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Dietrich Kraiss
__NOTOC__ Dietrich Kraiss (16 November 1889 – 6 August 1944) was a German general during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves of Nazi Germany. Military career World War I On 24 March 1909 Kraiss was commissioned into the Kingdom of Württemberg’s 8th infantry regiment "Grand Duke Friedrich of Baden", No. 126 a. Serving with this regiment, he commanded a platoon and then a company in the First World War on the Western Front. On June 18, 1915, he was promoted to First Lieutenant and on July 15, 1918 ''Hauptmann'' (Captain). For his services during the war, Kraiss was awarded the 1st and 2nd classes of the Iron Cross, the House Order of Hohenzollern with swords, the Order of the Zähringer Lion Knight Second Class, the Military Merit Order of Württemberg and the Wound Badge in black. Inter-war years After the war, Kraiss was a company commander in various infantry regiments in the Reichswehr. From 1925 to 1928 he served as a ...
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Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Swabian Jura and the Black Forest. Stuttgart has a population of 635,911, making it the sixth largest city in Germany. 2.8 million people live in the city's administrative region and 5.3 million people in its metropolitan area, making it the fourth largest metropolitan area in Germany. The city and metropolitan area are consistently ranked among the top 20 European metropolitan areas by GDP; Mercer listed Stuttgart as 21st on its 2015 list of cities by quality of living; innovation agency 2thinknow ranked the city 24th globally out of 442 cities in its Innovation Cities Index; and the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked the city as a Beta-status global city in their 2020 survey. Stuttgart was one of the host cities ...
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First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific Ocean, Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in Genocides in history (World War I through World War II), genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the Spanish flu, 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war. Prior to 1914, the European great powers were divided between the Triple Entente (comprising French Third Republic, France, Russia, and British Empire, Britain) and the Triple A ...
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Oberst
''Oberst'' () is a senior field officer rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and Norway. The Swedish rank ''överste'' is a direct translation, as are the Finnish rank ''eversti'' and the Icelandic rank ''ofursti''. History and origins is a German word. Spelled with a capital O, "" is a noun and defines the military rank of colonel or group captain. Spelled with a lower case o, or "", it is an adjective, meaning "top, topmost, uppermost, highest, chief, head, first, principal, or supreme". Both usages derive from the superlative of , "the upper" or "the uppermost". As a family name, ''Oberst'' is common in the southwest of Germany, in the area known as the Black Forest ('' Schwarzwald''). The name is also concentrated in the north-central cantons of Switzerland (Aargau & Zürich). Here the Swiss version of ''Oberst'' is spelled ''Obri ...
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Oberstleutnant
() is a senior field officer rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to Lieutenant colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and Norway. The Swedish rank is a direct translation, as is the Finnish rank . Austria Austria's armed forces, the ''Bundesheer'', uses the rank Oberstleutnant as its sixth-highest officer rank. Like in Germany and Switzerland, Oberstleutnants are above Majors and below Obersts. The term also finds usage with the Austrian Bundespolizei (federal police force) and Justizwache (prison guards corps). These two organizations are civilian in nature, but their ranks are nonetheless structured in a military fashion. Belgium File:Army-BEL-OF-04.svg, nl-BE, Luitenant-kolonelgerman: Oberstleutnant Denmark The Danish rank of is based around the German term. Ranked OF-4 within NATO and having the paygrade of M401, it is used in the Royal Danish Army and th ...
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Ministry Of The Reichswehr
The Ministry of the Reichswehr or Reich Ministry of Defence (german: Reichswehrministerium) was the defence ministry of the Weimar Republic and the early Third Reich. The 1919 Weimar Constitution provided for a unified, national ministry of defence to coordinate the new ''Reichswehr'', and that ministry was set up in October 1919, from the existing Prussian War Ministry and '' Reichsmarineamt''. It was based in the Bendlerblock building. The ''Wehrgesetz'' (Defence Law) of 21 May 1935 RGBl I, S. 609 / FaksimilWehrgesetz/ref> renamed it the Reich Ministry of War (german: Reichskriegsministerium), which was then abolished in 1938 and replaced with the '' Oberkommando der Wehrmacht''. History Within the framework of the ''Gesetz über die Bildung einer vorläufigen Reichswehr'' ("Law on the formation of a provisional national defence force") of March 1919, the ''Reichspräsident'' was commander-in-chief of the armed forces, with the ''Reichswehrminister'' (Reich Minister of Defenc ...
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Major
Major ( commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators, major is one rank above captain, and one rank below lieutenant colonel. It is considered the most junior of the field officer ranks. Background Majors are typically assigned as specialised executive or operations officers for battalion-sized units of 300 to 1,200 soldiers while in some nations, like Germany, majors are often in command of a company. When used in hyphenated or combined fashion, the term can also imply seniority at other levels of rank, including ''general-major'' or ''major general'', denoting a low-level general officer, and '' sergeant major'', denoting the most senior non-commissioned officer (NCO) of a military unit. The term ''major'' can also be used with a hyphen to denote the leader of a military band suc ...
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Reichswehr
''Reichswehr'' () was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first years of the Third Reich. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army () was dissolved in order to be reshaped into a peacetime army. From it a provisional Reichswehr was formed in March 1919. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the rebuilt German army was subject to severe limitations in size and armament. The official formation of the Reichswehr took place on 1 January 1921 after the limitations had been met. The German armed forces kept the name 'Reichswehr' until Adolf Hitler's 1935 proclamation of the "restoration of military sovereignty", at which point it became part of the new . Although ostensibly apolitical, the Reichswehr acted as a state within a state, and its leadership was an important political power factor in the Weimar Republic. The Reichswehr sometimes supported the democratic government, as it did in the Ebert ...
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Wound Badge
The Wound Badge (german: Verwundetenabzeichen) was a German military decoration first promulgated by Wilhelm II, German Emperor on 3 March 1918, which was first awarded to soldiers of the German Army who were wounded during World War I. Between the world wars, it was awarded to members of the German armed forces who fought on the Nationalist side of the Spanish Civil War, 1938–39, and received combat related wounds. It was awarded to members in the '' Reichswehr'', the Wehrmacht, SS and the auxiliary service organizations during World War II. After March 1943, due to the increasing number of Allied bombings, it was also awarded to civilians wounded in air raids. It was awarded when the wound was the result of enemy hostile action. In 1957, the West German government authorized a denazified ( Swastika removed) version of the basic (black, silver, & gold) badges for wear on the Bundeswehr uniform, among other certain Nazi-era wartime awards. Classes The badge had three classe ...
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Military Merit Order (Württemberg)
The Military Merit Order (''Militärverdienstorden'') was a military order of the Kingdom of Württemberg, which joined the German Empire in 1871. The order was one of the older military orders of the states of the German Empire. It was founded on 11 February 1759 by Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg as the ''Militär-Carls-Orden'', and was renamed the ''Militärverdienstorden'' on 11 November 1806 by King Friedrich I. The order underwent several more revisions over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It became obsolete with the fall of the Württemberg monarchy in the wake of Germany's defeat in World War I. Classes The order came in three classes: * Grand Cross (''Großkreuz'') * Commander's Cross (''Kommandeurkreuz'') and * Knight's Cross (''Ritterkreuz''). Generally, the rank of the recipient determined which grade he would receive. Between 1799 and 1919, there were an estimated 95 awards of the Grand Cross, 214 of the Commander's Cross, and 3,128 of the Kni ...
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Order Of The Zähringer Lion
The Order of the Zähringer Lion was instituted on 26 December 1812 by Karl, Grand Duke of Baden , house = Zähringen , father = Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden , mother = Landgravine Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt , birth_date = , birth_place = Karlsruhe , death_date = , death_place = Karlsruhe , bur ..., in memory of the Dukes of Zähringen from whom he was descended. Classes It had five classes: *Grand Cross *Commander, First Class *Commander, Second Class *Knight, First Class *Knight, Second Class Insignia The order's insignia consists of a green enameled cross with four arms of equal length, whose angles are filled out with golden clasps. The gold-edged medallion shows the tribal symbol of the Zähringers in coloured enamel. Around the circle is the order's motto, ''FÜR EHRE UND WAHRHEIT'' (German for "FOR HONOUR AND TRUTH"). On the back, the Zähringer lion is portrayed on a red background. The order's ribbon is green with ...
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House Order Of Hohenzollern
The House Order of Hohenzollern (german: Hausorden von Hohenzollern or ') was a dynastic order of knighthood of the House of Hohenzollern awarded to military commissioned officers and civilians of comparable status. Associated with the various versions of the order were crosses and medals which could be awarded to lower-ranking soldiers and civilians. History The House Order of Hohenzollern was instituted on 5 December 1841, by joint decree of Prince Konstantin of and Prince Karl Anton of . These two principalities in southern Germany were Catholic collateral lines of the House of Hohenzollern, cousins to the Protestant ruling house of Prussia. On 23 August 1851, after the two principalities had been annexed by Prussia, the order was adopted by the Prussian branch of the house. Also, although the two principalities had become an administrative region of the Prussian kingdom, the princely lines continued to award the order as a house order. The Prussian version was then known ...
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Iron Cross
The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia established it on 17 March 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars (EK 1813). The award was backdated to the birthday (10 March) of his late wife, Queen Louise. Louise was the first person to receive this decoration (posthumously). Recommissioned Iron Cross was also awarded during the Franco-Prussian War (EK 1870), World War I (EK 1914), and World War II (EK 1939). During the 1930s and World War II, the Nazi regime superimposed a swastika on the traditional medal. The Iron Cross was usually a military decoration only, though there were instances awarded to civilians for performing military functions, including Hanna Reitsch, who received the Iron Cross, 2nd class, and Iron Cross, 1st Class, and Melitta Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg, who receiv ...
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