Walter Staudinger (SS member)

Walter Staudinger (born January 24, 1898 in Munich ; † August 31, 1964 there ) was a German SS group leader and lieutenant general of the Waffen SS .

Life

Walter Staudinger's father was the master bookbinder August Staudinger, he had a younger brother named Raimund (1900–1943). In Munich he first attended elementary school and from 1910 the Luitpold-Oberrealschule . During the First World War , in January 1915, he joined the replacement division of the Royal Bavarian 7th Infantry Regiment “Prince Leopold” as a war volunteer , where he received military training for six months. In the summer of 1915 he was transferred to the 10th Bavarian Mountain Battery of the 6th Royal Bavarian Landwehr Division , where he stayed with interruptions until March 1918. Staudinger was deployed on the western and eastern fronts; Among other things, he took part in the Battle of Verdun and the battles for the Red Tower Pass . After an officer training course in the spring of 1918, he was assigned to the replacement division of the Royal Bavarian 9th Field Artillery Regiment , where he experienced the end of the war. In mid-December 1918 he was discharged from the army with the rank of lieutenant in the reserve.

On December 15, 1918, he entered the police force and initially served in the war usury office in Munich. In addition, he worked for the Epp Freikorps in the spring of 1919 and graduated from high school in the same year. During the Kapp Putsch in March 1920, he volunteered in the Reichswehr . From 1920 he worked for the Munich Police Department. The Nazi Party he joined in 1920 and took in November 1923 as a member of the League of Struggle Munich on Hitler putsch in part, why he to the Nazi era with the so-called Blood Order excellent and was as old fighter was. The fact that he only rejoined the party after the National Socialists seized power in early May 1933 (membership number 3.201.960) is due to the fact that a re-entry during the Weimar Republic after the failed coup and the party ban in the meantime would have endangered his police career. After the coup he was temporarily given leave of absence from the police force.

After the seizure of power by the Nazis he was, he worked for two months as a Presidential Secretary in the Munich police headquarters from the beginning of April 1933 and from June 1933 as a police captain in the service position of aide of Chief of Police August Schneidhuber . He then worked in the police service, among other things, as an office and traffic officer and driver on duty. In 1933 he joined the NSV and the Reich Colonial Association .

In November 1934 Staudinger joined the Schutzstaffel (SS No. 242.652) and was transferred to Berlin . There he belonged to the staff of the Reichsführer SS , was briefly adjutant to Heinrich Himmler at the end of 1934 and then in the same function with SD chief Reinhard Heydrich . After he had already taken on tasks as a motor vehicle officer according to the business distribution plans of the Secret State Police Office, Staudinger then headed Department IV (technical department) in the Secret State Police Office Berlin from October 26, 1935 to September 1939 . In this capacity, he was responsible for the motor vehicle, aviation, communications and technical weapons department of the Gestapo headquarters. From August 1936 to September 1939 he also headed Section V9 in the Administration and Law Office of the Main Office of the Security Police . From August to September 1939 he also headed Group K in the command office of the Main Office of the Ordnungspolizei in the SD Main Office .

After the beginning of the Second World War he completed an artillery course and was accepted into the SS disposable troops. From mid-October 1939 he was commander of the II / SS artillery replacement division in Munich and then from April 1940 commander of the IV light artillery division and later of the SS artillery regiment of Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler . From April to June 1943 he was a member of the deployment staff of the I. SS Panzer Corps , where he was deployed as an artillery commander from July 1943 to October 1944. In the meantime, due to a war injury, a hospital stay followed from August to December 1944. From the beginning of October 1944 to May 1945 he was Higher Artillery Commander in the 6th Panzer Army .

Shortly after the end of the war, he was interned in Salzburg on May 11, 1945, and was questioned by members of the Historical Division . During the Malmedy trial he testified for Sepp Dietrich , to whom he was subordinate during the war. After his denazification he was released from the internment hospital in Garmisch at the end of April 1948 . He then moved back to Munich and worked for the Sebastian Schramm company from May to November 1948 . Afterwards he was temporarily out of work.

From 1951 the Gehlen Organization (OG) also collected information about the various soldiers' associations, especially right-wing extremist organizations. Information about former leaders of the Waffen SS was also recorded and evaluated. In a report by the OG from April 1951, Staudinger was classified as prominent representatives of this Nazi organization, along with seven other SS leaders, including Otto Skorzeny , Gunter d'Alquen , Karl Maria Demelhuber , Paul Hausser and Felix Steiner . According to this report, Staudinger was seen as setting the tone in the Munich SS circles, as a representative of Germany's neutrality policy and a sharp critic of “ Speidel , Kielmannsegg and Oster because of their attitude on July 20, 1944 [...]. One also knew to report that Staudinger and his Munich comrades had positioned themselves within the former Waffen-SS circles against Skorzeny and Steiner, but on the more moderate side of Hausser. "

Staudinger, married to Elsa Schmidt since April 1923 and father of two daughters, died at the end of August 1964 as a result of heart failure.

Awards (selection)

Staudinger's ranks in the police and Waffen SS during the Second World War
date	rank
October 1939	SS-Sturmbannführer of the SS disposal force
May 1940	SS-Obersturmbannführer of the Waffen-SS
September 1940	Lieutenant Colonel of the Security Police
January 1941	Standartenführer of the Waffen SS
October 1942	SS Oberführer of the Waffen SS
June 1943	SS Brigadefuhrer and Major General of the Waffen SS
November 1944	SS group leader and lieutenant general of the Waffen SS

Iron Cross 2nd class (1917) with clasp (1940)
Iron Cross 1st Class (1940)
German Cross in Gold (1942)
Star of Romania with swords on the ribbon of the Order of Military Virtue III. Class (Commander's Cross) (1942)
Bulgarian Order of Valor III. Class, 1st level (1942)
Medal Winter Battle in the East 1941/42 (1942)

literature

Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: The generals of the Waffen SS and the police. Volume 5: Schlake-Turner , Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 2011, ISBN 978-3-7648-3209-9 , pp. 444-453.

Individual evidence

^ Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: The Generals of the Waffen-SS and the Police , Bissendorf 2011, p. 446f.
^ Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: The Generals of the Waffen-SS and the Police , Bissendorf 2011, p. 447.
^ Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: The Generals of the Waffen-SS and the Police , Bissendorf 2011, p. 447f.
↑ Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: Die Generale der Waffen-SS and the Police , Bissendorf 2011, p. 448.
^ Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: Die Generale der Waffen-SS and the Police , Bissendorf 2011, p. 448f.
^ Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: The Generals of the Waffen-SS and the Police , Bissendorf 2011, p. 450ff.
^ Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: Die Generale der Waffen-SS and the Police , Bissendorf 2011, p. 452.
↑ Agilolf Keßelring. The Gehlen Organization and the reorganization of the military in the Federal Republic. Christoph Links, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86153-967-4 , pp. 192f.
↑ Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: Die Generale der Waffen-SS and the Police , Bissendorf 2011, pp. 448 and 452.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: Die Generale der Waffen-SS and the Police , Bissendorf 2011, p. 445.

personal data
SURNAME	Staudinger, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German SS group leader and lieutenant general of the Waffen SS
DATE OF BIRTH	January 24, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH	Munich
DATE OF DEATH	August 31, 1964
Place of death	Munich

[1] Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: The Generals of the Waffen-SS and the Police , Bissendorf 2011, p. 446f.

[2] Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: The Generals of the Waffen-SS and the Police , Bissendorf 2011, p. 447.

[3] Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: The Generals of the Waffen-SS and the Police , Bissendorf 2011, p. 447f.

[4] Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: Die Generale der Waffen-SS and the Police , Bissendorf 2011, p. 448.

[5] Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: Die Generale der Waffen-SS and the Police , Bissendorf 2011, p. 448f.

[6] Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: The Generals of the Waffen-SS and the Police , Bissendorf 2011, p. 450ff.

[7] Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: Die Generale der Waffen-SS and the Police , Bissendorf 2011, p. 452.

[8] Agilolf Keßelring. The Gehlen Organization and the reorganization of the military in the Federal Republic. Christoph Links, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86153-967-4 , pp. 192f.

[9] Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: Die Generale der Waffen-SS and the Police , Bissendorf 2011, pp. 448 and 452.

[Schulz/Wegmann/Zinke445-10] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: Die Generale der Waffen-SS and the Police , Bissendorf 2011, p. 445.