As a general, Rommel is pretty good. He was given several rough situations, and he handled them well. His Afrika Korps was famed for its employment of tanks, and Rommel love to use the German 88mm Flak cannon as an anti-tank gun, which worked well. He helped design the formidable defenses along the French Coast, and served well in Normandy.

That was, of course, until he was strafed by Allied fighters. Rommel was forced to bail out of his staff car, and hide in a ditch. Badly wounded, he was unable to resume command following the incident, and returned to Germany to convalesce. This was actually really bad timing, because just after Rommel's return home, the famous Valkyrie plot happened, and a bomb literally blew the pants of Hitler.

As far as I have read, there isnt really any consensus as to if Rommel was in on the plot, or if he was unawares. He was likely approached by Hitler's assassins, in the hopes that Rommel would form a military Junta with them, following Hitler's death. Hitler didnt die, and the coups fell apart quickly. But one of the plotters spilled the beans. Regardless as to if Rommel was in on the plot or not, he was implicated by one of the plotters. At this point, Rommel was given two choices: Kill himself, and have the funeral of a hero, or take the matter to a very public trial which would sully his record, and likely also involve his family. Rommel chose the first choice, and committed suicide shortly after.

Now, the important thing here is Rommel's memoirs. Called the Rommel Papers (its actually pretty cheap to get on Amazon, I have a copy), Rommel recounted his life, and especially his campaigns during WWII. But the book is really remembered for all the smack Rommel talks about Hitler, how Hitler sabotaged the war effort, how Hitler was incompetent, and how he was losing Germany the war. Written between his injuries and his suicide, this is the Rommel that most people remember. A Rommel who had every right to be very, very angry at the Nazi regime.

Its hard to really say if Rommel was a "good" man, and Ive given up trying. He was certainly not the murderer that some Nazi and SS generals were, but then again Rommel never went East. His record was in the (mostly) empty African desert, in occupied Italy, and in Northern France. There were comparatively few atrocities in those theaters as compared to the Ostfront. Rommel really hated Hitler and the Nazis, at a time when Hitler and the Nazis were trying to kill him. But he had no problem climbing the ranks of the Nazi army when it suited him. People try to make Rommel into a "good German" at a time when there were no "good Germans." While I cannot peer into the man's heart, I can say that he was a Nazi. Some of my favorite generals are, unfortunately, Nazis. So you have to say, "yeah hes pretty good, for a Nazi."

I think the whole debate really stems out of this attempt to divorce "German" and "Nazi." We cannot condemn all of Germany for the crims of the Nazis. Germany was (and is) integral to Europe, and we really needed them to play ball in the 40s to stop those damn Communists. So this idea was created that still lasts today, that there were "good Germans" and "bad Germans", and everybody has to fit in one category or another. And obviously, the "good" side is bigger than the "bad" side, and everybody who helped us out after the war is obviously "good", while the people we hung (or who killed themselves, in various ways) were the biggest "bad" Germans in the bunch. Rommel especially, he is the manifestation of post-War American army doctrine, so obviously hes a "good" German, because we follow his teachings. He has to be good, because hes everybodies' German hero.

But it just doesnt work that way. There were no "good" or "bad" Germans, just Germans. They did horrible things, as a nation. The members of the Nazi party doubly so. Even if they didnt fire the gun, or give the order, they still aided by extension the growth and success of a genocidal regime. We can split hairs as to how much somebody really helped, but it will never change that central fact.