Detlof von Winterfeldt | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 28 May 1867 Berlin, Prussia |
| Died | 3 July 1940 (aged 73) Berlin, Prussia, Nazi Germany |
| Allegiance |  German Empire (to 1918) Weimar Republic (to 1919) |
| Rank | Generalmajor |
| Unit | 8th Army |
Detlof Sigismund von Winterfeldt (28 May 1867 – 29 November 1940) was a German officer and military attaché who represented the German Army as a signatory of the Armistice of 11 November 1918, which concluded the hostilities of World War I. [1]
Winterfeldt was born in Berlin and received his commission as an officer in 1888 after attending the Prussian Staff College. Between 1901 and 1905, he served as military attaché in Brussels, and later served the same role in Paris between 1909 and 1914.
After the outbreak of World War I, Winterfeldt left Paris in August 1914 to serve as quartermaster to the 8th Army, with the rank of Oberst . From August 1917 to November 1918, he was representative of the Supreme Army Command to the Chancellor, with the rank of Generalmajor . [2]
In November 1918, Winterfeldt was a delegate to the armistice negotiations between Germany and the Allied Powers, led by Matthias Erzberger. Winterfeldt was one of the four German signatories in the resulting agreement, which ended the hostilities of the war.
Winterfeldt died in Berlin in 1940 and is buried at the Invalids' Cemetery.
The stab-in-the-back myth was an antisemitic conspiracy theory that was widely believed and promulgated in Germany after 1918. It maintained that the Imperial German Army did not lose World War I on the battlefield, but was instead betrayed by certain citizens on the home front—especially Jews, revolutionary socialists who fomented strikes and labor unrest, and other republican politicians who had overthrown the House of Hohenzollern in the German Revolution of 1918–1919. Advocates of the myth denounced the German government leaders who had signed the Armistice of 11 November 1918 as the "November criminals".
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