German Forces

German Resistance - Hans Oster.

Oberst Hans Oster, deputy and confidant of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of German Military Intelligence (the Abwehr), a key figure in German military/bureaucratic resistance to Hitler from the mid-1930s to late-1943. Oster was a key figure in what was, perhaps, the attempt to overthrow Hitler that came closest to success - the "Oster Plot" of 1938. This plot fell apart when the Munich Agreement of that year persuaded senior officers who were at that time unenthusiastic about war that the western allies lacked the backbone to stand up to Hitler - they viewed the prospect of firm resistance from that quarter as essential if their plan was to succeed. Oster, along with many other resistants who were only peripherally involved, was finally arrested in the immediate aftermath of the 1944 July bomb plot, when Hitler finally let the Gestapo off the leash in dealing with military resistance. He was executed, along with his patron Canaris and others, in the dying days of the war, in April 1945. Best regards, JR.