Georg Keppler (7 May 1894 – 16 June 1966) was a high-ranking

Waffen-SS The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscr ...

commander during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He commanded the SS Division Das Reich, SS Division Totenkopf,

I SS Panzer Corps The I SS Panzer Corps () was a German armoured corps of the ''Waffen-SS''. It saw action on both the Western Front (World War II), Western and Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Fronts during World War II. Formation and training The Corps was ...

III SS Panzer Corps The III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps (''III. (germanisches) SS-Panzerkorps'') was a ''Waffen-SS'' armoured corps which saw action on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front during World War II. The ''(Germanische)'' (lit. Germanic) part of i ...

and the XVIII SS Army Corps.

Career

Georg Keppler joined the army in 1913 and took part in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Between 1920 and 1934, Keppler was a police officer commanding city and state police units. In 1935, he joined the paramilitary force of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

, ''

SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT, ) was formed in 1934 as combat troops for the Nazi Party (NSDAP). On 17 August 1938 Adolf Hitler decreed that the SS-VT was neither a part of the (order police) nor the , but military-trained men at the disposal of the . In time of wa ...

'' (SS-VT), eventually leading a battalion in the ”Deutschland” regiment. In September 1938, after the ''

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

'', Keppler was promoted to command the newly raised “Der Führer” regiment, becoming a component of the SS-Verfügungs Division. Keppler served as Der Führer‘s regimental commander throughout the invasion of France, Balkans Campaign and in

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...

. In August 1940, Keppler was awarded the

Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (), or simply the Knight's Cross (), and its variants, were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. While it was order of precedence, lower in preceden ...

. On 15 July 1941, he took over for injured

Theodor Eicke Theodor Eicke (17 October 1892 – 26 February 1943) was both a senior SS functionary and a Waffen-SS divisional commander in Nazi Germany. He was a key figure in the development of Nazi concentration camps. Eicke served as the second com ...

as a commander of the SS Division Totenkopf. He went on to command the

SS Division Nord The 6th SS Mountain Division Nord () was a World War II mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS, the military wing of the German Nazi Party, primarily consisting of ethnic Germans along with some Norwegian and Swiss volunteers. It was the o ...

and the SS Division Das Reich. From February 1943, Keppler held a number of administrative positions within the

. In August 1944, he was given a field assignment as commander of the

, which he led until October 1944, during the later stages of the

Battle of Normandy Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the N ...

. He then returned to the Eastern Front, where he took over the

III Panzer Corps III Army Corps was a corps level formation of the German Army during World War II. III Army Corps The III Corps was formed in October 1934 as III. Armeekorps. The corps took part in Fall Weiss, the 1939 invasion of Poland as a part of Army Gro ...

. He remained with this unit until 2 April 1945 when he became the last commander of the XVIII SS Army Corps, surrendering the unit to the U.S. Army on 2 May 1945. After the war Keppler was interned; he was released in 1948. Keppler died in 1966.

Decorations

on 15 August 1940 as SS-''

Oberführer __NOTOC__ ''Oberführer'' (short: ''Oberf'', , ) was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) dating back to 1921. An ''Oberführer'' was typically an NSDAP member in charge of a group of paramilitary units in a particular geograph ...

'' and commander of SS-Standarte "Der Führer".

References

Citations

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Keppler, Georg 1894 births 1966 deaths Military personnel from Mainz People from Rhenish Hesse German Army personnel of World War I SS-Obergruppenführer Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross Recipients of the clasp to the Iron Cross, 1st class Prussian Army personnel Waffen-SS personnel German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United States