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Felix Martin Julius Steiner (23 May 1896 – 12 May 1966) was a German officer, who became ''Obergruppenführer'' of the ''Schutzstaffel'', General of the ''Waffen-SS'', and a member of the Nazi Party of Nazi Germany. He served in both World War I and World War II and was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. He contributed significantly, together with Paul Hausser, to the development and transformation of the Waffen-SS, as an armed wing of the Nazi Party's Schutzstaffel, into a multi-ethnic and multinational military force of Nazi Germany. Steiner was chosen by Heinrich Himmler to oversee the creation of, and command an elite Panzer division, the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking. In 1943, he was promoted to the command of the III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps. On 28 January 1945, Steiner was placed in command of the 11th SS Panzer Army, which formed part of a new ad-hoc formation to protect Berlin from the Soviet armies advancing from the Vistula River. On 21 April, during the Battle for Berlin, Steiner was placed in command of Army Detachment Steiner, while Adolf Hitler ordered Steiner to envelop the 1st Belorussian Front through a pincer movement, advancing from the North of the city.〔 However, as his worn out and exhausted unit was outnumbered by ten to one, Steiner made it clear that he did not have the capacity for a counter-attack.〔.〕 It resulted in Hitler falling into a tearful rage on 22 April during the daily situation conference in the Führerbunker.〔Ziemke p. 89〕 After the capitulation of Germany, Steiner was imprisoned and indicted as part of the Nuremberg Trials. However, he was cleared of all charges of war crimes and released in 1948. He continued to live in Germany, wrote several books, and participated in organising support for former Waffen-SS members. He died in 1966. ==Early life and World War I== Felix Martin Julius Steiner was born on 23 May 1896 in Stallupönen, East Prussia. In 1914, on the eve of war, Steiner joined the Royal Prussian Army as a cadet in an infantry regiment. During the course of the war, he was severely wounded and was awarded the Iron Cross first and second class. At the end of the war he had attained the rank of Oberleutnant. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Felix Steiner」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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