The biographer who undertakes the portrayal of an important character from the Nazi era faces a problem which requires some self-examination. The enormities of the events, which the Third Reich brought upon the world, strain not only moral sensibilities, but also the intellectual objectivity that is the historian’s duty to bring to his subject.
Recent events, such as the Waldheim controversy, the Barbie trial and the death of Rudolf Hess, show how long is the Nazi shadow, and dispel the temptation to imagine that, after more than forty years of peace in Europe, enough time has passed for passions to cool and for dispassionate analysis to prevail. I certainly make no such supposition, but believe that the reader who embarks on the study of this period will, as his knowledge of it grows, experience these strains of moral outrage versus cool appraisal just as vividly, regardless of whether he belongs to tomorrow’s generation or yesterday’s. Given then that the Nazi spectre will continue to haunt for many years to come, it is better to marshal the evidence while it is still comparatively fresh, than to wait for wounds to heal while it partially evaporates.
Besides, it is not the historian’s duty to temper his tale to the sensibility of his reader, but to tell the truth, however unpalatable it may be. And truth, in the portrayal of Sepp Dietrich, a controversial character who ranked high in the Nazi hierarchy, requires both a strict avoidance of ‘whitewashing’ and ‘black-washing’ alike, and an exclusive attention to provable facts. Certainly it would have been much easier to portray Dietrich as the ‘loud-mouth’ and bully which popular opinion reckons him to have been, than to paint him according to the evidence.
And here Dietrich poses a special difficulty. Most biographers begin with the advantage that their subject has felt obliged to favour posterity with an autobiography, diaries, speeches or papers. With one or two very minor exceptions, Dietrich left none. He himself died over twenty years ago, and his second wife, Ursula, who could probably have thrown much light on her husband, died in 1983. His sons were too young, and saw too little of their father during the crucial years, to know much about him, and the memories of those who served with him have obviously dimmed with the passage of time. Much that has been written about him is inaccurate, and he was himself guilty of untruths over parts of his early life, something which has misled many historians. Furthermore, there are gaps in his life which it has proved very difficult, if not impossible, to fill.
The root question to be addressed is whether Dietrich was at base a wicked man. By virtue of the fact that he was for so long counted among Hitler’s inner circle, it is easy to come to the conclusion that he was a wholehearted supporter of the Nazi ethic and all that it stood for. Lack of internal record means that the historian is seldom privy to Dietrich’s innermost thoughts and can only observe his actions and what information exists as to what he confided to others. The resultant picture is grey, rather than pure black or white, which history seldom is. One can therefore make only tentative conclusions as to the degree to which he was motivated by National Socialism alone. What is clear, though, is that his rise to prominence was caused primarily by his personal qualities as a military leader and a major part of the book is devoted to the examination of these and his military weaknesses.
Here one finds oneself in another sensitive area. For much of the war Dietrich was held up by the Nazi hierarchy as the personification of all that was superior in the National Socialist soldier, the Waffen SS. To many, especially those who fought against them during the war, the character of the Waffen SS was stamped with a brutality which set it apart from other fighting formations. This is especially so over atrocities and Dietrich and his men stand or have stood accused of a goodly number, in Poland, France, Russia, Italy, the Ardennes and, in the last days of the war, Vienna. This is also not to forget his own involvement in the Night of the Long Knives. In only two cases – Long Knives and Ardennes – was Dietrich actually arraigned, and in the case of the latter, as the reader will see, serious questions were raised over the conduct of the trial. In some incidents the evidence, when carefully examined, is found to be conflicting. In these questions, the reader should bear in mind that, unlike most courts of law, history is not compelled to find for the accused on account of defects in the evidence, nor, for that matter, adopt the principle of ‘guilty until proved innocent’. Instead it may leave the case on the file, non-proven.
While I have found it necessary to examine my duties to the reader in writing this history, it is important not to seem to apologize for that which needs no apology, namely the historical interest of its subject.
Indeed, with patient probing it has been possible to find out a surprising amount about Sepp Dietrich, and his contribution to the Nazi phenomenon, in spite of the problems described above. Furthermore, his life does provide a remarkably good vehicle for a history of 20th-century Germany, socially, politically and militarily. Indeed, it is surprising that no one has ever tried to write his life before now, although some Germans to whom I have talked have expressed surprise that I should do this, but without giving satisfactory reasons as to why they should think that a biography of him is not merited. This, to me, is difficult to understand. Indeed, my researches have taken me into a number of relatively uncharted areas of German history. This has been personally of deep interest and most rewarding, and I hope that the reader will agree. Whatever faults can be laid at Dietrich’s door, there is no doubt that he was a colourful character and, in many ways, larger than life. His career encompassed many dramatic events and developments, from the storm troops and German tanks of 1914-18, through the turbulence of Germany in the immediate post-war area, in which he took a small but active part, to the rise of Hitler and the formation of what became the Waffen-SS, in which he played a leading role. He fought on every front in 1939-45 except North Africa, was a key figure in what was probably the most controversial war crimes trial in Europe and finally became a victim of the guilt which wracked the West German nation in the 1950s. In truth, the menu is rich and varied.
This book could have never been written without the help given to me by a number of institutions and individuals. In Germany I would very much like to give my thanks to Daniel P. Simon, Director, Berlin Document Center, for providing me with a copy of Dietrich’s SS Personal File. Dr Heyl, Archivdirektor Bayerisiches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Kriegarchiv patiently answered a number of questions which I put to him by letter. Herr Kirchhoff {Deutsche Dienstelle, Berlin), Herr Scholl (Bundesarchiv Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau) and Herr Baldes (Bundesarchiv Zentralweisstelle, Aachen) likewise gave me useful information. Marianne Loenitz of the Bundesarchiv, Koblenz was also most helpful in researching and sending copies of documents held there. I am grateful, too, to Herr Thöle of Munin Verlag for his help. Rainer Strasheim threw much light on Dietrich’s experience of tanks in the First World War and Hans Weber, formerly of the Freikorps Oberland, was invaluable in giving me information on Dietrich’s service with it. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Anton Joachimsthaler who was kind enough to share with me information which he has gleaned from his researches into Sepp Dietrich. Dr Bernd Wegner of the Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, Freiburg im Breisgau, also shared his views on Dietrich and the Waffen-SS with me. There are, too, Sepp Dietrich’s former comrades in the Waffen-SS who gave of their memories and impressions of Dietrich to me, or my research assistant Lothar Schäfer. Much gratitude goes to Otto Kumm, Georg Maier, Hubert Meyer, through whom I would also like to thank Paul Zimmermann for giving me copies of documents in Dietrich’s estate, Richard Schulze-Kossens, Otto Weidinger and Max Wünsche and I sincerely hope that they will feel that their efforts on my behalf will have been worth it. Finally, my most sincere thanks go to Wolf-Dieter Dietrich, Sepp’s eldest son. He was good enough to entertain Lothar Schäfer and I at his Munich apartment and, in the course of four hours of questions, to throw much new light on his father. He also very kindly copied and sent to me photographs from his album.
Dipl.-Ing. Franz Kosar of Vienna gave me something of his extensive knowledge of First World War German artillery and loaned me photographs, and I am also grateful to Ian Hogg for introducing me to him. Professor J.M. Feldbrugge of the University of Leiden in Holland, with whom I was put in contact by the Soviet Studies Research Centre, Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, gave me information on Soviet war crimes trials and investigations. In the USA, my thanks go to Dr R. Raiber MD of Hockessin, Delaware, Denison Beach of the Widener Library, Harvard University and to John Toland, who was good enough to write to me on his personal impressions of meeting Sepp Dietrich. There are also a number of individuals in the US National Archives, Washington DC, who together provided me with a wealth of relevant material. They are George Wagner of the Military Reference Branch, Military Archives Division, Richard L. Boylan and Amy Schmidt of the Military Field Branch and G. Bryant and Paul White of the Still Pictures Branch, Special Archives Division.
In England there are a number of members of staff of the Imperial War Museum, London, who deserve my thanks. They are J.W. Pavey of the Department of Photographs, Philip Reed, Department of Documents and T.C. Charman and D.B. Nash of the Department of Printed Books. The last-named was especially helpful with his knowledge of the German Army of 1914. Others who answered some of my many questions were James Lucas, Bruce Quarrie, Max Hundleby and Denis Jenkinson of Motor Sport. Lieutenant Colonel Sir George Kennard Bt, in the course of a most entertaining session at the Guards and Cavalry Club, London, told me of his experiences of being captured by theLeibstandarte in Greece, and Lieutenant Colonel George Forty and David Fletcher of the Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset, provided information and photographs on the German use of tanks in 1918. Colonel Paul Adair LVO assisted with introductions to former Waffen-SS officers and Jonathan Prickett of The History Bookshop, Friern Barnet, London gave me a number of useful leads. Thank you, too, to Ian Sayer for allowing me to ferret around his monumental Second World War library and archive. Further thanks go to the staffs of the Institute of Contemporary History and Wiener Library, the London Library, Ministry of Defence Old War Office Library and the Reference Library, West Hill, London Borough of Wandsworth, all of whom were tireless in their efforts to produce books, many obscure. Andrew Mollo also gave his time to me, and I am most grateful to his Historical Research Unit for providing many of the photographs. Further, I would like to thank Simon King for his helpful advice.
To Brian Bond of the Department of War Studies, King’s College, London, my thanks for putting me in touch with Lothar Schäfer. As for Lothar himself, I owe him a greater debt than anyone. He was my research assistant throughout and, although in the midst of studies both at King’s College, London and the University of Konstanz, gave me much of his time. His high intelligence and growing enthusiasm for the subject have been invaluable and he has been my strong right hand. Last, but not least, thank you to my publisher, General Tony Trythall, for inviting me to write this book and for giving me what has turned out to be a fascinating eighteen months of research, and to Brigadier Bryan Watkins for his sympathetic editing.
London, September 1987
CHARLES MESSENGER