Years of service January 1900 – 1944 Battles and wars Siege of Leningrad | Battles/wars Siege of Leningrad Rank Generalfeldmarschall | |
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Born 30 May 1881 ( 1881-05-30 ) Allegiance German Empire
Weimar Republic
Nazi Germany Commands held 18th Army
Army Group North Awards Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves Died 25 May 1968, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany Award Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross Similar Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, Maximilian von Weichs, Günther von Kluge, Paul Ludwig Ewald vo, Walther von Reichenau | ||
Georg Karl Friedrich Wilhelm von Küchler (30 May 1881 – 25 May 1968) was a German Field Marshal and war criminal during the Second World War. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves.
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After the end of the war he was tried in the High Command Trial, as part of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials. On 27 October 1948 was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Soviet Union. He was released in 1953.
World War I and interwar years
Born in 1881, Küchler entered the Imperial Army in 1900. He studied at the Prussian Military Academy, before joining the General Staff in Berlin in 1913. During World War I he commanded an artillery battery on the Western Front and then became a staff officer of an infantry division. In 1919 he joined the Freikorps and fought the Red Army in Poland. In 1938 he supported Adolf Hitler in his removal of Werner von Blomberg and Werner von Fritsch from power.
World War II
On the outbreak of World War II, Küchler assumed command of the 3rd Army. During the invasion of Poland, Küchler’s troops captured Danzig. In 1940 he was supportive of Nazi racial policy and ordered on 22 February a halt to any criticism of "ethnic struggle being carried out in the General Government, for instance that of the Polish minorities, of the Jews and those regarding Church matters". His order explained that the "final ethnic solution" required unique and harsh measures.
Küchler was an active supporter of the planned war of annihilation (Vernichtungskrieg) against the Soviet Union. After meeting Hitler in March 1941 to plan for Operation Barbarossa, Küchler told his divisional commanders on 25 April 1941:
"We are separated from Russia, ideologically and racially, by a deep abyss. Russia is, if only by the mass of her territory, an Asian state...The Führer does not wish to palm off responsibility for Germany's existence on to a later generation; he has decided to force the dispute with Russia before the year is out. If Germany wishes to live in peace for generations, safe from a threatening danger in the East, this cannot be a case of pushing Russia back a little-or even hundreds of kilometers-but the aim must be to annihilate European Russia, to dissolve the Russian state in Europe"
Küchler went on to call Red Army commissars "criminals" who should all be shot.
During Operation Barbarossa, the 18th Army forced its way to Ostrov and Pskov after the Soviet troops of the Northwestern Front retreated towards Leningrad. On 10 July 1941, both Ostrov and Pskov were captured and the 18th Army reached Narva and Kingisepp, from where advance toward Leningrad continued from the Luga River line. This had the effect of creating siege positions from the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga, with the eventual aim of isolating Leningrad from all directions.
Küchler was directly involved in the murder of mentally disabled in the occupied Soviet Union. In December 1941, with his express consent, units of the SD shot 240 mental patients.
On 17 January 1942, Küchler succeeded Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb as commander of Army Group North after the latter was relieved of command. Küchler commanded Army Group North from December 1941 through January 1944, maintaining the siege of Leningrad. On 30 June 1942 Hitler promoted Küchler to field marshal (Generalfeldmarschall). Küchler was relieved of command after the Red Army broke the siege in January 1944.
Trial and conviction
At the end of the Second World War, Küchler was arrested by American occupation authorities. He was tried in the High Command Trial, as part of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials. In his testimony regarding the crimes against the Soviet prisoners of war, Küchler admitted that the conditions in the POW camps were harsh, but insisted that the main cause of that was the winter conditions of 1941–42, which he called an "act of God" and insisted that the army exaggerated POW mortality in their reports in an effort to receive more supplies for the prisoners.
On 27 October 1948 Küchler was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Soviet Union. The sentence was reviewed in 1951 and reduced to 12 years. He was released 1953 on medical grounds. Küchler died in 1968.