Albert Schnez

{{Short description|German military officer}}

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{{Infobox military person

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Albert Schnez

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| image = Albert Schnez 1967.jpg

| image_size = 240px

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| caption = Albert Schnez in 1967

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1911|08|30}}

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2007|04|26|1911|08|30}}

| birth_place = Abtsgmünd, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Empire

| death_place = Bonn, Germany

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| allegiance = {{flag|Weimar Republic}}
{{flag|Nazi Germany}}
{{flag|West Germany}}

| branch = {{army|Weimar Republic}}
{{army|Nazi Germany}}
{{army|West Germany}}

| serviceyears = 1930–1945
1957–1971

| rank = 20px Generalleutnant

| servicenumber =

| unit = 25th Panzergrenadier Division

| commands =

• CS Armed Forces Staff (1960)
• 5th Panzer Division (1962)
• III Corps (1965)
• Inspector of the Army (1968)

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| awards = German Cross in Gold (1944)
Federal Cross of Merit (1971)

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Albert Schnez (30 August 1911 – 26 April 2007) was an officer in three successive German armies: the Reichswehr, the Wehrmacht, and finally the Bundeswehr, the armed forces of the modern Federal Republic of Germany. He was involved in the debate on the internal leadership of the newly formed Bundeswehr and was close to the German defense minister, Franz Josef Strauss. Schnez served from 1968 to 1971 with the rank of lieutenant-general (Generalleutnant) as the Inspector of the Army.

From 1949, Schnez, together with other veterans of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS, built a clandestine shadow army, the "Schnez-Truppe", that intended to fight against the Soviet Union in the event of an invasion, or German communists during a civil war.{{cite web|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/wehrmacht-veterans-created-a-secret-army-in-west-germany-a-969015.html|title= Files Uncovered: Nazi Veterans Created Illegal Army|publisher=Der Spiegel|author=Klaus Wiegrefe|date=14 May 2014}} By 1951, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer had learned of the existence of this secret army and its head Schnez, but evidently declined to act against them.