Gerhard Schmidhuber

Gerhard Schmidhuber (9 April 1894 – 11 February 1945 in the battle of Budapest) was a German major general. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

Career
Born in Dresden in the Kingdom of Saxony, Schmidhuber was commanding officer of the Wehrmacht Heer's 13th Panzer Division during World War II. When the Germans occupied Hungary in 1944, Schmidhuber was supreme commander of German army forces in that country. In that capacity, he had extensive dealings with the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg and prevented the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto in the face of the advancing Red Army. Schmidhuber was killed in action in the Battle of Budapest.

Awards

 * Iron Cross (1914)
 * 2nd Class (9 May 1915)
 * 1st Class (7 December 1917)
 * Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939)
 * 2nd Class (29 September 1939)
 * 1st Class (24 June 1940)
 * German Cross in Gold on 28 February 1942 as Oberstleutnant in the II./Schützen-Regiment 103
 * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
 * Knight's Cross on 18 October 1943 as Oberst and commander of Panzergrenadier-Regiment 304
 * 706th Oak Leaves on 21 January 1945 as Generalmajor and commander of the 13.Panzer-Division
 * mentioned in the addendum of the Wehrmachtbericht on 20 December 1944.