How the son of a Nazi Field Marshal became a symbol of German reconciliation

Countries & Cities · Published 15 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Manfred Rommel, son of the infamous Desert Fox, transformed his father's complex legacy into a career of liberal governance. As mayor of Stuttgart, he championed immigrant rights, fostered deep Franco-German ties, and maintained friendships with the children of his father's greatest wartime adversaries, redefining post-war German identity through tolerance.

Born in 1928, Manfred Rommel spent his youth in the shadow of his father, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. His early life was marked by the trauma of the Nazi regime; in 1944, he witnessed his father being led away to be forced into suicide for alleged complicity in the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. After serving as a teenage air force assistant and briefly deserting his post in 1945, Rommel eventually pursued a career in law and civil service, distancing himself from the ideology that had consumed his father's generation.

Rommel served as the Oberbürgermeister of Stuttgart from 1974 to 1996. His tenure was defined by a pragmatic, liberal approach to governance. He famously risked his political popularity to advocate for the fair treatment of foreign immigrants during a period of economic growth. Perhaps his most controversial act was his insistence that Red Army Faction terrorists who died in prison be given a proper burial. He argued that all enmity must conclude with death, a stance that drew internal criticism but underscored his commitment to human dignity over political retribution.

Beyond his domestic policies, Rommel became a bridge-builder for a new Europe. He cultivated high-profile friendships with the sons of his father's primary military rivals, George S. Patton and Bernard Law Montgomery. These relationships served as potent symbols of Anglo-German and Franco-German reconciliation. By the time he retired in 1996, he had been awarded the highest German civil distinction, the Bundesverdienstkreuz, and held numerous international honors. Even after his death in 2013, his legacy persists in Stuttgart, where the airport now bears his name, serving as a reminder of a leader who chose to reconcile with the past rather than be defined by it.

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