Another General's PC

[Dave Danner]

A gathering of luminaries for some retired general's 70th birthday. I'm sure we all know who that is on the left - none other than Mathilde von Kemnitz née Spieß. Oh, and the guy next to her, with the big cross around his neck, I think that's her third husband. As for the rest...anyone?



Dave

[Rick Research]

Amazing! Astonishing! I have NEVER seen any photo of Old Chuckles there 2nd left smiling! He actually looks human!!!

Every other portrait of him he's looked like a pompous killjoy suffering from terminal flatulence and constipation, snapped while eating persimmons and sucking lemons!

Third right towering over all is good old Wernie von Blomberg. Hmm... the profiles will be hard. Photo dates 1935/6 from the uniforms and no Wehrmacht long services. Of course Chuckles went to the Great Parade In The Sky in '37. Luftwaffe General is a Bavarian, not a flyer....

Darned nice photo!!!!

[Dave Danner]

It's Chuckles' 70th birthday, so that should give you the date. The guy next to Chuckles is Freiherr von Fritsch. The guy in the middle in back looks like Halder.

Dave

[Eric Gaumann]

It's an early Third Reich shot as the Army boys are wearing crossbelts. That item was dumped in, what, 35?
So who is "Chuckles"? Ludendorf?
The tall guy on the right seems familiar, too, but I can't place him.

Is it wrong that I can recognize more Imperial and Third Reich Generals and Admirals than I can can current world leaders??

[Dave Danner]

From the German Historical Museum, a more typical expression for Erich "Chuckles" Ludendorff:



His 70th birthday was April 9, 1935. To his right is his wife, the pseudo-scientist Mathilde Ludendorff, who had once offered to be Hitler's Führerin. Ludendorff was her third husband; she was his second wife.

To Ludendorff's left is Werner Freiherr von Fritsch, the Commander of the Army:



The tall guy on the right side is Werner von Blomberg, the Reich War Minister (he was elevated to that title sometime in 1935; prior to that he was Reichswehrminister):



I thought the guy in the middle in the rear looked like Franz Halder, but Halder was a division commander in Munich at the time, and didn't come to the War Ministry and the OKH until 1936. Here's Halder:



No idea who the Luftwaffe general to the left and the army general to the right of Blomberg are. A Bavarian who was not a pilot and was with the newly formed Luftwaffe High Command at the time was Kesselring, but it's not him. No idea as to the civilian behind Blomberg, either.

Maybe we should move this to one of the Third Reich forums for more exposure.

Dave