Eduard Wolrath Christiaan

Eduard Dietl, born on 21-07-1890 in Bad Aibling, Upper Bavaria, was the son of a Bavarian finance official. In 1909, at his second attempt to join the 5^th Bavarian Infantry Regiment, he entered as an officer cadet. During World War I he served as a company commander with his regiment. In March 1918, he was promoted to Hauptmann. He was wounded four times during his actions in the first world war. He joined the D.A.P, Deutsche Arbeiter Partei, in and Freikorps of Franz Ritter von Epp (see Epp) in 1919. Dietl commanded the German 3^rd Mountain Division that participated in the German invasion of Poland in 1939 and later in Norway, on April 9 and 10, 1940 with Nikolaus von Falkenhorst (see Falkenhorst). The Mountain Divisions had famous commanders like General Ludwig Kübler (see Kübler), General Hans Schlemmer (see Schlemmer), General Carl von Le Suire (see von Le Suire) and  Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner (see Schörner). Most of this division was landed at Narvik by a German naval force of ten destroyers. A convinced Nazi and one of Hitler's (see Adolf Hitler) (did you know) favorite Generals, he was the first German soldier to receive, on 19-06-1940, the oak leaves cluster to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.  Dietl rose to the rank of Generaloberst, commanding the 20^th Mountain Army on the northern Eastern Front, where the results of the German Arctic campaign were disappointing. Dietl was ordered to the Berghof on the Obersalzberg, and on 23-6-1944, the Ju 52 aircraft carrying Dietl, General der Infanterie Thomas-Emil von Wickede, age 51, General der Gebirgstruppe Karl Eglseer, age 53, Generalleutnant Franz Rossi and three other passengers crashed

    in the vicinity of the small village of Rettenegg, Styria, there were no survivors.

       

    Thomas von Wickede.    Karl Eglseer.                  Franz Rossi.        

The last commander of the 20^th Mountain Army was Hermann Hölter (see Hermann Hölter) who surrendered to the Allied forces. Dietl at the age of 53, 23-06-1943, was buried on the Nordfriedhof of Munich close to the grave of the 1923 Putz victim Andreas Bauriedl (see Bauriedl) and Heinrich Hoffmann (see Hoffmann), Hitler’s photographer and his daughter Henriette Schirach-Hoffmann (see Henriette) and (Baldur), Dr. Gustav von Kahr (see Kahr) President of the Bavarian court in 1923 during the Putz and some further the secretary of Hitler, Hitler's former adjutant Max Wünsche (see Wünsche), Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven (see Freytag),   Traudl Junge-Humps (see Junge)+(Hans), the Generals Kuno Fütterer (see Fütterer) and Erich von Botzheim (see Botzheim), Hitler's doctor Ludwig Stumpfegger (see Stumpfegger), Hitler's driver and founder of the SS, Emil Maurice (see Maurice),  the Troost couple (see Paul Troost) and (Gerda) and former Hitler adjutant SS Standartenführer Max Wünsche (see Wünsche).