Georg-Hans Reinhardt (1 March 1887 – 23 November 1963) was a German general of the ''

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

'' during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, who was subsequently convicted of war crimes. He commanded the

3rd Panzer Army The 3rd Panzer Army () was a German armoured formation during World War II, formed from the 3rd Panzer Group on 1 January 1942. 3rd Panzer Group The 3rd Panzer Group () was formed on 16 November 1940. It was a constituent part of Army Grou ...

from 1941 to 1944, and

Army Group Centre Army Group Centre () was the name of two distinct strategic German Army Groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created during the planning of Operation Barbarossa, Germany's invasion of the So ...

in 1944 and 1945, reaching the rank of colonel general (

Generaloberst A ("colonel general") was the second-highest general officer rank in the German '' Reichswehr'' and ''Wehrmacht'', the Austro-Hungarian Common Army, the East German National People's Army and in their respective police services. The rank w ...

). Following the war, Reinhardt was tried in the

High Command Trial The High Command Trial (officially, ''The United States of America vs. Wilhelm von Leeb, et al.''), also known initially as Case No. 12 (the 13 Generals' Trial),Web Genocide Documentation Centre (the 13 Generals' trial); euRathlon, UWE Bristol. an ...

, as part of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials. He was found guilty of war crimes and

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...

and sentenced to 15 years. He was released in 1952.

World War II

Born in 1887, Reinhardt fought during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. He commanded the 4th Panzer Division during the

Invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

in September 1939. In the 1940

Battle of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...

, Reinhardt commanded the

XXXXI Panzer Corps XXXXI Panzer Corps (also written as: XLI Panzer Corps) was a Panzer (armoured) corps in the German German Army (Wehrmacht), Army during World War II. Operational history The corps was originally formed, as the XXXXI Corps, on 5 February 1940 in ...

Operation Barbarossa

In 1941, Reinhardt and XLI Panzer Corps were deployed on the Eastern Front for

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...

, the invasion of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in June. In late June Reinhardt's Corps defeated the Soviet 3rd Mechanised & 12th Mechanised Corps in the Battle of Raseiniai and destroyed over 700 Soviet tanks. His force led the advance of

Army Group North Army Group North () was the name of three separate army groups of the Wehrmacht during World War II. Its rear area operations were organized by the Army Group North Rear Area. The first Army Group North was deployed during the invasion of Pol ...

to the outskirts of

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

in October. As did all German corps on the Eastern Front, Reinhardt's corps implemented the criminal

Commissar Order The Commissar Order () was an order issued by the German High Command ( OKW) on 6 June 1941 before Operation Barbarossa. Its official name was Guidelines for the Treatment of Political Commissars (''Richtlinien für die Behandlung politischer Ko ...

. According to reports from subordinate units, the order was carried out on a widespread basis. On October 5 Reinhardt was given command of the

and took part in

Operation Typhoon The Battle of Moscow was a military campaign that consisted of two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II, between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated H ...

, the advance towards Moscow. After the German defeat in the

Battle of Moscow The Battle of Moscow was a military campaign that consisted of two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II, between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated H ...

, his army was driven back by Soviet counter-attack during the winter of 1941−42. Troops under Reinhardt's command implemented the OKH policy of "liquidating" mentally infirm; in December 1941 they murdered ten mental patients in the Russian city of Kalinin, on the pretext that they posed a security threat.

Security warfare

From early 1942 until June 1944, the 3rd Panzer Army operated around

Vitebsk Vitebsk or Vitsyebsk (, ; , ; ) is a city in northern Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Vitebsk Region and Vitebsk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it has 358,927 inhabitants, m ...

and

Smolensk Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest cities in Russia. It has been a regional capital for most of ...

. In the course of rear-security operations in the area, troops under Reinhardt command destroyed entire communities. A report of February 1943 stated:

In order to keep bandits from resettling in this territory, the population of villages and farms in this area were killed without exception to the last baby. All homes were burned down.

The army engaged in deportations of civilians to concentration camps. Between September and December 1943, nearly 4,000 civilians were deported from Vitebsk and surrounding areas, because they were suspected of helping "bandits" (quotation marks in the original). The action was conducted in cooperation with units of the '' SD''; civilians, including women and children, were deported to

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

, where they died from starvation and maltreatment or were later gassed. In June 1944, during

Operation Bagration Operation Bagration () was the codename for the 1944 Soviet Byelorussian strategic offensive operation (), a military campaign fought between 22 June and 19 August 1944 in Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Byelorussia in the Eastern ...

, the Third Panzer and the rest of Army Group Centre were shattered by the Red Army and driven back into Poland and

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

. On 16 August 1944, Reinhardt was given command of Army Group Centre. In December, renewed Soviet attacks drove Army Group Centre out of Poland into northern Prussia. Reinhardt was retired from active duty in January 1945.

Trial and conviction

Hans Reinhardt - DPLA - f287ca56d252894b1f320387dfdb6451

In June 1945, Reinhardt was captured by the

Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling, and in 1950 it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terr ...

. In 1948, he was tried in the

, as part of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials. Reinhardt was found guilty of

war crimes A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hos ...

and

, including murder and mis-treatment of Soviet prisoners of war, and of murder, deportation, and hostage-taking of civilians in occupied countries. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, and served time in the

Landsberg Prison Landsberg Prison is a prison in the town of Landsberg am Lech in the southwest of the German state of Bavaria, about west-southwest of Munich and south of Augsburg. It is best known as the prison where Adolf Hitler was held in 1924, after the ...

. His sentence was reviewed in January 1951, with no changes. Reinhardt was released in 1952 on compassionate grounds. From 1954 Reinhardt served as president of the ''Gesellschaft für Wehrkunde'' (Society for Military Science), present-day ' (Society for Security Policy). He was awarded the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

in 1962.

Awards

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire (1871–1918), and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). The design, a black cross pattée with a white or silver outline, was derived from the in ...

(1914) 2nd Class (14 September 1914) & 1st Class (8 August 1915)Thomas 1998, p. 193. *

Clasp to the Iron Cross Clasp, clasper or CLASP may refer to: * Book clasp, fastener for a book cover * Folding clasp, a device used to close a watch strap * Lobster clasp, fastener for jewellery * Wrist clasp, a dressing accessory * Medal bar, an element in militar ...

(1939) 2nd Class (21 September 1939) & 1st Class (2 October 1939) *

Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (), or simply the Knight's Cross (), and its variants, were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. While it was order of precedence, lower in preceden ...

** Knight's Cross on 27 October 1939 as ''

Generalleutnant () is the German-language variant of lieutenant general, used in some German speaking countries. Austria Generalleutnant is the second highest general officer rank in the Austrian Armed Forces (''Bundesheer''), roughly equivalent to the NATO ...

'' and commander of 4. Panzer-DivisionScherzer 2007, p. 620. ** Oak Leaves on 17 February 1942 as ''

General der Panzertruppe ''General der Panzertruppe'' () was a General of the branch rank of the German Army (1935–1945), German Army, introduced in 1935. A ''General der Panzertruppe'' was a lieutenant general, above major general (''Generalleutnant''), commanding a ...

'' and commander of 3. Panzergruppe ** Swords on 26 May 1944 as ''

'' and commander of 3. Panzer-Armee * Great Cross of Merit (24 November 1962)

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Reinhardt, Georg-Hans 1887 births 1963 deaths German Army generals of World War II Colonel generals of the German Army (Wehrmacht) Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords German people convicted of war crimes German people convicted of crimes against humanity Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany People convicted by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals Recipients of the clasp to the Iron Cross, 1st class People from Bautzen Military personnel from Saxony