Famous German Soldiers

German army officer Claus von Stauffenberg, a significant figure of the German Resistance Movement within the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany, attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler in July 1944, but failed. He was executed by a firing squad soon after Operation Valkyrie. He had earlier actively participated in World War II.

Remembered as the most successful fighter pilot in the history of aerial warfare, Erich Hartmann completed 1,400 missions in his Messerschmitt Bf 109 and shot down 352 Allied planes. Known for his dogfighting strategy, he inspired the popular biography The Blond Knight of Germany and became a flight instructor post-retirement.

Nazi World War II pilot Hans-Ulrich Rudel hated academics but loved skiing as a young man. He is believed to have destroyed 519 Soviet tanks and even got a leg amputated. Post-war, he went to Argentina briefly, wrote books, and also became an entrepreneur after returning to Germany.

Helmuth von Moltke the Younger was a German military officer who served as a general. Moltke the Younger became the Chief of the German General Staff and led the German Army between 1906 and 1914. His influence on Germany's decision to enter World War I has tarnished his legacy. The failure of his Schlieffen Plan has also earned him criticisms.

Karl Wolff was a German SS official during World War II. By the end of the war, Wolff was serving as the Supreme SS and Police Leader in Italy, where he played a major role in bringing the war to an end sooner than in the rest of Europe. Wolff was prosecuted in 1962 for the deportation of Italian Jews.

Remembered for his aerial battles during the North African Campaign, Hans-Joachim Marseille was a German Luftwaffe fighter pilot and a flying ace, who claimed a total of 158 victories, out of which 151 victories were against the British Commonwealth's Desert Air Force. Nicknamed Star of Africa, he is also credited with shooting down seventeen Allied fighters in a single day.

SS captain Erich Priebke made headlines when he was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing 335 boys and men in groups of 5, at the Ardeatine Caves in Italy. He eventually died of old age in house arrest at age 100, and was the oldest surviving Nazi war criminal back then.

Remembered as one of the most successful tank commanders of World War II, Kurt Knispel demolished at least 168 tanks. The German Tiger commander, who died of a shrapnel injury, is often compared to fellow commander Otto Carius. He was honored with a German Cross in Gold.

German general Friedrich Olbricht was part of the First World War but is best remembered for his association with the July Plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Eventually arrested for the conspiracy, he and the other plotters were executed, and Olbricht was the first to be shot.

Günther Rall was a German military aviator and General whose career spanned almost four decades. In 1938, Rall became a fighter pilot and went on to become one of the most successful fighter pilots in the history of aviation. Over the course of his illustrious career, Rall was honored with several awards like the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

Dietrich von Choltitz, the last commander of Nazi-occupied Paris, is best remembered for disobeying Adolf Hitler’s orders of burning Paris down, an action that earned him the nickname of the Savior of Paris. His many awards include the Knight's Cross and the German Cross. His exploits inspired the film Is Paris Burning?

A West German military leader of the post WWII period, General Hans Speidel is best remembered for his contributions to German rearmament and integration into NATO. The only leading member of the 20 July Plot to survive the war, he later played an important role in the international defense cooperation, eventually being appointed Commander of Allied Land Forces Central Europe.

Heinz Hitler was a German Unteroffizier who served between 1939 and 1942 in the unified armed forces of Germany, Bundeswehr. Heinz belonged to the infamous Hitler family and was widely regarded as Adolf Hitler's favorite nephew. An ardent supporter of the Nazis, Heinz Hitler joined the Wehrmacht, the armed forces of Nazi Germany, at the dawn of World War II.

Lothar von Richthofen was a German flying ace who served during the First World War. He was the younger brother of another aviator Manfred von Richthofen, whose life inspired the 2008 German-British biopic The Red Baron where Lothar von Richthofen was played by German actor Volker Bruch. Richthofen died in a flying accident when he was just 27 years old.

Nazi commander Kurt Meyer, also known as Panzermeyer, is remembered for his atrocities, especially the mass murder of the Canadian POWs in Normandy. He was sentenced to death as a war criminal, but his sentence was later commuted and he was eventually released from jail.

Heinrich Severloh was a German soldier who achieved notoriety in 2000 when a memoir titled WN 62 – Erinnerungen an Omaha Beach Normandie, 6. Juni 1944 was published. The book claims that Severloh gunned down more than 1,000 American soldiers on Omaha Beach on D-Day. At the end of the war, Heinrich Severloh was held as a prisoner of war. 

Hans Langsdorff was a German naval officer best remembered for commanding the Admiral Graf Spee, a heavily armed cruiser, which was nicknamed pocket battleship by the British. The legendary ship played a key role in the Spanish Civil War where it conducted five non-intervention patrols.

Known as Adolf Hitler’s favorite spy, Reinhard Gehlen led the Wehrmacht military intelligence during World War II. Following the war, he surrendered to the Allies and then joined hands with the CIA to form Germany’s modern spy service consisting of countless former Nazis and war criminals.

Gerhard Barkhorn was a German military aviator who served as the wing commander in the Luftwaffe during World War II. He was a fighter ace and is counted among the most successful fighter pilot of all time, with over 300 victories. He received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords for his outstanding achievements.

Known as Albert Dussel in Anne Frank’s diary, Fritz Pfeffer was a successful Jewish dentist who had hid along with Anne Frank and her family in the Secret Annex during the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands. Initially deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, he later died at the Neuengamme concentration camp.

Surprisingly German soldier Werner Goldberg was half-Jewish. Associated with the Nazi German army, he was part of World War II and was tagged The Ideal German Soldier. The Nazis considered him Aryan and not Jewish since his mother was non-Jewish. Following the war, he served as a politician.

Heinz Linge went from being a bricklayer to a Schutzstaffel official. He joined Adolf Hitler’s household staff, as his valet. Stationed at the Führerbunker with Hitler during the fall of the Nazis, he was eventually tasked with cremating Hitler’s body. Captured by the Red Army, he later penned a memoir.

Julius Schreck was a senior Nazi official who served in World War I. A close confidant of Adolf Hitler, Schreck is credited with co-founding the Sturmabteilung, Nazi Party's original paramilitary wing. He also played an active role in the development of Sturmabteilung. Julius Schreck was honored with a state funeral after his demise in 1936.

Christian Wirth was a German military officer and leading Holocaust perpetrator. Wirth was one of the chief architects of Operation Reinhard, a program to exterminate the Jews in Poland. After the end of Operation Reinhard, Christian Wirth was murdered by Yugoslav Partisans.

Adolf Heusinger was a German military officer. A respected officer, Heusinger served as the general for West Germany from 1957 to 1961. From 1961 to 1964, Adolf Heusinger served as the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee.

Maximilian von Weichs was a German field marshal during World War II. Joining the military as a youngster, he fought in World War I. He was a senior army officer when World War II broke out and commanded the army during the invasions of France, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union. He was implicated in war crimes but was never sentenced.  

Tessy Antony de Nassau is a Luxembourgish non-profit executive and businesswoman. She was formerly married to Prince Louis of Luxembourg and was one of the most important members of the Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg. For her humanitarian work, Tessy was honored with the Mrongovius Medal in 2016. A multi-talented personality, Tessy practices spinning, scuba diving, swimming, skiing, and hunting.

Hans Baur was a German military officer and aviator. He served as Adolf Hitler's pilot in the early 1930s when Hitler became the world's first politician to use flight as part of his political campaigns. Baur was later appointed as Adolf Hitler's personal pilot. At the end of the war, Hans Baur was imprisoned in the USSR and France.

Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock was a German submarine commander who served in Nazi Germany's navy Kriegsmarine during World War II. Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock played an important role in the Battle of the Atlantic where he was one of the most successful U-boat commanders against the Allies. In 1941, he was honored with the prestigious Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves.

Best known for leading the mass killing of Jews at the Treblinka extermination camp, psychiatrist Irmfried Eberl was eventually dismissed from his post because of his inefficiency in disposing of the bodies and thus causing a cremation backlog. Following the war, he hanged himself before being tried for his crimes.

Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff was an officer in the German Army who participated in a failed assassination plot against Hitler. He was one of the few German military anti-Hitler plotters who were able to escape alive. After the war, he worked in the US Army Historical Division and dedicated his later life to charity. 

Kurt Franz was a German SS officer. Franz was one of the most influential personalities in the Treblinka extermination camp, where he served as one of the commanders. A major perpetrator of genocide, Kurt Franz also played an important role during the Holocaust. Although he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1965, Kurt Franz was granted release in 1993.