Werner Eduard Fritz von Blomberg (2 September 1878 – 14 March 1946) was a German Generalfeldmarschall, Minister of War, and Commander-in-Chief of the German Armed Forces until January 1938.

BIOGRAPHY Son of Emil von Blomberg and Emma von Tschepe, Werner von Blomberg was born 2 September 1878 in Stargard. He joined the German Army and served as a second lieutenant in the 73rd Fusilier Regiment. He married Charlotte Hellmich 20 April 1904 in Hannover. They had five children. He attended the War Academy (1904-1907) before joining the General Staff in 1908.

On the outbreak of the First World War Blomberg was General Staff Officer with the 19th Reserve Division. Served on the Western Front where he won the Pour le Mérite. By the end of the war he had reached the rank of major. Blomberg's two brothers were both killed in the conflict.

Remaining in the army, in 1920 Blomberg was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed Chief of Staff of the Döberitz Brigade. Four years later General Hans von Seeckt appointed him as chief of army training.

Promoted to the rank of major general in 1927, Blomberg was appointed chief of the Troop Office. In this position he clashed with Kurt von Schleicher and in 1929 was sent to East Prussia to serve under Walther von Reichenau.

His wife died 11 May 1932 in Königsberg. In the same year Blomberg was head of the German delegation at the Geneva Disarmament Conference. The following year Adolf Hitler appointed him minister of defence and in 1935 minister of war and commander in chief of the German Army. It was Blomberg's idea to get all soldiers to pledge an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler. April 1936 Blomberg became Hitler's first field marshal.

Hermann Göring was jealous of Blomberg's power and used the Gestapo to obtain embarrassing information about his private life. Werner was forced to marry his mistress, Elsbeth Gruhn, with Hitler as best man, 12 January 1938 in Berlin. The same month Blomberg resigned when he discovered that Göring was planning to make public the fact that his new young wife was a former prostitute.

After the Second World War Blomberg was captured by Allied troops and gave evidence at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial. Werner von Blomberg died 14 March 1946 while being held in detention. His second wife died 1978 in Berlin.

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