In late February 1944, Goerdeler sent Strölin to meet Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to see if he would like to join the anti-Nazi conspiracy and was delighted when Strölin gave him a positive report about Rommel's attitude towards the conspiracy. Goerdeler decided that Rommel would be the ideal person to play a leading role in a post-Hitler government and asked Strölin to find out if Rommel would be willing to play that role. As Rommel was fully engaged in preparations to resist the expected Allied landing in France all through the spring of 1944, it proved difficult for Strölin to make contact again. After meeting Goerdeler in March 1944, Strölin described him in a high-strung state, constantly afraid that he could be arrested at any moment, and anxious to recruit Rommel while attempting to juggle Rommel's demand that he be Wehrmacht Commander-in-Chief with his prior promise that position would go to Erwin von Witzleben if Hitler were overthrown. Not until May could a meeting be arranged to sort out where Rommel stood in regards to the conspiracy. On May 27, 1944, Goerdeler attended a secret meeting with Strölin, the former Foreign Minister Baron Konstantin von Neurath and General Hans Speidel (who was representing Rommel) at Speidel's flat in Freudenstadt. At the meeting, Speidel speaking on behalf of Rommel made clear that his chief wanted nothing to do with any attempt to assassinate Hitler, but was prepared to serve in a government headed by Goerdeler. Later in 1944, Goerdeler told Kunrath von Hammerstein, "In those days your father stood at the helm of world history". Goerdeler meant that if General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord had carried out a "putsch" in 1933, the present state of world troubles in 1944 might have been avoided.