General der Luftwaffe

General der Luftwaffe
(General of the air force)

collar patches

Rank insignia of the Luftwaffe

General der Luftwaffe (en: General of the air force) was a General of the branch rank of the Deutsche Luftwaffe (en: German Air Force) in Nazi Germany. Until the end of WW2 in 1945, this particular general officer rank was on three-star level (OF-8), equivalent to a US Lieutenant general.

The General of the branch ranks of the Luftwaffe were in 1945:

• General of parachute troops
• General of the anti-aircraft artillery
• General of the aviators
• General of air force communications troops
• General der Luftwaffe / General of the air force

The rank was equivalent to the General of the branch ranks of the Heer (Army) as follows:

Heer

• General of artillery
• General of mountain troops
• General of infantry
• General of cavalry
• General of the communications troops
• General of panzer troops (armoured troops)
• General of engineers
• General of the medical corps
• General of the veterinary corps

junior Rank Generalleutnant

(German officer rank) General der Luftwaffe

senior Rank Generaloberst

Other services

The rank was also equivalent to the German three-star ranks:

• Admiral of the Kriegsmarine, equivalent to (US Vice admiral) and
• SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS in the Waffen-SS.

Officers in this rank

Name	Dates of life	Promotion	Remark
Wilhelm Schubert	1879–1972	July 1, 1942	Expert of war economy and armament
Walther Wecke	1885–1943	December 1, 1942	First commanding officer of the Hermann Görings police Stabswache

See also

• General of the branch
• Military ranks of the Luftwaffe (1935–45)

Literature

• Reinhard Stumpf: Die Wehrmacht-Elite - Rang und Herkunftsstruktur der deutschen Generale und Admirale 1933–1945, Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard/Rhein 1982. ISBN 3-7646-1815-9
• Karl Friedrich Hildebrandt: Die Generale der Luftwaffe 1935–1945 (3 Bde.), Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1991. ISBN 376481701-1