Georg Keppler

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Georg Keppler, signed as Oberführer of the Waffen-SS, bearer of the Knight's Cross

Georg Heinrich Keppler (born May 7, 1894 in Mainz , † June 16, 1966 in Hamburg ) was an SS-Obergruppenführer and general of the Waffen-SS . During the Second World War he commanded the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" , 3rd SS Division "Totenkopf" , the I. SS Panzer Corps and the III. (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps . At the end of the war , Keppler was in command of the XVIII. SS Army Corps

Life

origin

Georg was the son of the Prussian Colonel a. D. Otto Keppler (* October 27, 1854 - November 16, 1936) and his wife Amalie Elisabeth, née Heyke (* May 21, 1870).

First World War

After he had passed his Abitur at the Old High School in Bremen, Keppler joined the Fusilier Regiment "General-Field Marshal Prince Albrecht von Prussia" (Hannoversches) No. 73 of the Prussian Army on February 28, 1913 as a flag squire . From October 1913 to May 1914 he was sent to the Glogau War School for further training . After his return he was promoted to lieutenant on June 18, 1914 with a patent from June 23, 1912 .

At the beginning of the First World War he mobilized his regiment and initially served as platoon and company commander on the western front . At St. Quentin , he was severely wounded on August 29 1914th After hospital stay and recovery, Keppler was transferred to the 39th Infantry Brigade in 1915. Here and in his later command in the 19th Reserve Division , he was employed as an orderly officer . Most recently he served as a first lieutenant (from October 16, 1917) and regimental adjutant in his main regiment. In addition to both classes of the Iron Cross , Keppler was awarded the Wound Badge in Silver, the Hanseatic Cross Hamburg and the War Merit Cross, Second Class.

Interwar period

After the war, he was initially transferred to the Provisional Reichswehr and he was assigned to the Reichswehr Infantry Regiment 19. At the beginning of August 1919, however, he resigned from the service and joined the Hanover Security Service as a group adjutant. Keppler remained in the same position even after the security forces were absorbed into the now Hanover police force. As a police captain, he was the leader of a hundred from 1924 to 1926 . For political and personal reasons, Keppler resigned from the Prussian police on July 1, 1926 and transferred to the Thuringia state police. Here he was first with the Gotha police department and then from January 1927 to mid-February 1928 leader of the independent Hundertschaft in Hildburghausen . Until the end of June 1930 he was employed as a consultant for police matters, organization and use by the chief of the Thuringian state police. Then Keppler was commander of the Jena police force until November 14, 1933, was promoted to police major on July 1, 1931 and was in command of the Gotha state police department until May 24, 1935.

Keppler joined the NSDAP ( membership number 338.211) on October 1, 1930 .

After a total of 14 years in the police, he decided to return to the army and worked briefly with the rank of major from May 24 to October 10, 1935 in the 32nd Infantry Regiment. From there, on October 10, 1935, he moved to the SS disposal force (member number 273.799). As SS-Sturmbannführer he was given command of the 1st Battalion of SS-Standarte 1. (October 10, 1935 to March 23, 1937). After the annexation of Austria ("Ostmark") he was commissioned as SS-Obersturmbannführer on April 20, 1937 with the management of SS-Standarte 3, which shortly thereafter received the honorary title "Der Führer" and was restructured into an armored infantry regiment. On April 20, 1938 he was appointed SS-Standartenführer .

Second World War

In October 1939, the SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment 4 “Der Führer” became part of the SS disposal division. Keppler took part in the western campaign, operated in the Balkans and in Russia . On May 13, 1940 he became SS-Oberführer . In August 1940, Paul Hausser proposed him to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and was awarded it on August 15, 1940 as the first member of the Waffen SS . On November 9, 1940 he was appointed SS Brigadefuhrer and Major General of the Waffen SS.

Eastern Front
From July 15, 1941 to September 21, 1941, he took over the 3rd SS Division "Totenkopf" , "then undergoing medical treatment for suspected brain tumor - during this time nominally commander of the SS Division North ." January 1942 he was appointed SS-Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the Waffen-SS. From April 1, 1942 to February 10, 1943 commander of the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" . “From February 1943 to August 1943 again in medical treatment. From August 31, 1943 to April 15, 1944 commander of the Waffen SS in Bohemia and Moravia (Prague) . From April 6, 1944 to August 15, 1944 Commander of the Waffen SS in Hungary (Budapest). "

Normandy and Army Group North
After being promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS on April 20, 1944, Keppler became commander of the I. SS Panzer Corps on August 16, 1944 (under Walter Model ) during the fighting in Normandy . He commanded the corps until October 24, 1944 and was Commanding General of the III. (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps on the Eastern Front. Keppler led the corps nominally until April 4, 1945, but was after the failure of the German attack on Alsace on January 12, 1945 on the Upper Rhine to the commanding general of the XVIII. SS Army Corps has been appointed. Temporarily he led the 19th Army defending there .

Upper Rhine and Black Forest
After the clearance of the German bridgehead Alsace at the beginning of February, the Rhine crossings by the French army on March 30th to 31st at Speyer and two weeks later at Strasbourg, Keppler became the units of the southern section of Offenburg to Basel on April 14th, 1945 subordinate to the dissolving 19th Army. Only the staff of the XVIII. SS-AK consisted of SS officers, the teams from the remaining divisions of the Wehrmacht, Volkssturm , customs border guards and fortress troops . Contrary to a Führer order, Keppler suppressed the defense of Freiburg on April 16 and withdrew his units across the Black Forest to the east. At Blumberg he disbanded the corps on April 26, 1945 and with several thousand volunteers undertook a successful breakout through a French bolt . Since the area deep down to Lake Constance was already occupied by the French, most of the soldiers were then taken prisoner.

With a small combat group, Keppler fought his way to his family in Seebruck , where he surrendered to the US armed forces on May 22, 1945 .

post war period

On April 26, 1948, Keppler was released from American captivity and internment. He worked as a community clerk in Upper Bavaria until December 1952 and then took up residence in Hamburg. Here he was initially a commercial clerk in a chemicals business until 1954 and then an authorized signatory until he retired in 1961.

Awards

literature

  • Dermot Bradley (ed.), Andreas Schulz , Günter Wegmann: The generals of the Waffen-SS and the police. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Volume 2: Hachtel – Kutschera. Biblio Publishing House. Bissendorf 2005. ISBN 3-7648-2592-8 . Pp. 500-506.
  • Gordon Williamson: The SS - Hitler's Instrument of Power. Kaiser, 2005, ISBN 3-7043-6037-6 .
  • Mark C. Yerger : Waffen-SS Commanders: The Army, Corps and Divisional Leaders of a Legend: Augsberger to Kreutz. - Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing (1997), ISBN 0764303562 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quotes and additions: Fred Trendle: Ten days in April. The end of the war on the Baar and the upper Danube in April 1945. Self-published, Kirchen-Hausen 2003, ISBN 3-00-010705-3 . There a Keppler biography, p. 213.
  2. ↑ Hermann Riedel: Stop! Swiss border! The end of the Second World War in the southern Black Forest and on the Upper Rhine in documentary reports by German, French and Swiss participants and those affected. Südkurier Verlag, Konstanz 1983. ISBN 3-87799-023-1 .
  3. ↑ Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 437.
personal data
SURNAME Keppler, Georg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Keppler, Georg Heinrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS-Obergruppenführer, officer of the Wehrmacht and Ordnungspolizei
DATE OF BIRTH May 7, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Mainz
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 1966
Place of death Hamburg