Quiet Flows the Rhine

State Funeral for General Dietl

Eduard Dietl, Army Colonel General, was born on July 21, 1890 in Bad Aibling. During World War I, he was a winner of the Iron Cross 1st Class and was wounded three times. During World War II, he served as commander 3rd Mountain Division and as commander 20th Mountain Army in Finland. He was a winner of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, but died on June 23, 1944 in a plane crash at Mürzuschlag, Austria. His last words were to the pilot shortly before take-off: “No, we are not going to fly over the plain. The clouds are six hundred meters above the ground. I know the area and am glad to finally be back in my mountains. I want to see them from above once more. In Finland, everything is flat. We will fly from Graz along the valley that goes to Judenberg. From there we will follow the Semmering trace that goes to Mürzuschlag and from there to Vienna.”

Admiral Günther Lütjens

Günther Lütjens was born on May 25, 1889 in Wiesbaden. He served as Commander of Torpedo Boats, Commander of Reconnaissance Forces and finally Chief of the Fleet. A winner of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, he was killed in action in the North Atlantic aboard the battleship Bismarck on May 27, 1941 in combat with the British Home Fleet.

Before the final action, he made the following announcement to the crew:

“Seamen of the battleship Bismarck! You have covered yourselves with glory! The sinking of the battlecruiser Hood has not only military, but also psychological value, for she was the pride of England…The German people are with you, and we will fight until our gun barrels glow red-hot and the last shell has left the barrels. For us seamen, the question now is victory or death!”