Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte (30 March 1907 – 7 July 1994) was a German paratroop officer during World War II who later served in the armed forces of West Germany, achieving the rank of General.

Meanwhile, Heydte had begun his academic career in international law in 1933 as a private assistant to Hans Kelsen in Cologne on Alfred Verdross's recommendation.

Following Kelsen's dismissal in the wake of the Nazi seizure of power in Germany, Heydte became Verdross's assistant at the Consular Academy in Vienna (1933–1934).

Prior to the Ardennes Offensive, the Germans planned Operation Stösser to drop paratroopers behind the American lines 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) north of Malmédy and to seize a key crossroads (N68-N672) leading to the towns of Eupen and Verviers.

[4]: 161 The kampfgruppe was tasked with dropping at night onto a strategic road junction 11 kilometers north of Malmédy and to hold it for approximately twenty-four hours until relieved by the 12th SS Panzer Division, with the aim of hampering the flow of Allied reinforcements and supplies.

The planes that were relatively close to the intended drop zone were buffeted by strong winds that deflected many paratroopers and made their landings far rougher.

[6]: 88 Because all his radios had been destroyed or lost in the jump, Heydte didn't know the 12th SS Panzer Division failed to defeat the Americans at the Battle of Elsenborn Ridge, and was unable to relieve his forces.

After his release as a POW, Heydte returned to his academic career, completing his dissertation in 1950 at the university of Munich under Erich Kaufmann [de], whom he had met at the Hague Academy of International Law before the outbreak of World War II.

[8] In 1962, as head of the Institute for Military Law at University of Würzburg, Heydte challenged the weekly magazine Der Spiegel over an article it published claiming a "scandalous" state of affairs in the Bundeswehr.

Specifically, Von der Heydte accused the editors of high treason because they had revealed the military weaknesses of the new Bundeswehr to the public and thus to the Soviets.

Because of that accusation and Heydte's position as an expert in military law, the issue was brought to a federal court, triggering what was to be known as the Spiegel affair, with many arrests of journalists and others connected to that publication.

He had achieved the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer and served with SS-Einsatzgruppe IV in Poland (1939–40), the SS-Sicherheitsdienst in North Africa (1942–43) and commanded the Gestapo and Italian fascist police in Milan (from 1943 to 1945).

The Spiegel affair was the first sign of a change in the popular beliefs in West Germany and the progenitor of all the protest later in that decade against all former Nazi German officials still in office.

Heydte was heavily criticised for his actions by several prominent West German politicians, and in 1965, a court cleared the editors of Der Spiegel on all charges.