Georg-Hans Reinhardt (1 March 1887 – 23 November 1963) was a Colonel-General of the German Wehrmacht during World War II. He was the officer in charge of the Third Panzer Army from 1941 to 1944 and the commander of Army Group Center from August 1944 to January 1945, seeing action against the Soviet Union on the eastern front.
Biography[]
Georg-Hans Reinhardt was born in Bautzen, Saxony in 1887. He fought in World War I and rose through the ranks of the Wehrmacht during the Interwar period, leading the 4th Panzer Division during the invasion of Poland at the start of World War II. On 1 June 1940, he was promoted to General der Panzertruppe, and he led the XXXXI Panzer Corps during the invasion of France and Operation Barbarossa. On 5 October 1941, he was given command of the Third Panzer Army and, from early 1942 to June 1944, his panzer army was involved in putting down partisans in the areas around Vitebsk and Smolensk. He had several villages massacred and burned down, and he deported civilians to concentration camps. In August 1944, he was removed from command of the Third Panzer Army to replace Walter Model as Army Group Center's commander, as Model was transferred to France. His army was forced out of Poland and into East Prussia, and he was forced into retirement in January 1945. He was imprisoned until 1952 due to his role in war crimes, and he died in Tegernsee, Bavaria in 1963.