Hans Paul Oster (* August 9th, 1887 in Dresden, Saxony) is a German Officer of the Wehrmacht in the Rank of a colonel.
His father was a pastor of the French Protestant Church in Dresden. Oster participated in the First World War, finally as a captain to the German General Staff and became a Reichswehr member after the war.
In May 1933, he found a civilian job in the new Forschungsamt, a secret service nominally part of Hermann Göring's Reichsluftfahrtministerium, and changed in October of the same year to the Abwehr. Oster, who had opposed the Nazis before 1933 already, became even more of an opponent in 1934 after the "Night of the Long Knives".
In 1935, Oster was appointed by new Abwehr Leader Wilhelm Canaris and promoted to Oberstleutnant. At this time already he started to contact opponents of the Nazis in the administration and Security forces. He cooperated e.g. witt Hans von Dohnanyi and Hans Bernd Gisevius, to collect proofs for a later trial against the Nazi leadership. The Oster Conspiracy of September 1938, which included men like Erwin von Witzleben, Ludwig Beck, Ernst von Weizsäcker, Hjalmar Schacht, Walther von Brauchitsch and Franz Halder, failed when the Allies gave in in Munich, which prevented war with Czechoslovakia. The Blomberg-Fritsch Affair and the Reichspogromnacht turned his antipathy into a hatred of Nazism.
During World War II, with the help of Canaris, Helmuth Groscurth and Georg Thomas he die contacts to the Oberkommando des Heeres, trying to cross the war plans of the Nazis between the invasion of Poland and the Western campaign. He went so far to warn the Netherlands and Belgium about the planned German attack, including the date - which unfortunately was changed several times.
He also wrote in his diary about his plans to make a putsch...
He's married to Gertrud Knoop and has three Kids – two Sons (Achim and Harald) and a daughter.
