Hasso von Manteuffel (14 January 1897 – 24 September 1978) was a General der Panzertruppe of Nazi Germany during World War II. He later served in the Bundestag from 1953 to 1957 as a member of the liberal Free Democratic Party, although he returned to right-wing politics by joining the national conservative German Party in 1957.
Biography[]
Hasso von Manteuffel was born on 14 January 1897 in Potsdam, Prussia, German Empire. He served in the Imperial German Army in World War I, and in January 1919 he joined the Freikorps after the war's end. He was a professor at the Panzer Troop School in Berlin until 1941, and only on 1 May 1941 was Manteuffel granted a command as a battalion commander of the 7th Panzer Division. In 1943, he served in Hans-Jurgen von Arnim's 5th Panzer Army as commander of the Division von Broich/von Manteuffel in North Africa, and on 1 May 1943 he was promoted to Major-General. In November 1943, having been transferred to the Eastern Front with the Soviet Union, Manteuffel halted the Red Army offensive and rescued the encircled 8th Panzer Division from encirclement.
On 1 February 1944, Manteuffel was granted command of the Panzergrenadier Division Grossdeutschland and served in Ukraine, Romania, Lithuania, and other parts of Eastern Europe against the Soviets. On 1 September 1944, Manteuffel was given command of the 5th Panzer Army in Lorraine and engaged in heavy combat in Lorraine against George S. Patton's US 3rd Army until being withdrawn to prepare for the Battle of the Bulge offensive. The offensive penetrated up to Bastogne, but it was eventually turned back. Manteuffel returned to the east to lead the 3rd Panzer Army, and his bridgehead was broken through near Stettin in Pomerania after another defeat at the Battle of Seelow Heights. On 3 May 1945, the Germans surrendered to the British Army at Hagenow in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, avoiding being forced into reeducation camps in the USSR in Siberia. After being released in December 1946, he joined the Free Democratic Party of Germany and served in the Bundestag from 1953 to 1957 (defecting to the national conservative German Party in 1957), and he appeared on the 1974 The World at War documentary when discussing his role in the Battle of the Bulge. He died in 1978, four years later.