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Felix Steiner | |
|---|---|
 Steiner in 1942 as SS-Gruppenführer | |
| Birth name | Felix Martin Julius Steiner |
| Born | 23 May 1896 Stallupönen, German Empire (now Nesterov, Russia) |
| Died | 12 May 1966 (aged 69) Munich, West Germany |
| Allegiance |  German Empire Weimar Republic |
| Service | |
| Years of service | 1914-18 1921-33 |
| Rank | Major |
| Unit | 41st Infantry Regiment |
| Battles / wars | World War I |
| Other work | Founding member of HIAG, Waffen-SS lobby group |
| Freikorps and SS career | |
| Allegiance | Weimar Republic Nazi Germany |
| Service | Freikorps SA, SS, Waffen-SS |
| Years of service | 1919-20 1933-45 |
| Rank | SS-Obergruppenführer |
| Service number | NSDAP #4,264,295 SS #253,351 |
| Commands | SS Division Das Reich SS Division Wiking III SS Panzer Corps Kampfgruppen Steiner |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
| Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords |
Felix Martin Julius Steiner (23 May 1896 – 12 May 1966) was a German SS commander during the Nazi era. During World War II, he served in the Waffen-SS, the combat branch of the SS, and commanded several SS divisions and corps. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. Together with Paul Hausser, he contributed significantly to the development and transformation of the Waffen-SS into a combat force made up of volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and un-occupied lands.[1][2]
Steiner was chosen by Heinrich Himmler to oversee the creation of and then command the SS Division Wiking. In 1943, he was promoted to the command of the III SS Panzer Corps. On 28 January 1945, Steiner was placed in command of the 11th SS Panzer Army, which formed part of a new Army Group Vistula, an ad-hoc formation to defend Berlin from the Soviet armies advancing from the Vistula River.
On 21 April 1945, during the Battle for Berlin, Steiner was placed in command of Army Detachment Steiner, with which Adolf Hitler ordered Steiner to envelop the 1st Belorussian Front through a pincer movement, advancing from the north of the city.[3] However, as his unit was outnumbered ten to one, Steiner made it clear that he did not have the capacity for a counter-attack on 22 April during the daily situation conference in the Führerbunker.[3][4]
After the capitulation of Germany, Steiner was imprisoned and investigated for war crimes. He faced charges at the Nuremberg Trials, but they were dropped and he was released in 1948. In 1953, Steiner was recruited by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to found the Gesellschaft für Wehrkunde ("Society for Defense Studies"), composed of former German military officers, as a propaganda tool and a military think tank for the rearmament of West Germany.
Along with other former high-ranking Waffen-SS personnel, Steiner was a founding member of HIAG, a lobby group of negationistic apologists formed in 1951 to campaign for the legal, economic and historical rehabilitation of the Waffen-SS. He died in 1966.
- ^ Bender & Taylor 1971, p. 23.
- ^ Stein 1984, pp. xxiv, xxv, 150, 153.
- ^ a b Beevor 2002, pp. 310–312
- ^ Ziemke 1968, p. 89.