Rudolf Schmidt

Rudolf Schmidt
Rudolf Schmidt in 1942
Born	12 May 1886 Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died	7 April 1957 (aged 70) Krefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany
Allegiance	German Empire (to 1918)  Weimar Republic (to 1933)  Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Heer
Years of service	1906–45
Rank	Generaloberst
Commands held	1. Panzer-Division XXXIX. Panzerkorps 2. Panzerarmee
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
Relations	Hans-Thilo Schmidt (brother)

Rudolf Schmidt (12 May 1886 – 7 April 1957) was a Panzer General in the German army during World War II who served as the Commander of the 2nd Panzer Army on the Eastern Front. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub). The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. Legally it was Germany's highest military decoration at the time of its presentation to Rudolf Schmidt.^{[Note 1]}

Military career

He joined Infantry Regiment 83 of the German Imperial Army in 1906 as an officer cadet and in World War I he served on the eastern and western fronts and by the end of the war he was a Hauptmann on the General Staff. He was then retained in the Reichswehr where he served as a staff officer and was promoted to Major in 1927 and Oberstleutnant in 1931. On 1 October 1934 he was promoted to Oberst as commander of the 13th Infantry Regiment in Ludwigsburg.

In October 1937 he was promoted to Generalmajor and appointed commander of the 1st Panzer Division in Weimar as the successor to Maximilian von Weichs.

On 1 June 1938 he was promoted to Generalleutnant.

World War II

In 1939 General Schmidt led the 1st Panzer Division in the invasion of Poland.

On 1 February 1940 he was appointed commanding general of the XXXIX Panzer Corps. He led the Corps in France and was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his role in that campaign on 3 June 1940.

He was promoted to General der Panzertruppe and appointed acting commander of the 2nd Army which was involved in the Battle of Moscow.

On 25 December 1941 he was appointed Commander of the 2nd Panzer Army (replacing the sacked General Guderian).

In January 1942 he was promoted to Generaloberst.

Adolf Hitler held Schmidt in high regard, but on 10 April 1943 he was relieved of his command after the Gestapo arrested his brother for spying for the French and found letters that General Schmidt had written in which he was highly critical of Hitler’s conduct of the war and the Nazi Party. He appeared before a court martial but was acquitted and transferred to the leadership reserve on 30 September 1943. He was never re-employed.

His brother Hans-Thilo Schmidt sold details of the Germans' Enigma machine and other sensitive military information to the French Deuxieme Bureau from 1931 until the German invasion of France in 1940.

Postwar

On 16 December 1947 Rudolf Schmidt was captured by Soviet forces at Nordheim on his way to his home in Weimar. Taken to Moscow, he was initially imprisoned at the Vladimir Central Prison and Butyrka prison. In 1952, he was sentenced to 25 years of forced labor by a military tribunal. On 30 September 1955, Schmidt was among the last prisoners to be released. He died on 7 April 1957 in Krefeld.

Awards

• Iron Cross (1914)
  • 2nd Class
  • 1st Class
• Knight's Cross Second Class of the Order of the Zähringer Lion with Swords
• Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918
• Sudetenland Medal with Prague Castle Bar
• Iron Cross (1939)
  • 2nd Class (22 September 1939)^[1]
  • 1st Class (2 October 1939)^[1]
• Eastern Front Medal
• Panzer Badge in Silver
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
  • Knight's Cross on 3 June 1940 as Generalleutnant and commanding general of the XXXIX. Armeekorps (mot.)^[2]
  • 19th Oak Leaves on 10 July 1941 as General der Panzertruppe and commanding general of the XXXIX. Armeekorps (mot.)^[2]

Notes

1. Until late September 1941, the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves was second only to the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross (Großkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes), which was awarded only to senior commanders for winning a major battle or campaign, in the military order of the Third Reich. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves as highest military order was officially surpassed on 28 September 1941 by the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern), however the first presentation of the Swords to Adolf Galland was made prior to this date on 21 June 1941.

References

Citations

1. Thomas 1998, p. 270.
2. Scherzer 2007, p. 671.

Bibliography

• Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986]. 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.
• 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 Miltaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
• 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.

External links

• Rudolf Schmidt career chronology