Hermann Fegelein

Hermann Fegelein was born on October 30, 1906, in Ansbach, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire. His father was the retired Oberleutnant Hans Fegelein. He also had a brother named Waldemar “Axel” Fegelein.

He was taught horse riding by his father who ran an equestrian school in Munich. His indoctrination in Nazi ideology happened quite early as well. In 1925, when he was 19 or 20 years old, he met one of the founding members of the party, Christian Weber, who later helped him get into Schutzstaffel (SS).

Fegelein attended Munich University for two terms but left to start working for the government in 1925. For the next two years, he served in the Reiter-Regiment 17 (Cavalry Regiment 17). He enlisted in the Bavarian State Police in Munich on April 20, 1927, as an officer cadet.

In 1929, he left the service. While according to the official records, he quit for “family reasons”, in reality, he was apprehended for trying to steal examination solutions from the office belonging to a superior.

In 1926, his father had opened Reitinstitut Fegelein (Riding Institute Fegelein), which, after Fegelein became active in the National Socialism movement, was used as a meeting place by the SS. In 1930, he became a member of the Nazi party and the SA, and later, on April 10, 1933, was transferred to the SS. At the beginning of his tenure, he was the instructor at the Reitinstitut Fegelein as well as the leader of SS-Reitersturm, the equestrian division of SS.

In the mid-1930s, Fegelein had replaced his father as the administrator of the institution. During this period, he was promoted rapidly, first to the Allgemeine-SS rank of SS-Untersturmführer, then to SS-Obersturmführer on April 20, 1934, and to SS-Hauptsturmführer on November 9, 1934. Besides organising the courses and facilities for the equestrian events of the Berlin Olympic Games, he tried out unsuccessfully for the German equestrian team but lost to eventual winners, the Kavallerieschule Hannover. On January 30, 1936, he assumed the rank of an SS-Sturmbannführer.

In September 1939, Fegelein was sent to Poland as the commander of the SS Totenkopf Reiterstandarte (Death's-Head Horse Regiment). They worked under the supervision of the Ordnungspolizei (order police), providing support to the police throughout the Poznan district.

Soon, Himmler decided to expand the regiment from four to thirteen squadrons and rechristened it as ‘1. SS-Totenkopf-Reiterstandarte’ (1st Death's Head Cavalry Regiment). As a result, local ethnic Germans who resided in the General Government and further afield were recruited.

Fegelein and most of the other officers never went to officers’ training school. So the training they were able to provide to these new recruits was rudimentary at best. However, it was exacting, effective, and helped nourish a strong camaraderie among the men.

Under the direct order from Hitler, Fegenlein’s unit and the Orpo killed thousands of Polish intellectuals, aristocrats, and clergies to realise the Germanization of the occupied Polish territory before the eventual annexation to the German Reich. Nazis called it Intelligenzaktion.

In December 1939, Fegelein commanded one of the two regiments of the unit, the ‘1. Standarte’. They were suffering from a severe shortage of food, weapons, and uniforms. Morality peaked and the health of the men rapidly deteriorated. Corruption and theft became rampant.