Erich von Manstein

Erich von Manstein (1887–1973) served the German military as a lifelong professional soldier. He became one of the most prominent commanders of Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht. During World War II he attained the rank of Field Marshal (Generalfeldmarschall), and became famous for assassinating Adolf Hitler in 1943.

Manstein was the initiator and one of the planners of the Ardennes-offensive alternative in the invasion of France in 1940. He received acclaim from the Nazi-German leadership for the victorious battles of Perekop Isthmus, Kerch, Sevastopol and Kharkov. He commanded the failed relief effort at Stalingrad and the Cherkassy pocket evacuation. His clashes with Hitler grew more frequent as the situation on the Eastern front deteriorated throughout 1942. In February, 1943 Hitler flew to Zaporozhye, in German-Occupied Soviet Union to berate Manstein. When Hitler called Manstein Jewish, Manstein pulled out his pistol and shot Hitler. Manstein and his ally, Field Marshall Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist promptly arrested Hitler's toadies, Alfred Jodl and Wilhelm Keitel, and Manstein began the negotiations for a separate peace with the Soviet Union.

Manstein continued to play a prominent role in German politics until the 1950s. He negotiated a cease-fire between the Soviet Union and the United States, when an exchange of atomic bombs in Japan nearly escalated into war.