Nazi Germany’s field marshal who commanded the defence of Italy
In 1947, the Venice trial convicted him as a commander who had failed to prevent illegal repression in occupied Italy.
Albert Kesselring was a senior commander of Nazi Germany who served in the Imperial German Army and Reichswehr before helping build the Luftwaffe. During the Second World War he commanded German forces in the Mediterranean and Italy, delaying the Allied advance through the defence of the Gustav and Gothic Lines. Yet under his command reprisals and massacres were carried out against Italian civilians and the Resistance, and his postwar trial found that he had known of illegal repression without preventing it. His 1947 death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and he was released in 1952, but he never publicly repudiated his conduct of the war or his loyalty to Hitler.
Career Timeline
- 1904Joined the 2nd Bavarian Foot Artillery Regiment
- 1933Headed the administrative office of the Reich Air Ministry, helping prepare the Luftwaffe
- 1936–1937Chief of the Luftwaffe General Staff
- 1939–1941Commanded Luftflotte 1 and 2 in Poland and on the Western and Eastern Fronts
- 1941–1943Commander-in-Chief South, commanding German forces in the Mediterranean theatre
- 1943–1945Commander-in-Chief Southwest and Army Group C, directing the defence of Italy
- 1945Commander-in-Chief West; surrendered to US forces in May
- 1947–1952Convicted of war crimes and released in 1952