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Erwin Rommel, the 'Desert Fox', was a German war hero whose exploits during the Second World War are the stuff of legend. He appears to have been the archetypal 'good German', an apolitical soldier and cunning military genius. But, as Channel 4 shows for the first time in The Real Rommel, he had a secret love affair that almost ruined his career – and he was more political than his fans would like to believe. Secret affair Erwin Rommel was born in 1891 and, as a young man, had a gift for practical things – at one point, he and his friends built a glider. His father was an authoritarian schoolmaster who offered him a choice of careers: schoolteacher or soldier. Young Rommel chose the army. In 1911, he joined Infantry Regiment 124. But Rommel also had other things on his mind. In Danzig, he fell in love with Lucie Mollin, who came from a middle class family with Polish ancestry. At the same time, Rommel started an affair with a teenager, Walburga Stemmer, a fruit-seller living in Weingarten, his garrison town. In 1913, their daughter Gertrud was born. But although Lieutenant Rommel was delighted, and wanted to quit the army to marry Walburga, his strict family persuaded him to abandon her and wed Lucie. After all, it was 1914, and quitting the army when war was looming would have been dishonourable. Even so, Walburga remained faithful to Rommel, and committed suicide when his and Lucie's child, Manfred, was born in 1928. Gertrud, however, kept in touch with her father. She wrote him dozens of letters and was known to the family as a 'cousin'. Later, on the battlefield, he wore a scarf she had knitted for him. Rommel's affair with Walburga remained secret until Gertrud died in 2000, and her collection of her mother's letters and photographs revealed the truth. Young soldier In August 1914, the outbreak of the First World War gave Rommel a chance to escape his personal problems. Displaying the initiative and cunning for which he later became famous, he pioneered ways of overcoming the tactical stalemate imposed by trench warfare, leading assault teams through weak spots in the front line, causing chaos inside Allied territory. His courage earned him the Iron Cross, Germany's highest military decoration. But, after the war ended in defeat and disgrace for Germany in 1918, Rommel lived in obscurity until the rise of Adolf Hitler in 1933. For Rommel, Hitler's programme of national revival meant the resurrection of the army, and new opportunities for officers. Panzer commander In 1937, Rommel published The Infantry Attacks, a book based on his war experiences. It appealed to Hitler, and Rommel was put in charge of his bodyguard. Like most Germans, Rommel accepted Hitler's policies on racial purity. When his daughter Gertrud asked his permission to marry her Italian boyfriend, Rommel told her that he must prove his Aryan descent. Manfred Rommel remembers how his father looked the other way when anti-Jewish violence spilled on to the streets. Then, on the 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland and the Second World War began. At the end of the year, one of Lucie's cousins, a Polish priest, was shot. Although her relatives were in danger, Rommel refused to help. During a victory parade in Warsaw, he joined Hitler on the podium, and, for the invasion of France, he was put in command of a Panzer tank division. Desert Fox In February 1941, after the successful campaign against France, Rommel was sent to northern Africa, and led the Afrika Korps against the British forces defending Egypt and the strategically important Suez Canal. With immense flair and imagination, plus a practical understanding of detail, Rommel led his troops to a series of outstanding victories, the greatest of which was the capture of Tobruk in June 1942. Wearing a distinctive costume of goggles, leather greatcoat, scarf and medals, Rommel deliberately played the part of noble warrior, appearing in dozens of Nazi propaganda films. He was a war hero and sex symbol. In October 1942, while Rommel was on holiday with his family, the British 8th Army attacked at El Alamein, and shattered the myth of the invincible Afrika Korps. Although Rommel rushed back, it was too late to avoid defeat. Inglorious end Despite failure in Africa, Rommel was still immensely popular. In 1943, Hitler gave him command over the sea defences of occupied France. He used his talent for invention, designing many of the anti-invasion obstacles on the beaches. On 4 June 1944, Rommel left for Germany to celebrate Lucie's 50th birthday. On the same day, the Allied invasion of France began. Once again, Rommel had to rush back to the battlefield and once again he was overcome by superior Allied forces. Wounded in an air attack, he returned home to convalesce. On 20 July 1944, a group of senior army officers tried unsuccessfully to assassinate Hitler. In the hysteria that followed, Rommel was suspected – wrongly – of being involved in the plot. On 14 October 1944, he was persuaded to commit suicide rather than face trial. He agreed, and died believing he had failed Hitler and his country. But, after Hitler's death and the end of the war in 1945, the Allies needed a strong German army to oppose the Russians during the Cold War. They created the myth of Rommel, the 'good German' and apolitical soldier. Today, evidence of his continuing appeal can be found in the existence of the Rommel museum – the only museum dedicated to a senior figure of Hitler's Germany.
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