/ErichVonStroheim. It is the only film to be made when rommel was still alive.

* Christopher Plummer played Rommel in ''Film/TheNightOfTheGenerals'' (1967) and Karl Michael Vogler in ''Film/{{Patton}}'' (1970).

''Generalfeldmarschall'' Erwin Rommel (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944), nicknamed [[RedBaron "The Desert Fox"]] by British (and later German) propagandists, was the commander of [[UsefulNotes/NazisWithGnarlyWeapons German forces]] in North Africa during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and held famous commands against the Western Allies. These included one of Germany's ten early-war panzer divisions (the 7th), one of fifty German corps (the ''Deutsches Afrikakorps''), and one of just seven German Army Groups (Army Group Africa, later Army Group B). The last of these commands gave Rommel command of a full ''tenth'' of Germany's total combat strength, and ''half'' of the combat forces deployed against the Western Allies in France in mid-1944.

* Creator/UlrichTukur played him in the German made-for-TV movie ''Rommel'' (2012), which was also distributed on DVD in France as ''Rommel, le guerrier d'Hitler''.