Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch

Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch (12 June 1888 – 29 January 1971) was a German SS and police (Ordnungspolizei) official during the Nazi era, who served on the personal staff of Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS. During World War II, he commanded the SS Division Polizei, VI SS Army Corps (Latvian) and the IX SS Mountain Corps of the Waffen-SS; he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves.

Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch
Pfeffer-Wildenbruch in 1943
Born	(1888-06-12)12 June 1888 Kalkberge, German Empire
Died	29 January 1971(1971-01-29) (aged 82) Bielefeld, West Germany
Allegiance	German Empire  Weimar Republic  Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Imperial German Army Ordnungspolizei Waffen-SS
Years of service	1907–1945
Rank	SS-Obergruppenführer
Unit	4th SS Polizei Division VI SS Army Corps (Latvian) IX SS Mountain Corps
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves

Career

Born in 1888, Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch joined the army in 1907 and served in World War I. He joined the German General Staff, and served as a military attaché to the German military mission in Constantinople and as a staff officer with the 11th Infantry Division. At the end of the war, he remained on the General staff of the ZBV 55 and XXIV reserve corps.^{[citation needed]} In August 1919 Pfeffer-Wildenbruch joined the police service and spent time in the Reich Ministry of the Interior. He became the police commander in Osnabrück and Magdeburg. In 1928 he went to Santiago de Chile, to serve as Chief of the Chilean Carabineros de Chile.^[1]

In June 1933, Pfeffer-Wildenbruch became an Oberstleutnant in the National Police Regiment at Frankfurt an der Oder and from May 1936 he was the Inspector General of Police schools, being promoted to Generalmajor in the Ordnungspolizei (uniformed police) in May 1937. In March 1939 Pfeffer-Wildenbruch joined the SS (No. 292 713) and served on the Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS, command staff of Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS. At the end of 1939, following the invasion of Poland, Pfeffer-Wildenbruch was given command of the 4th SS Polizei Division with the rank of SS-Gruppenführer. After the Battle of France he returned to the staff of the Reichsführer-SS, serving as chief of the colonial police from 1941 to 1943.

In October 1943, Pfeffer-Wildenbruch was appointed commander of the newly formed VI SS Army Corps (Latvian), a paper command over the two Latvian Waffen-SS divisions. He was promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS und Polizei.^[2][3] In December 1944 Pfeffer-Wildenbruch was appointed commander of the IX SS Mountain Corps, stationed in Budapest, Hungary. He was in command of the German forces during the Battle of Budapest from 24 December 1944 to 11 February 1945.^[4] Pfeffer-Wildenbruch was awarded the Knight's Cross on 11 January 1945 and the Oak Leaves on 1 February 1945. During the attempt to break out from Budapest, he was seriously wounded and was taken prisoner by the Soviet forces. On 10 August 1949 he was sentenced to 25 years.^[5] In 1955, he was released together with some 10,000 other prisoners of war and war criminals due to an informal agreement concluded in September 1955 between German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin.^[1] Pfeffer-Wildenbruch was killed in a traffic accident on 29 January 1971 at Bielefeld.^[1]

Awards

• Iron Cross (1914) 1st Class (14 September 1917)^[6]
• Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939) 2nd Class (20 June 1940) & 1st Class (22 June 1940)^[6]
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
  • Knight's Cross on 11 January 1945 as SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS and commanding general of the IX. SS-Gebrigskorps^[7]
  • 723th Oak Leaves on 1 February 1945 as SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS and commanding general of the IX. Waffen-Gebrigskorps of the SS^[8]

Sources

1. Battle for Budapest. By Krisztián Ungváry, Ladislaus Löb, p. 67
2. Latvia in World War II. By Valdis O. Lumans, p. 287
3. Adrian Gilbert (2019): Waffen-SS: Hitler's Army at War
4. Mitcham 2007, p. 234.
5. "Пфеффер-Вильденбрух Карл".
6. Thomas 1998, p. 149.
7. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 337.
8. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 96.

References

• Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000). Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 — The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.
• Mitcham, Samuel W (2007). The German Defeat in the East, 1944–45. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-3371-7.
• Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945. Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Militaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
• Thomas, Franz; Wegmann, Günter (1994). Die Ritterkreuzträger der Deutschen Wehrmacht 1939–1945 Teil VI: Die Gebirgstruppe Band 2: L–Z [The Knight's Cross Bearers of the German Wehrmacht 1939–1945 Part VI: The Mountain Troops Volume 2: L–Z] (in German). Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7648-2430-3.
• Thomas, Franz (1998). Die Eichenlaubträger 1939–1945. Band 2: L–Z [The Oak Leaves Bearers 1939–1945 Volume 2: L–Z] (in German). Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7648-2300-9.