Fritz Thiele

Who was Fritz Thiele?

General Fritz Thiele was a member of the German resistance who served as the communications chief of the German Army during World War II.

Thiele was born in Berlin and joined the Imperial Army in 1914. Working closely with Chief of army communications General der Nachrichtentruppe Erich Fellgiebel, he was part of the assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944. He was responsible as part of the coup attempt in the effort to sever communications between officers loyal to Hitler and armed forces units in the field and from the communications centre at the Bendlerstrasse in Berlin he relayed a crucial message from Fellgiebel to General Friedrich Olbricht and the other conspirators that the assassination attempt had failed but the coup attempt should still proceed. There are differing accounts of the time when he provided this report.

Thiele himself did not want to proceed with the coup attempt when he knew that the assassination attempt had failed and he left the Bendlerstrasse and visited Walter Schellenberg at the Reich Central Security Office in an attempt to extricate himself.

Following Fellgiebel's arrest he was directed to assume his duties before he was himself arrested by the Gestapo on August 11, 1944. He was condemned to death on August 21, 1944 by the Volksgerichtshof and hanged on September 4, 1944 at Plötzensee prison in Berlin.