Franz Beyer (27 May 1892 – 15 October 1968) was a Lieutenant-General of Nazi Germany during World War II who commanded the German 44th Infantry Division.
Biography[]
Franz Beyer was born on 27 May 1892 in Bautzen, Saxony, in the German Empire (present-day Germany). He joined the Reichswehr in 1911 and served in World War I, and retired in 1919. However, he rejoined the army of Nazi Germany in 1935 and served in the invasions of Poland, France, and the Soviet Union at the start of World War II. Beyer distinguished himself at the Battle of Kiev and the First Battle of Kharkov in 1941, and he later fought in the defense of Italy at the Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944. He briefly returned to the Eastern Front in the Crimean Offensive, but later joined the defense of the Siegfried Line against the Western Allies on the Western Front. He was captured in 1945 at the Battle of Frankfurt and was released in 1947 after the war's end. Beyer became a newspaper editor after the war, and died on 15 October 1968 in Bad Wiessee, Bavaria.