Franz Ritter von Epp

Common card · No. 295395

Franz Ritter von Epp (born Franz Epp; from 1918 as Ritter von Epp; 16 October 1868 – 31 January 1947) was a German general and politician who started his military career in the Bavarian Army. Successful wartime military service earned him a knighthood in 1916. After the end of World War I and the dissolution of the German Empire, Epp was a commanding officer in the Freikorps and the Reichswehr. His unit, the Freikorps Epp, was responsible for numerous massacres during the crushing of the Bavarian Soviet Republic. He was a member of the Bavarian People's Party before joining the Nazi Party in 1928, when he was elected as a member of the German parliament or Reichstag, a position he held until the fall of Nazi Germany. He was the Reichskommissar, later Reichsstatthalter, of Bavaria, and a Reichsleiter of the Nazi Party. He also was a Obergruppenführer in the Sturmabteilung, the Nazi paramilitary unit. During the Nazi era, Epp, who had participated in the Herero and Nama genocide as a young...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Uncredited photographer. NARA (US National Archives and Records Administration): Unrestricted access and use., Public domain