Josef Dietrich

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File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J06632, Sepp Dietrich.png
SS-Obergruppenführer Josef Dietrich with the new colar tabs after 1942

Josef "Sepp" Dietrich (28 May 1892 - 21 April 1966) was a German officer and Waffen-SS general, an SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer, and one of the closest men to Adolf Hitler. For his wartime services, he was one of only 27 men to be awarded the Knights Cross with Oak leaves, Swords, and Diamonds.

Life

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Sepp Dietrich and a proud Richard Schulze, who received the DKiG on this day
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Josef "Sepp" Dietrich - ranked as SS-Obergruppenführer (new style collar tabs since 1942)
File:SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer und Generaloberst der Waffen-SS Sepp Dietrich.png
SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer and Generaloberst of the Waffen-SS Sepp Dietrich, Holder of the Blood Order with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
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Otto Günsche (left) and Sepp Dietrich (center)
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Wake 1966

Early Life

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Funeral 1966
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Gravestone

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

After the war, Dietrich served briefly in a Freikorps against the Bavarian Soviet Republic in May 1919. Thereafter, due to the mass unemployment, he took any employment he could and migrated from one job to another, including waiter, policeman, foreman, farm laborer, gas station attendant and customs officer. During his time with the police, he was also member of the Freikorps „Oberland“ and fought at Annaberg (de) in 1921 and during the March to the Feldherrnhalle in 1923.

He joined the National Socialist Party (NSDAP) in 1928 and became commander of Hitler's Schutzstaffel (SS) bodyguard. He accompanied Hitler on his tours around Germany and received the nickname "Chauffeureska" from Hitler. Later, Hitler arranged other jobs for him, including various SS posts, and let him live in the Reich Chancellery.

1930s and World War II

In 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 National socialist 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.

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 execute a number of Sturmabteilung (SA) leaders. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to SS Obergruppenführer.

WWII

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 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 SS-Panzerkorps in the Battle of Normandy. Because of his success, Hitler promoted him to command of the 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 July 20 Plot, Hitler distrusted Wehrmacht officers.

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 and his men to give up their unit cuff titles, but Dietrich refused to pass on the order.

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.

Post-War

Dietrich was tried as "Defendant No. 11" by the 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 16 1946 for the case of the "Malmedy Massacre". Although it later emerged that the "massacre" was a hoax, he was convicted of ordering the execution of U.S. prisoners of war anyway. Due to testimony in his defense 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 October 22, 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 again.

He was released due to a heart condition and circulation problems in his legs on February 2, 1959. 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 crimes it proclaimed the Leibstandarte had committed in Kharkov in 1943.

Death

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

Family

First marriage

Dietrich was married twice. His first wife was Barbra Betti Seidl (b. April 24, 1896). They were married on February 17, 1921 and were divorced in April 1937.

Second marriage

On January 19, 1942, Dietrich married Ursula Moninger-Brenner (born March 26, 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 Ms. 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 March 20, 1943 (Heinrich Himmler was his godfather). Dietrich's third son, Götz-Hubertus, was born in Karlsruhe on November 23, 1944 (again Himmler was a godfather).

SS promotions

Awards and decorations

WWII

External links

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