The German general Ludwig August Theodor Beck (1880-1944) actively fought Hitler's policy of aggression. He resigned from his official position to head the military resistance against Hitler that culminated in the unsuccessful coup of July 1944.

Ludwig Beck was born in the small town of Biebrich on the Rhine on June 29, 1880. He entered the German army in 1898, and his outstanding performance in military theory quickly destined him for a brilliant career with the general staff, which he joined as a captain in October 1913. During World War I Beck held several staff positions on the Western front. The bloodbaths of the battles of the Marne and Verdun and the slow and bitter retreat of the German armies in 1917-1918 seem to have left a deep impression on him.

At the end of the war Beck, now a major, remained with the army and in the next 15 years served in a...