Field Marshal Erwin Rommel

 

Manfred Rommel died at the age of 84 years. The city of Stuttgart said that he died on Thursday, November 7, 2013. The representative of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel Steffen Seibert told reporters the next day that she always recognized him as a “significant” politician and respected member of her party.

    

In recent years, Rommel suffered from Parkinson’s disease. He was helped by his wife Liselotta and the adopted daughter Catherina (the spouses did not have their children), and he himself managed to help others. Every week he received 10-15 letters from strangers telling about their troubles. He tried to answer each one.

    

Rommel's son, like his father, was also able to become an outstanding personality. In 1974, Manfred Rommel was elected mayor of Stuttgart and held this post for 22 years. He spoke in support of the rights of immigrants and the strengthening of civil liberties, helping the Jewish population of the city. During his tenure as mayor, from 1974 to 1996, Rommel tightened control over urban finances and achieved a reduction in the city’s debts, at the same time expanding the public transport network and continuing to build a new arena and conference center.

    

In 1982, “The New York Times” called him “a politician with the best chance of becoming a national leader” but he refused the opportunity to run for state or federal office in favor of municipal politics.

    

The son of Field Marshal Manfred Rommel was a friend of the sons of his father’s two most prominent opponents: David Montgomery, the son of Field Marshal Montgomery, and Major General George Patton, the son of General George S. Patton. Manfred Rommel won numerous awards: the holder of the Order of the British Empire, the French Order of the Legion of Honor, the presidential Medal of Freedom and the German federal Order of Honor. He was an honorary citizen of Stuttgart and Cairo (Egypt), as well as an honorary doctor of the universities of Wells, Missouri and Maryland.

    

And now Manfred Rommel, the son of the legendary Erwin Rommel, died. There are 18 books written by him, among which are serious and humorous. There are lyrics - Rommel wrote poems. Like his father, he always smiled.

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