Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller

Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller
Born	(1897-08-29)29 August 1897 Barmen, Prussia
Died	20 May 1947(1947-05-20) (aged 49) Athens, Greece
Allegiance	German Empire (to 1918) Weimar Republic (to 1933) Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Heer
Years of service	1915 – 1945
Rank	General der Infanterie
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Awards	Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords

Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller (29 August 1897 – 20 May 1947) was a General in the German army in World War II. He is notorious for having been the most brutal commander of occupied Crete, where he earned the nickname "The Butcher of Crete." After the war, he was tried by a Greek military court for war crimes, convicted and executed.

Early life

Friedrich was born in Barmen, Prussia, only son of Carl Wilhelm Franz Hermann Georg Müller. He was a grandson of Wilhelm Müller, and nephew of the Brazilian Ambassador Lauro Müller. He had a romance with Marie Korndörffer, of Stendal, Saxony, daughter of Johann Jakob Korndörffer and Rolla Rohlf. As a result of this romance, he was the father of: Marie Egidie Korndörffer Rohlf and Walter Rohlfs (Rohlfs is an error). The sons have descendants in Brazil.

Pre-war and early war

In 1915 Müller joined the German 2nd Infantry Regiment. He became a second lieutenant in the 266th Regiment in 1915. In 1936 he became a major in the German army, and by 1940 was a lieutenant colonel and commander of the 105th Infantry Regiment. He was awarded the Knight's Cross in 1941 and received oak leaves in 1942 for operations in Russia.

Crete

In August 1942 General Müller took command of the 22nd Air Landing Infantry Division, which was transferred from the Eastern Front to garrison occupied Crete. In Crete, Müller became notorious for his brutality, and he was responsible for many of the atrocities committed on the island (e.g. the holocaust of Viannos, the destruction of Anogia and the Kedros villages of Amari, the execution of civilians in Damasta, etc.). During the autumn of 1943, he led the German forces in their victory over the Italian-British forces in the Dodecanese Campaign. On 1 July 1944 he replaced Bruno Brauer as Commander on Crete.

By 1945, Müller commanded the German 4th Army on the Eastern Front. The 4th Army had already been decimated by fighting in the Heiligenbeil Pocket by the time he assumed command. Müller ended the war in East Prussia and was captured by the Soviets.

In 1946, Müller was tried by a Greek court in Athens for the massacres of hostages for reprisals. He was sentenced to death on 9 December 1946 and executed by firing squad 20 May 1947, along with former General Bruno Bräuer, on the anniversary of the German invasion of Crete.

Ill Met by Moonlight

Main article: Kidnap of General Kreipe

The original SOE plan, as described in the book Ill Met by Moonlight written by W. Stanley Moss, later made into a film, was to capture Müller, the commander of the Sebastopol division. But, he had been replaced by General Kreipe. SOE believed that Müller had left Crete, when he was in Hania replacing Brauer as the commander of the island. The operation to capture a general was carried out, nevertheless, as it was reckoned that one German general was as good as another.

Awards

• Iron Cross (1914)
  • 1st Class (25 May 1916)
  • 2nd Class (29 August 1916)
• Prussian Royal House Order of Hohenzollern, Knight's Cross with Swords
• Wound Badge in Silver
• Infantry Assault Badge
• "Crimea" Shield
• Bulgarian Military Order of Merit
• Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939)
  • 1st Class (22 December 1939)
  • 2nd Class (12 June 1940)
• German Cross in Gold on 18 June 1943 as Generalleutnant and commander of the 22. Infanterie-Division
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
  • Knight's Cross on 22 September 1941 as Oberstleutnant and commander of Infanterie-Regiment 105
  • 86th Oak Leaves on 8 April 1942 as Oberst and commander of Infanterie-Regiment 105
  • 128th Swords on 27 January 1945 as General der Infanterie and commanding general of the LXVIII. Armeekorps
• Mentioned four times in the Wehrmachtbericht

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Berger, Florian (2000). Mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern. Die höchstdekorierten Soldaten des Zweiten Weltkrieges (in German). Selbstverlag Florian Berger. ISBN 3-9501307-0-5.
• Beevor, Antony (1991). Crete: The Battle and the Resistance.
• Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000). Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939-1945 (in German). Friedburg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas, 2000. ISBN 3-7909-0284-5.
• Patzwall, Klaus D. and Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 - 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 3-931533-45-X.
• Scherzer, Veit (2007). Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Miltaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
• Thomas, Franz (1998). Die Eichenlaubträger 1939–1945 Band 2: L–Z (in German). Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio-Verlag. ISBN 3-7648-2300-3.

External links

• Historic.de - Militärgeschichte - Bremen und Umland 1933-1945 at www.historic.de

Military offices
Preceded by General der Infanterie Ludwig Wolff	Commander of 22. Infanterie-Division 1 August 1942 – 15 February 1944	Succeeded by Generalmajor Heinrich Kreipe
Preceded by Generalleutnant Hermann Böhme	Commander of V. Armeekorps 4 May 1944 – 2 June 1944	Succeeded by General der Infanterie Dr. Franz Beyer
Preceded by General der Infantrie Friedrich Hoßbach	Commander of 4. Armee 29 January 1945 – 27 April 1945	Succeeded by none