Highly recommend his World War I memoir Storm of Steel. He received almost all awards of valor that Imperial Germany bestowed. Highly conservative, he also was anti-Nazi. He died at 102 in 1998. At 101 he converted to Catholicism.
“Throughout the war, it was always my endeavour to view my opponent without animus, and to form an opinion of him as a man on the basis of the courage he showed. I would always try and seek him out in combat and kill him, and I expected nothing else from him. But never did I entertain mean thoughts of him. When prisoners fell into my hands, later on, I felt responsible for their safety, and would always do everything in my power for them.”
― Storm of Steel
― Storm of Steel
Wow.
Excellent book: especially the headlong account of the 1918 Ludendorff offensives, from the point of view of a junior, front-line officer.