Sepp Dietrich

Youth

His/her father being hotel, Dietrich is intended initially for a career in the restoration. It gives up it to engage, in 1911, with the 4th royal regiment Bavarian of artillery with Augsburg.

In 1914, it leaves on the face with 6régiment the royal Bavarian one artillery, but request to be transferred to the 8th royal regiment Bavarian of infantry. Dissatisfied, it is made transfer to the 13th battalion Bavarian of Blindé S of attack. It finishes the First World War as adjudant with the Croix of iron of 1st and 2nd class and the money badge of the armoured tanks. Demobilized, it joined the irregular forces at once: with the Freikorps Oberland, it fights the Polish in High-Silesia in 1920, like Kurt Daluege, the future one ordering Ordnungspolizei .

S and Waffen-SS

Political soldier

Returned with the civil life, there is tested with many trades while remaining member of the Freikorps, transformation of this body into league (of '' Bund ''). Without belonging formally to NSDAP, it takes part in the attempt at putsch missed of the November 9th 1923. For this reason, it can be regarded as a Nazi of the first hour. For Hitler, it belongs to the restricted circle of '' Kampfgenossen ''.

It joined officially the Nazi party in 1926, after the lifting of the prohibition of the activities of this one. Its rise within the hierarchy S is particularly fast: the 1 {{er}} August 1928, it is S Sturmbannführer. In 1929, it becomes S Standartenführer and person in charge of the Bavarian S, then S Oberführer in 1930, year when it is elected appointed of Bavaria to the Reichstag, while being bodyguard of Hitler. In 1931, it is promoted S Brigadeführer.

In 1932, it takes the command of the S Begleit-Kommando Der Fürher which gathers the bodyguards of this one and is named Gruppenführer S. After the nomination of Hitler like Chancellor in 1933, Sepp Dietrich receives the order to form a militarized troop, the S Stabwache (guard S of staff), responsible for the protection of the chancellery and embryo of future the Waffen S (S out of weapons). The unit takes the name of Leibstandarte S Adolf Hitler .

The June 30th 1934, it takes part in Bad Wiessee with the Nuit of the Long Knives to the head of the Leibstandarte . It personally orders the firing squads to Berlin and sends to Reinhard Heydrich part of the assassins.

It becomes S Obergruppenführer on July 1st. The March 7th 1936, the Leibstandarte is with the head of the troops which enter in the Rhineland and, in 1938, it takes share with the Anschluss. The Leibstandarte is then integrated into XVIe Army corps armor-plated of the general Guderian.

In Waffen-SS

At the entry in war, on September 1st 1939, the Leibstandarte enters in Poland, Dietrich gains there the Croix of iron of 2nd and 1st class. During the invasion of the Netherlands and France, during which the Leibstandarte assassinates 85 English prisoners with Wormhoudt, Dietrich is always in front of its troops, making the shot like a private. He receives the Croix of knight of the Iron Cross the July 4th 1940. Then it fights in Yugoslavia starting from the April 6th 1941, in Russia as of the June 22nd 1941. January 1st 1942, it receives the sheets of oak; the March 14th 1943, it receives the swords.

It leaves the command of the Leibstandarte, entrusted to the S Oberführer then Brigadeführer Theodor Wisch, for that of the 1st S Panzer Korps which includes/understands: the Leibstandarte, the 12 {{E}} Panzerdivision S Hitlerjugend, 2nd Panzerdivision of Wehrmacht and the 17 {{E}} Division S Götz Von Berlichingen.

It takes part in the Bataille of Normandy in the plain of Caen vis-a-vis the British of Montgomery where it spends most clearly its time in first line, letting its chief of staff deal with tactical management. It is named S Oberstgruppenführer, that is to say general ordering of group of armies the 1944; the August 8th, it adds the brilliances to its cross of knight.

After the defeat in Normandy, Sepp Dietrich is charged to constitute a great reserve armor-plated behind the Ligne Siegfried: it will be 6th Panzer armed, future German spearhead in the Bataille of the Ardennes. At the time of this battle, it has in particular under its orders Kampfgruppe Peiper, person in charge of the Massacre of Baugnez.
At the end of January 1945, Sepp Dietrich receives the order to turn over on the face of the east, in Hungary where it must launch an offensive between the lakes Balaton (to the south) and Velmencze (in north) to join the troops encircled in Budapest. The offensive is a failure and it makes the decision to make move back its troops rather than to see them destroyed.

Thereafter, the commander of 6th Panzerarmee defends Vienna but must move back in front of the Soviet advance.

Post-war period

Sepp Dietrich is made prisoner on May 11th, three days after the capitulation of Reich. In 1946, it is condemned to the prison with perpetuity by the international military Tribunal of Dachau for the massacre of American prisoners of war to Baugnez. Following the questioning of certain phases of the instruction, the American general Lucius Clay reduces his sorrow to twenty years of prison. Released in 1956, into full Cold war, after the movements caused around the lawsuit by the American senator Joseph McCarthy, it immediately is stopped by the German authorities and is condemned to nineteen months of prison in 1957 for its participation in the Nuit of the Long Knives. Definitively slackened in 1959, it dies on April 21st 1966 with Ludwigsburg, 74 years old.

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