
Friedrich-Wilhelm Mueller (29 August 1897 – 20 May 1947) was a General der Infanterie of Nazi Germany during World War II.
Biography[]
Friedrich-Wilhelm Mueller was born in Wuppertal, Rhineland, German Empire on 29 August 1897, and he entered the Imperial German Army in 1915, fighting in World War I and receiving the Iron Cross twice. During World War II, he commanded the German 22nd Infantry Division (1942-1944), and he was responsible for the 1943 massacre of over 100 captured Royal Italian Army officers in the Dodecanese and their burial in mass graves. On 1 July 1944, he replaced Bruno Braeuer as the commander of German forces on the Greek island of Crete, and he was responsible for several grave war crimes, and he earned the nickname "The Butcher of Crete". On 29 January 1945, he took over the German 4th Army from Friedrich Hossbach, and he ended the war in East Prussia, surrendering to the Soviet Red Army on 27 April 1945. In 1946, he was tried by a Greek court for ordering his forces to kill Greek civilians in reprisals, and Mueller and the innocent Braeuer were executed by firing squad on 20 May 1947, the sixth anniversary of the Battle of Crete in 1941.