German military commander of occupied France during the Second World War, who played a major role in Franco-German relations between October 1940 and January 1942.
On 25 October 1940, German army high command transferred Stülpnagel to France and placed him in charge of a military government with the title of Militärbefehlshaber in Frankreich (MBF; “Military Commander in France”). Orders from Hitler placed the army and the MBF in charge of “security” but allowed other state and Nazi party agencies to exercise a degree of influence in Occupied France. However, control over both the demarcation line inside France and borders with Germany and Belgium gave the MBF considerable influence over German policy and French affairs.
Stülpnagel, who had executed 95 hostages on 15 December 1941, refused to go any further in the implementation of the Nazis’ retaliation policy. He promptly submitted a bitter letter of resignation. Succeeded by his cousin Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel, Stülpnagel may have suffered a nervous breakdown. He spent the remainder of the war with his wife in Berlin.
Arrested by Allied authorities after Germany’s surrender, Stülpnagel wound up in a French military prison. Charged with war crimes by French authorities, Stülpnagel committed suicide in Cherche-Midi Prison on 6 February 1948, aged 69.
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