FELIX STEINER
Any account of the career of Felix Steiner has to consist of more than his service as commander of the 5th SS-Panzer-Division Wiking and subsequently of III SS (German) Panzer Corps. For it was Steiner’s radical approach to methods of training that helped the Waffen-SS become what the historian Gerald Reitlinger described as ‘the most efficient of all the military training systems of the Second World War’. Born on 23 May 1896 in Stalluponen, East Prussia, of an Austrian emigrant family, Steiner went to war in 1914 with the 5th East Prussian Infantry Regiment No 41 Van Boyení and fought at Tannenburg where he was severely wounded. After serving as company leader in a machine-gun battalion, he was engaged in the thick of the fighting in the massive German offensives of Spring 1918, both in Flanders and also in France.
Three years after the armistice, Steiner was back in service, now with the Reichswehr, the post-World War I German Army, where he became adjutant to an infantry regiment with the rank of captain. Promotion followed to the rank of major as a staff member of the Reichswehr’s training command. His interest in radical methods of training sprung from searing experiences in the Kaiser’s war, in which he believed that there had been needless and wanton sacrifice of lives. The opportunity to bring about concrete changes came with the rise of Hitler and the creation of the SS-Verfügungstruppen, which, in its early stages, served as the Führer’s praetorian guard before going on to achieve an increased military complexity.
Steiner’s early role in the Verfügungstruppen was in the development of the 3rd Battalion of the SSRegiment Deutschland which was stationed in Munich and had its training camp at Dachau. Here he applied his military training to the men with the ethos of his own personal motto ‘Sweat saves blood’. Furthermore, he claimed that with Deutschland, ‘a new soldier spirit grew from the beginning’. At first the number of professional soldiers who joined the SS were few and they were disdained by those whose attitude was firmly entrenched in the strictly conservative Prussian tradition. Steiner’s conviction was that the future belonged to small, élite units that would fight independently, harnessing all that modern technology could provide. His decision to do away with barrack-square drill in favour of shorter periods of combat training with live ammunition was at first greeted with derision. But those who opposed Steiner were obliged to change their views with the conversion of Hitler himself to Steiner’s creed. Indeed, Hitler had been totally unaware of how quickly Steiner’s revolutionary style of training had advanced when in 1939 the new tactics were demonstrated by Deutschland at the Munsterlager training area. The Führer had been searching the ground with his binoculars, enquiring when the attack would start. Steiner replied that it had been in progress for 20 minutes. It was at this point that the assault troops appeared, moving forwards rapidly, neither pausing nor allowing themselves to be pinned down by fire. The men, who had covered 3km (1.9 miles) in under 20 minutes, appeared fresh and tireless, ready for close-quarter battle with hand grenades and demolition charges. Furthermore, to assist the speed of their advance, they carried machine pistols rather than rifles. Every bit as delighted as Hitler with the effectiveness of Steiner’s methods of training was Heinrich Himmler, who was keen to secure all credit for himself as Reichsführer-SS. But not everyone was happy about Steiner’s increasing involvement with the Waffen-SS. A note of jealousy can be discerned in the remark of Paul Hausser, the retired Reichswehr officer who had been instructed by Hitler in 1935 to form an officer cadet school after joining the SS the year before. He acidly described Steiner as ‘Himmler’s favourite baby’.