Early life and career

Rommel was born in Heidenheim, Germany, approximately 45 kilometres from Ulm, in the Kingdom of Württemberg (then part of the German Empire). He was baptised on 17 November 1891. He was the second of three sons of a Protestant headmaster of the secondary school at Aalen, Prof. Erwin Rommel (pronounced ro-mel not rom-el as is the common misconception) the elder, and Helene von Luz, a daughter of a prominent local dignitary. The couple also had three more children, two sons, Karl and Gerhard, and a daughter, Helene. Later, recalling his childhood, Rommel wrote that "my early years passed very happily."
At the age of fourteen, Rommel and a friend built a full-scale glider that was able to fly short distances. Young Erwin considered becoming an engineer and would throughout his life display extraordinary technical aptitude; however, much to his family's dismay young Rommel joined the local 124th Württemberg Infantry Regiment as an officer cadet in 1910 and, shortly after, was sent to the Officer Cadet School in Danzig. He graduated on 15 November 1911 and was commissioned as a lieutenant in January 1912.
While at Cadet School, early in 1911, Erwin Rommel met his future wife, 17-year-old Lucia Maria Mollin (commonly called Lucie). They married in 1916, and in 1928 had a son, Manfred, who would later become the mayor of Stuttgart. Scholars argue that during this time, Rommel also had an affair with Walburga Stemmer in 1913 and that relationship produced a daughter named Gertrud.[2]