During the Second World War the German panzer generals were the subject of a great deal of myth-making, both in German and in Allied propaganda. After the war this entered a new phase with the publication of self-exculpating memoirs, studies for the US army historical division and uncritical biographies. Only relatively recently has a great deal of research been done to reassess their role both in a professional military capacity and in terms of their individual participation in Germany’s war of annihilation in the East. We therefore know a great deal more about what these men did and how they did it, but that does not always provide the answer why. If the image of the German panzer generals was built on a myth, then who were these men beyond the stylised propaganda images and resolute military orders?