Military Figure. He was a World War II Nazi Army general and received recognition for his involvement in the failed attempt to assassinate Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler on June 20, 1944. Born in Metzingen in the state of Baden-Württemberg, he volunteered for World War I service in 1914 when he was 17 years old. In November of 1915 he was promoted to Lieutenant, fighting in Flanders, the Somme and Cambrai. Between the wars, he remained in the German Army, studying history and economics in Berlin, Tuebingen and Stuttgart. In 1925 he was awarded a PhD and in 1932 was promoted to the rank of captain. During this time period, Adolph Hitler's Nazi Party was becoming strong in Germany. He never joined the Nazi Party. By the start of World War II, he was a staff officer in the 33rd Infantry Division. Quickly promoted, Speidel served in various staff positions. In 1944 he was promoted again, to Lieutenant General and was made Chief of Staff of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Army Group B, headquartered in La Roche-Guyon, where he was serving on June 6, 1944. He was involved in the July 20th Plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler and was attempting and possibly had involved Rommel in the plot. Arrested but not tried, he escaped and went into hiding until freed by French troops in 1945. He was the only major player in the July 20th Plot to survive the war. After the war, he served as military adviser to Konrad Adenauer and published a book, "Invasion 1944: Rommel and the Normandy Campaign." When West Germany became part of NATO, Speidel achieved four-star rank and from 1957 to 1963, served as Commander in Chief, Allied Land Forces, Central Europe. Since France's Charles de Gaulle could never accept a former Wehrmacht officer in NATO, Speidel was finally replaced. He was awarded the German Cross and Knight's Cross.