The following are the personal experiences of a neighbour of Gerd von Rundstedt which have been graciously provided for inclusion on this web site by Mrs Barbara Schmorak and her mother Mrs Hilda Jenson (March 2005):

• Barbara Schmorak:
  I was born in Hannover, and my mother knew Mrs von Rundstedt (Bila) very well. My mother also used to help the FeldMarshall out a lot when he came back from England and his health wasn't so good. Sometimes, when I was about 3 years old (I think, or so I am told), his wife (Bila) would ask my mother around for coffee and cakes, and Gerd von Rundstedt would always save me the little buns with icing on because he knew I liked them!
  
  
• Barbara Schmorak:
  The Field Marshall used to sit me on his knee and sometimes I leant on him and fell asleep. One time he was listening to classical music and I was sleepy and at the same time I was playing with his tie. Don't ask me how it happened but I somehow managed to push the knot of his tie upwards and at the same time it tightened and I nearly strangled the poor man. It always makes me laugh when I think of it.
  
  
• Account provided by Hilda Jenson told by her daughter Barbara Schmorak
  One of my mother's last memories of Gerd von Rundstedt was around the beginning of November 1952. His wife had died and he rarely left his bed owing to sorrow and illness. She remembers that she went around to see him, and even though he was in bed, he welcomed her like usual. It seems that around the summer of 1952, he had remarked in passing that his collection of phonographic records of military marches was missing the Washington Post March. Anyway, she went to see him on a rainy November morning, and said she'd brought him something which would hopefully make him feel better. He opened it, and there it was : a phonographic '78 recording of the Washington Post March. It was my father that had got it for her. She said his reaction was "cute". She said he pulled her down to his level and gave her a kiss on the cheek and said that she was indeed very kind to have done such a thing and it wasn't necessary, followed by "could you put it on for me please?".
  

• Account provided by Hilda Jenson told by her daughter Barbara Schmorak
  Another memory she has was from the same morning she took him his record. He asked her to pass him his bedpan. She said of course, but she would empty it first. She said he refused point blank to let her do such a thing. Her response was to talk to him like talking to a child, saying that he couldn't use it if it was already full. She says she couldn't understand what was wrong with him! Was it because he was an "aristocrat" and she was a "commoner"? Was it because he didn't think he should be brought down to that level of 'mucking in" and treating something as equal to everyone, in a sense of "everyone uses the toilet so I've seen it before"? Any, he refused to let her empty his bedpan and therefore to relieve himself until his nurse (who was a man) returned from town. His nurse had only just gone out, and he didn't return for another 2 hours, as he'd gone into the city!
  
  
• Account provided by Hilda Jenson told in her own words
  In April 1952, Mrs von Rundstedt was in hospital after having suffered a bad stroke. Her husband was left all on his own in the appartment, and one day whilst trying to do the housework, he had a bad fall, and badly bruised his ribs- he ended up in hospital also. Anyway, I had said that should he ever need anything, he only had to call us. So I got this phone call, which sounded like he was in immense pain and a little shaken. I went next door to see to him, but Barbara followed me. She was about 4 at the time. I managed to prop him up on the floor with some pillows, and she gave him her teddy bear...AAWWW...and then she stood there with her fingers in her mouth.
  
  We went to see him in hospital a few days later, and when he saw Barbara, he put the teddy bear in the bed next to him, and moved its paw like it was waving to her. When he was discharged and back at home with his wife and nurse, he gave the teddy back to her. She wanted him to keep it for his bed, but he told her that should she ever need a friend, teddy would be the one to be with, as he had really helped him to get over his injuries! She was SO pleased!

Col. Lucius Günther Schrivenbach (served under both Gen. Blumentritt and GFM von Rundstedt in 1943-44):

The following photo and accounts are the personal experiences of Günther Schrivenbach which have been graciously provided for inclusion on this web site April 2005:

Front row (Left to right): GFM von Rundstedt General der Infanterie Günther Blumentritt Bodo Zimmerman Back row (Left to right): Lt Hans Gerd von Rundstedt Unknown (Obscured by GFM von Rundstedt ) Unknown (Obscured by General der Infanterie Günther Blumentritt) Günther Schrivenbach (indicated)

Name: Lucius Günther Schrivenbach
PW NO:
RANK:               Colonel
Place of capture : Bad Reichenhall, Germany
Date of Capture : 5th May 1945

Personal:
Date of birth :  12th September 1911
Place of birth : Leipzig, East Germany
Nationality :     German
Religion :         Evangelical
Occupation:     Staff Soldier, Berlin (prior to the war)
Height :            5' 7
Weight :          Unknown during WWII
Hair colour :    Light Brown
Eye colour :     Blue
Next of kin:     Eva Schrivenbach (wife during WWII)

Commands & Assignments:

• 1933 : Alpine Battalion <<< Rommel
• 1934 : Posted to Hitler's HQ
• 1936 : Posted to organize security of Olympic Games
• 1940 : France 1941-1943 : Major in the DAK (Deutsches Afrika Korps) <<<< Rommel
• 1943-1944 : Reserve Lt. Fontainebleau, Paris and La Roche-Guyon, Paris <<<< Rommel

  1944 : Reserve Lt. St. Germain-en-Laye, Paris, <<<< von Rundstedt
  
  
  • Early July 1944. I was out on an inspection as communications officer with my boss (Rundstedt), Blumentritt, my old boss (Rommel), and that unbearable chief of staff of his, Speidel. But there were also the chauffeurs. So there were 7 of us. On the way back, night fell, and we.....GOT LOST! In the middle of the French countryside somewhere between the north coast and Paris! We ended up in a forest, that was still behind the German lines, but in which there seemed to be no German soldiers around at all! We found a clearing and parked the cars, and settled down around a camp fire.... Speidel got all twisted up about being hungry, and he didn't fancy eating wolves.......(see how stupid that sounds!). I had an idea. I got the two chauffeurs to come with me, and we went to a nearby farmer's field, and stole some wheat from his crops, some apples from a nearby orchid, and we also managed to catch a deer. Back at the fire, I was able to dry the wheat over the heat and I managed to make couscous. So we had deer with apples and couscous around a camp fire. We also slept around the fire. In the morning Rommel had an argument with Rundstedt because he didn't wake up at 6am like he did, and that he thought that it was very lazy of a man in his rank. Rundstedt told him to "p*ss off". Then an argument broke out between the two chiefs of staff because Speidel wasn't sure if he was imagining seeing an aristocrat urinate behind a tree. Blumentritt decided to show his "appreciation" of Speidels comment by directing some of his urine on to Speidel's boot....It was a nightmare. In the end, we managed to find our way back to Paris and the different HQs. Rundstedt made me send some papers that authorized extra rations to the farmers I had stolen from. So you see, it wasn't all orders and obeying in the German army!
    
    Von Rundstedt never showed any interest in his personal security. When he returned from a health cure in 1943 there was an air raid warning and, after a lot of difficulty, Hans-Gerd von Rundstedt (son) eventually persuaded the GFM to go into the shelter. Bodo Zimmerman was busy afterwards on the phone and such, and forgot about the Field Marshal. About an hour or so later the telephone rang. It was von Rundstedt who asked, in his usual polite manner : "Zimmerman, may I please come out now?". This is one of my most favourite recollections of the Field Marshal. You see, most of the other officers of that rank, perhaps with the exception of Rommel, would have grilled you for keeping them in a shelter and promptly forgetting about them. When he came back to the villa, Von Rundstedt was confronted by a very sorry Zimmerman who was all apologetic, and the GFM said that he did not expect to be kept prisonner by his own son, who also KNEW he was in the shelter, and had left him there to be a victim of nature's mercy. What made us laugh most, was the thought of the Field Marshal keep phoning and the telephone always being busy! He was not at all asking whether he could come out of the shelter because the air raid warning had finished, it was because everyone kept on insisting that he go in there, and I think he was trying to please us!

Sketches by Günther Schrivenbach - February 1944 in Paris. I originally sketched two of these, and gave one to the Field Marshal - I have no idea where it is now!	General FeldMarschall Erwin Rommel

I served with GFM von Rundstedt in France. I was on his staff when he was at St. Germain in Paris. I was not originally posted to him, as I was first on the staff of FM Rommel. I did not get on well with his Chief of Staff, Gen. Speidel, and we one day had a row, in which I told him what I thought of Rommel. Anyway, word got back to the FM and I was, after some interrogation by him, "discharged" from my post. The authorities noticed there was a gap in Rundstedt's staff, and I was posted to him. He was duly warned before hand that I was a "troublemaker", and inquired as to why. When he found out, I believe that he was very amused, as he thought the same as I did. I was accepted on to his staff, and served with him until he was "sacked" from the post. I got on very well with him, and he would insist that my name was Von Schrivenbach, as it "sounded too noble to be common". When I saw him again in Britain after the war, he took one look at me and said "Ah! von Schrivenbach!".

• 1945 : Reserve Lt. Remagen, <<<< von Rundstedt
• 1945 : Captured at Bad Reichenhall
• 1946 : Moved to Grizedale Hall

All of the officers always showed deep respect for their captors, and even von Rundstedt was often cheerful. One day at Grizedale Hall however, his frustration got the better of him and he poked at the perimiter fence with his stick. The sentry caught him, and had to point his rifle at the Field Marshal, in order to get him to stop.

When I was in Grizedale Hall, the Commander there had a big file which was called "The Case of Rundstedt's Mattress", which came about after one of Rundstedt's acquaintances - Liddell Hart - thought that his thin Army mattress was hardly helping to ease his leg pains. When Captain Kingston was unable to get Rundstedt a better mattress from the hospital, one was loaned to him. When Morton returned from his leave, he complained to the War Office! (Morton was one of the British officers in the Camp). In the end, von Rundstedt was allowed to keep his mattress.

• 1946 : Moved to Glen Mill Camp 168, Oldham, Lancashire
• 5 May 1948 - 15 June 1948: Moved to Island Farm Special Camp 11, Bridgend, South Wales.

  "but the GFM had already left by then. I was treated very well in Britain, and I didn't want to go home, as my home, Berlin, was in the Russian zone."

• 1948 : Returned to Germany (Berlin). Denazification.
• 1949 : Moved to West Germany (via "back door"). Left Germany.
• 1953 : Attended funeral of von Rundstedt.
• 1967 : attended funeral of Blumentritt.

  I was at Island Farm Camp from May 5th 1948 to June 15th 1948. I'm not sure why I was transferred as we were not told much. The idea was that WE were the prisonners now, and so WE would do as we were told. After I left Bridgend, I went back to Germany, and was denazified. But it wasn't easy for me, as I lived in the Russian Zone. I wanted to stay in England, or Wales, but I also wanted to see my mother and sisters. But, after a few years, I moved to Italy, where I stayed until 1986, only returning to attend the funerals of von Rundstedt and Blumentritt in 1953 and 1967.

  Email Received: November 2005 I was surprised to find Günther Schrivenbach on your web site! I served in North Africa with him. You can see us on the attached picture. I am on the left. Kind regards, Hans Dietrich Riesl (Col.)

  
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