Erwin von Witzleben (December 4, 1881 - August 8, 1944) was a German Generalfeldmarschall.
He served as a junior officer in the First World War, and won the Iron Cross. Erwin von Witzleben was forced into early retirement after he criticised Adolf Hitler's persecution of General Werner von Fritsch, and the Night of the Long Knives.
At the start of the Second World War he was recalled, and placed in charge of the German First Army in 1939, which tasked with invading France in May 1940. He served as Commander-in-Chief of Army Group West . In 1942, after Operation Barbarossa, he was again critical of the government, and was retired again. He was a Wehrmacht conspirator in the July 20th Bomb Plot conspiracy. Witzleben, who would have been Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht in the planned post-coup government, arrived at OKH-HQ (Oberkommando des Heeres Headquarters) in Berlin on July 20 to assume command of the coup forces. He was arrested the next day and tried by the People's Court on August 8. He was sentenced to death and executed (hanged naked) the same day in Plötzensee prison .
