Hans Oster

Hans Oster
Oster in 1939
Deputy Chief of the Abwehr
In office
1935 – 21 July 1944
LeaderWilhelm Canaris
Personal details
Born
Hans Paul Oster

(1887-08-09)9 August 1887
Dresden, German Empire
Died9 April 1945(1945-04-09) (aged 57)
Flossenbürg concentration camp, Nazi Germany
Cause of deathExecution by hanging
Military service
Allegiance German Empire
 Weimar Republic
 Nazi Germany
German Resistance
Branch/service
Years of service
  • 1907–1932
  • 1935–1944
Rank Generalmajor
Battles/warsWorld War I
World War II

Hans Paul Oster (9 August 1887 – 9 April 1945) was a general in the Wehrmacht and a leading figure of the anti-Nazi German resistance from 1938 to 1943. As deputy head of the counter-espionage bureau in the Abwehr (German military intelligence), Oster was in a good position to conduct resistance operations under the guise of intelligence work.

He was involved in the Oster conspiracy of September 1938 and was arrested in 1943 on suspicion of helping Abwehr officers caught helping Jews to escape Germany. After the failed 1944 July Plot on Hitler's life, during interrogation, he named Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the head of Abwehr, as the "spiritual founder of the Resistance Movement". The Gestapo arrested Canaris and eventually found his diaries, in which Oster's anti-Nazi activities were revealed. In April 1945, he was hanged with Canaris and Dietrich Bonhoeffer at Flossenbürg concentration camp.