Felix Martin Julius Steiner (born 23 May 1896 in Stallupönen, East Prussia, † 12 May 1966 in Munich) was a German officer, last SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS Dermot Bradley: The generals of the Waffen-SS and the police. Volume 5, 2011 Osnabruck, pp. 454-479.

First World War and Post-war

The son of a school teacher announced in March 1914 and was a cadet at the Military Infantry Regiment “von Boyen” (5th East Prussian) # 41 in Tilsit. In this position, he took in August in the First World War. He was seriously wounded (November 1914) and, on 27 January 1915, was promoted to lieutenant. Until 1918, he participated in various campaigns on the Southern Front and the Eastern Front and was, on 10 October 1918, announced to Lieutenant.

In 1919, he entered an East Prussian Volunteer Corps and, in 1921, transferred to the Army, which he left in 1933 with the rank of Major. He then joined the NSDAP (Mitgliedsnr. 4264295) and the SA too. There, he was employed as the “head of the training system” and wrote there, by his own account under a pseudonym, instructions for military training of the SA under a new Wehrmacht. In 1935, Steiner moved from SA to the SS (SS-Nr. 253 351).

SS And Waffen SS Troops Available

In the SS, he was the first in July 1936 as SS-Standartenführer command of a regiment founded shortly before the SS troops available, the SS regiment “Germany.”

In October 1936, Steiner military trainers on the SS Junker School Bad Tolz. There, he met in April 1938 to Cassius Freiherr von Montigny, where the function of a “tactics instructor” exercised similar training views as he represented.

Felix Steinertook his SS regiment Germany with the rank of SS-Standartenführer leader in the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and in the campaigns against Poland in 1939 and France in 1940 in part. For his achievements in the Western movement, he was on 15 August 1940 awarded the Knight’s Cross.

After his promotion to SS brigade leader on 9, Steiner was born on 1 November 1940 and was appointed commander of the SS-Division “Wiking,” which he commanded to the Soviet Union during the attack. On 30 January 1942, he was promoted to SS-group leader and Major General of the Waffen-SS and was christened on 23 December and awarded the Oak Leaves to the Knight’s Cross.

From 21 November 1942 to 2 January 1943, Steiner was the Commanding General of III. Panzer Corps, which includes the SS Division “Wiking” belonged. On 30 March 1943, he assumed command of the newly formed III. (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps. End of October 1944, he had to give the power to illness.

On 10 August 1944, the swords were awarded to the Knight’s Cross. He was well again commander of the 11th Army in Pomerania. End of March 1945, he was appointed commander of the only existing theory, basically “Army Group Steiner,” with which he should relieve the encircled Berlin from the north. However, he omitted the fact that Entsatzoperation is not executable, so his insubordination on 27 April 1945 was relieved of his command. On 3 May 1945, Steiner went on the Elbe in American captivity, from which he was released on 27 April was released in 1948.

Structure Of The Waffen-SS As An Army

Besides, the former Reichswehr General Paul Hausser Steiner was one of the relevant persons involved in the construction of the Waffen-SS. Although the roots of this force ranged already back in the early phase of the Nazi movement, however, began the construction of the SS troops available, such as the Waffen-SS, was the beginning of a real army after the Nazi seizure of power.

But the Waffen-SS was basically a political army that Hitler could create at his disposal. Steiner was the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) with skepticism. In the presence of Sepp Dietrich, Steiner once said at a conference in Munich SS leader mocking the LSSAH: “It is touching, but if the leader realizes how little his blond gods can, then he would release them”

Steiner was one of the few former officers to whom the Reich leadership SS could support the construction of military structures in the Waffen-SS. Here, Steiner was the counterpart to his comrade Hausser, who was arrested by the fixed general staff through the old Prussian army. Due to his experience at the front, Steiner created a completely neu-organized training concept.

The core of the military was no longer large organizations but the shock troops, which allowed much more mobile warfare. In this way, the wars of the grave of the First World War should be avoided. Steiner did not put more on education, as in the Wehrmacht usual, but on sports training and physical fitness.

Postwar

During the Nuremberg trials, the charges against Steiner for crimes against humanity and other similarly worded war crimes were dropped.

In the early 1950s, Steiner was a leading member of the community to help the mutual members of the former Waffen SS (HIAG); in 1953, he was a member of the Presidium of the Federal Junction HIAG. Here, Steiner was just like Paul Hausser and Herbert Otto Gille, opponents of a nationwide organization of HIAG and preferred a typical organization of veterans of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS in the Association of German Soldiers (VdS). About Nov 1955, Steiner left the HIAG in dispute. Previously, he was probably the HIAG total German block/bundle attached to the right-wing Party of the expellees and the disenfranchised (GB / BHE) political party.

In the period following, Steiner wrote several books, in 1958, published in the extreme right-Verlag Plesse The Volunteers Work. In the publication, he tried to glorify the Waffen SS as part of a “voluntary movement” whose roots he counted war volunteers as the Lützow Free Corps, the assault battalion of the First World War, or e Walter Flex.

Army of Outlaws, 1963, also released in Plesse publisher, tried to portray the Waffen SS as victims of arbitrary Revenge of the Allies, whom opportunistic legislation of the Federal Republic had supported. In addition, the Waffen-SS had been “betrayed” by the SS leadership since this would have incorporated the concentration camp guard units in the Waffen-SS.

Thus, these were associated with the Nazi crimes. This responsibility had withdrawn, and Heinrich Himmler committed suicide at the war’s end, according to Steiner. In addition, he also wrote several novels, which often play in the Second World War. According to British intelligence, Steiner wrote as an author for the German soldier's newspaper.

Felix Steiner Awards

• Iron Cross (1914) Class II and I.
• Wound Badge (1918) in Black
• Clasp to the Iron Cross II and First Class
• Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
• Knight’s Cross on 15 August 1940
• Oak 23 December 1942 (159 awards)
• Swords 10 August 1944 (86 awards)
• German Cross in Gold on 22 April 1942
• Medal Winter Battle in the East 1941/42,
• Cross of Liberty I. Class with breast star, Oak Leaves, and Swords
• SS Totenkopf Ring
• Sword of Honor of the Reichsführer-SS
• Mention in the Wehrmacht report on 1 August 1944

Literature Felix Steiner

• Christopher Ailsby. History of the Waffen-SS Tosa-Verlag, Wien 2004, ISBN 3-85001-986-1.
• Mark P. Gingerich: Felix Steiner–Himmler “pronounced favorite child.” In Ronald Smelser, Enrico Syring (ed.): The SS elite under the skull.30 CVs. 2, revised and updated edition. University Press, Darmstadt 2003.
• Gordon Williamson: The SS Hitler’s instrument of power. New edition. Neuer Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2005, ISBN 3-7043-6037-6.
• Juha E. Tetri: Kunniamerkkikirja. 3rd täydennetty painos. Ajatus kustannusosakeyhtiö, Helsinki 1998, ISBN 951-9440-23-2.
• Knut Stang: knight, mercenary, Legionnaire. Militärmythische models in the ideology of the SS Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main and others 2008, ISBN 978-3-631-58022-6.