Robert Ritter von Greim

Germany state institutions Fascism and National Socialism Counter-revolution 1892–1945 ✕ Suicide

Göring's successor as the last Luftwaffe commander and the last German field marshal

Captured by American troops in Austria on 8 May 1945, Greim reportedly told them: "I am the head of the Luftwaffe, but I have no Luftwaffe."

Born in Bayreuth, Greim shot down 28 aircraft as a fighter pilot in the First World War and in 1918 received the Bavarian Military Order of Max Joseph, which made him a personal noble, Ritter von Greim. In 1920 he flew Adolf Hitler to Berlin during the Kapp Putsch. From 1924 to 1927 he helped build an air force for the Chinese Nationalist government, and in 1934 he rejoined the military and took part in building the new Luftwaffe. In the Second World War he commanded V Air Corps and Luftflotte 6. On 26 April 1945 he flew into encircled Berlin with Hanna Reitsch, and Hitler named him commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe in place of Hermann Göring and promoted him to field marshal. Captured by the Americans in May, he learned that he was to be handed to the Soviets and on 24 May killed himself in Salzburg with the poison capsule Hitler had given him.