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Josef Dietrich

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Josef Dietrich
Sepp.jpg
Josef "Sepp" Dietrich, as a SS-Obergruppenführer
Nickname Sepp, Ujac
Born 28 May 1892(1892-05-28)
Hawangen, Bavaria, German Empire
Died 21 April 1966(1966-04-21) (aged 73)
Ludwigsburg, West Germany
Allegiance
Years of service 1911–1919; 1928–1945
Rank Oberstgruppenführer
Generaloberst of the Waffen-SS
Commands held 5th Panzer Army
6th Panzer Army
Awards Ritterkreuz des Eisernes Kreuz mit Eichenlaub, Schwertern, und Brillanten

Josef "Sepp" Dietrich (28 May 1892 – 21 April 1966) was a German SS General. He was one of Nazi Germany's most decorated soldiers and commanded formations up to Army level during World War II. Prior to 1929 he was Adolf Hitler's chauffeur and bodyguard but received rapid promotion after his participation in the murder of Hitler's political opponents during the Night of the Long Knives. After the war, he was imprisoned by the United States for war crimes and later by Germany for murder.

Contents

[edit] Early life and career

Sepp Dietrich was born in Hawangen, near Memmingen in Bavaria, Germany on 28 May 1892, son of Pelagius Dietrich and his wife Kreszentia. He worked as a butcher and hotel servant. In 1911 he joined the Bavarian Army for a short time. Volunteering at the beginning of the First World War, he served with the artillery, as a paymaster sergeant and later in the first German tank troops.

After the war, Dietrich served briefly in a Freikorps Oberland against the Bavarian Soviet Republic, May 1919. Thereafter, he migrated from one job to another, including waiter, policeman, foreman, farm labourer, petrol station attendant and customs officer. He joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1928 and became commander of Hitler's Schutzstaffel (SS) bodyguard. His NSDAP number was 89,015 and his SS number was 1,117.[1] Dietrich had been introduced to Nazism by Christian Weber, who was his employer at the Tankstelle-Blau-Bock filling station in Munich.[2] He accompanied Hitler on his tours around Germany and received the nickname "Chauffeureska" from Hitler. Later Hitler arranged other jobs, including various SS posts, and let him live in the Reich Chancellery.

[edit] 1930s and World War II

Dietrich at the front with his soldiers, 1945.
Mug shot of Sepp Dietrich for the War Criminal Prison Landsberg.

On 5 January 1930, Dietrich was elected to the Reichstag as a delegate for Lower Bavaria. By 1931, he had become SS-Gruppenführer. When the NSDAP took over in 1933, Dietrich rose swiftly through the Nazi hierarchy. He rose to the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer, commander of Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, General of the Waffen-SS and member of the Prussian state council. As one of Hitler's intimates, Dietrich was often able to disregard his SS superior, Himmler, at one time even banning Himmler from the Leibstandarte barracks.

In 1934, Dietrich played an active role in the Night of the Long Knives. Hitler told him to take six men and go to the Ministry of Justice to kill a number of Sturmabteilung (SA) leaders. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to SS Obergruppenführer. Dietrich's role earned him a nineteen-month sentence from a postwar court.

When World War II began, Dietrich led the Leibstandarte in attacks on Paris and Dunkirk. Dietrich remained in command of the Leibstandarte throughout the campaigns in Greece and Yugoslavia before being promoted to command of the I.SS-Panzerkorps, attached to Army Group Center, on the Eastern Front. In 1943, he was sent to Italy to recover Benito Mussolini's mistress Clara Petacci. He received numerous German military medals but also became notorious for his mistreatment of prisoners of war.

Dietrich commanded the I.SS-Panzerkorps in the Battle of Normandy. Because of his success, Hitler promoted him to command of the 6.SS-Panzer-Armee as well. Dietrich commanded the 6.SS-Panzer-Armee in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. He had been assigned to that task because, due to the 20 July Plot, Hitler distrusted Wehrmacht officers. On 17 December, Kampfgruppe Peiper, (an SS unit) under his overall command killed between 77 and 82 U.S. prisoners of war near Malmedy, Belgium, in what is known as the Malmedy massacre. Interestingly, Dietrich was already becoming disillusioned with Hitler's war leadership and is said to have told Field Marshal Rommel that if he sought a separate peace on the Western Front, he (Dietrich) would support him.

At this point, Dietrich began to protest Hitler's unwillingness to let officers act upon their own initiative. In April 1945, after the failure of Hitler's planned Spring Awakening Offensive at Lake Balaton, spearheaded by Dietrich's troops, a frustrated Hitler ordered Dietrich to tell members of Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler to give up their cuff titles, but Dietrich did not pass on the order. One version of this incident had Dietrich rip off his own cuff titles and medals and put them in a chamber pot which he told an SS officer to deliver to Hitler personally.

Dietrich commanded tank troops in Vienna but failed to prevent Soviet troops from taking the city. Accompanied by his wife, Dietrich surrendered on 9 May 1945 to Master-Sergeant Herbert Kraus of the U.S. 36th Infantry Division at Krems an der Donau north of St. Pölten in Austria.

Dietrich's formal military education was sparse and many critics have said command of an army was beyond his competence. Many of the German army generals looked down upon him in this regard, especially members of the General Staff. However, Dietrich was an acknowledged expert small-unit tactician and no one questioned his personal bravery since he was a lead-from-the-front type of commander. The troops that he led appreciated his rough humor and identification with the soldiers on the front lines. Dietrich was also smart enough to appoint highly capable officers to his staff to handle the technical aspects of higher command, leaving him free to exercise overall command.

[edit] Post war

Dietrich was tried as Defendant No. 11 by U.S. Military Tribunal at Dachau ("United States of America vs. Valentin Bersin et al.", Case No. 6-24), from 16 May 1946 until 16 July 1946. On 16 July 1946, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Malmedy massacre trial for ordering the execution of U.S. prisoners of war in Malmedy. Due to testimony in his defence by other German officers, his sentence was shortened to 25 years. He was imprisoned at U.S. War Criminals Prison No. 1 at Landsberg am Lech in Bavaria. Dietrich served only ten years and was released on parole on 22 October 1955. However, he was rearrested in Ludwigsburg in August 1956. He was charged by the Landesgericht München I and tried from 6 May 1957 until 14 May 1957 for his role in the killing of SA leaders in 1934. On 14 May 1957, he was sentenced to nineteen months for his part in the Night of the Long Knives and imprisoned at Landsberg. He was released due to a heart condition and circulation problems in his legs on 2 February 1958. By then he had already served almost his entire 19-month sentence. He then settled in Ludwigsburg where he devoted himself to HIAG activities and hunting. Dietrich was sentenced to death in absentia by a Soviet court in connection with war crimes committed by Leibstandarte in Kharkov in 1943.

The post-war West German government denied Dietrich any form of a military pension. When his former soldiers learned of his straitened circumstances, thousands of them contributed to a fund which provided their old commander with a comfortable pension.

In 1966 Dietrich died of a heart attack in Ludwigsburg at age 73. Seven thousand of his wartime comrades came to his funeral. He was eulogized by former SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS Wilhelm Bittrich.

[edit] Personal life

Dietrich was married twice. His first wife was Barbra Betti Seidl (b. 24 April 1896). They were married on 17 February 1921 and were divorced in April 1937. On 19 January 1942, Dietrich married Ursula Moninger-Brenner (born 26 March 1915 and died in 1983), a former spouse of SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei Karl-Heinrich Brenner. (They had married in 1935.) Dietrich and Mrs. Moninger-Brenner had a son, Wolf-Dieter Dietrich, who was born out of wedlock in Karlsruhe in 1939, before Brenner’s divorce was finalized. The two SS generals nonetheless remained friends. A second son, Lutz, was born in Karlsruhe on 20 March 1943. (Heinrich Himmler was his godfather.) Dietrich's third son, Götz-Hubertus, was born in Karlsruhe on 23 November 1944. (Himmler was again a godfather.)

[edit] Summary of his SS career

[edit] Dates of rank

[edit] Notable decorations

[edit] References

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[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Biondi, Robert, ed., SS Officers List: SS-Standartenführer to SS-Oberstgruppenführer (As of 30 January 1942), Schiffer Military History Publishing, 2000, p. 7
  2. ^ Messenger, Charles, Hitler's Gladiator: The Life and Wars of Panzer Army Commander Sepp Dietrich, Conway, 2005, p. 39
  3. ^ Dienstaltersliste der Waffen-SS, 1 July 1944, #1
  4. ^ Fellgiebel 2000, p. 161.
  5. ^ Fellgiebel 2000, p. 56.
  6. ^ Fellgiebel 2000, p. 40.
  7. ^ Fellgiebel 2000, p. 37.

[edit] Bibliography

There are two biographies about Sepp Dietrich: one by Charles Messenger (of which there are two versions [see below]) and another by the French historian, Jean Mabire. Additional information about Dietrich has to be pieced together from many separate sources, which are mostly in English and in German. The following are among the more relevant and accessible sources. They are obtainable through larger research libraries (and their Interlibrary Loan), or through online vendors.

In English:

  • Messenger, Charles (2005). Hitler's Gladiator: The Life and Wars of Panzer Army Commander Sepp Dietrich, London. ISBN 1844860221 & ISBN 978-1844860227.
  • Messenger, Charles (1988). Hitler's Gladiator: The Life and Times of Oberstgruppenfuhrer and Panzergeneral-Oberst Der Waffen-SS Sepp Dietrich, London. ASIN: B000OFQ62W.
  • Speer, Albert (1970). Inside the Third Reich: Memories by Albert Speer. New York: Macmillan. ASIN: B000H7Q6U4.

In German:

  • Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000). Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939-1945. Friedburg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 3-7909-0284-5.
  • Krätschmer, Ernst-Günther (1999). Die Ritterkreuzträger der Waffen-SS (in German). Coburg, Germany: Nation Europa Verlag GmbH. ISBN 3-920677-43-9.
  • Schaulen, Fritjof (2003). Eichenlaubträger 1940 - 1945 Zeitgeschichte in Farbe I Abraham - Huppertz (in German). Selent, Germany: Pour le Mérite. ISBN 3-932381-20-3.
  • 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.
Military offices
Preceded by
none		 Commander of 6.SS-Panzerarmee
26 October 1944 - 8 May 1945		 Succeeded by
dissolved on 8 May 1945
Colonel general
(Generaloberst)
of the Army
Colonel general
(Generaloberst)
of the Luftwaffe
General admiral
(Generaladmiral)
Oberstgruppenführer
(SS or Waffen-SS)
This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2009)
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