Nickname: Fritz
Date of Birth: 9 December 1896 - Pilsen, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary
Date of Death: 28 July 1944 - near Sinimäe, Narva, Estonia (on hospital train en route to Wesenberg field hospital)
Battles and Operations: World War I, Western Campaign 1940, Dnepropetrovsk bridgehead, Rostov defensive battles, Narva bridgehead, Battle of Tannenberg Line
NSDAP-Number: 1.304.071 (9 October 1932)
SS-Number: 135.638 (10 June 1933)
Religion: No information
Parents: Ferdinand Scholz (Austro-Hungarian Army officer) and Caroline Hopfengärtner
Siblings: No information
Spouse: Marianne (lived together in Pörtschach am Wörthersee, Austria)
Children: None (died childless)
Promotions
1 May 1915: Kadett
1 September 1915: Leutnant
1 November 1917: Oberleutnant
9 October 1932: SA-Mann
10 June 1933: SS-Anwärter
21 December 1933: SS-Mann
21 December 1933: SS-Scharführer
2 February 1934: SS-Oberscharführer
20 April 1934: SS-Truppführer
3 July 1934: SS-Obertruppführer
21 August 1934: SS-Untersturmführer
30 January 1935: SS-Obersturmführer
30 January 1936: SS-Hauptsturmführer
1 April 1938: SS-Sturmbannführer
30 January 1940: SS-Obersturmbannführer
30 January 1941: SS-Standartenführer
1 October 1941: SS-Oberführer
21 December 1942: SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS
20 April 1944: SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS
Career
August 1914: k.u.k. Armee
May 1915: Feld-Kanonen-Regiment 22
1919-1920: Reichswehrbrigade Dessau
April-July 1921: Studentenkompanie Köthen, Freikorps Oberland
August 1934: SS-Hilfswerk, KZ Dachau
January 1935: SS-Verfügungstruppe
1939-1940: SS-Regiment "Der Führer" (II. Bataillon commander)
December 1940: Kommandant, SS-Regiment "Westland"
1941-1942: Kommandant, SS-Regiment "Nordland" (SS-Division "Wiking")
1943: Kommandant, 1. SS-Infanterie-Brigade and 2. SS-Infanterie-Brigade
1 May 1943-27 July 1944: Kommandant, 11. SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division "Nordland"
Awards and Decorations
Militärverdienstkreuz III. Klasse (World War I)
Militär-Verdienstmedaille in Bronze (World War I)
Militär-Verdienstmedaille in Silber (World War I)
Karl-Truppenkreuz (World War I)
Goldene Tapferkeitsmedaille (1918)
Schlesisches Bewährungsabzeichen 2. Stufe
Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer (1935)
Ehrendegen des Reichsführers-SS
SS-Ehrenring
Deutsche Fahrerabzeichen III. Klasse
Deutsches Reiterabzeichen in Silber
Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse (17 May 1940)
Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse (29 May 1940)
Infanterie-Sturmabzeichen in Silber
Deutsches Kreuz in Gold (22 November 1941)
Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes #818 (18 January 1942) as SS-Oberführer and commander of SS-Regiment “Nordland” in the SS-Division “Wiking”, Fritz von Scholz earned the award for his leadership in the brutal defensive fighting north of Rostov and at the Dnepropetrovsk bridgehead in November 1941. From 17 to 20 November 1941 his battle group held a 24-kilometre front against five Soviet rifle divisions supported by a tank brigade, heavy tanks, Katyusha rocket launchers, bombers and ground-attack aircraft. Enemy waves crashed forward relentlessly; tanks broke into the German rear positions, infantry swarmed across open fields under artillery fire. Scholz stood personally in the foremost line with rifle in hand at Dobropolje on 18 November, directing fire and rallying his men as Caucasian and rifle divisions pressed in. When Soviet armour penetrated the III. Bataillon sector at Tuslowo he led immediate counter-measures that threw the tanks back and repelled the accompanying infantry. On 21 November he personally directed a riposte with Panzer-Regiment 2 that captured 400 prisoners. His calm, iron will and personal example turned repeated crises into successful repulses, covered the flank of the entire Panzerarmee and enabled an orderly withdrawal to the Mius line. The regiment’s steadfastness under his command in these snow-swept, hellish days of endless Soviet assaults earned him the Ritterkreuz.
Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub #423 (12 March 1944) as SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS commanding the 11. SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division “Nordland”, Scholz received the award for his masterful defence of the Narva isthmus from 16 January to early February 1944. The young multinational division was ordered to advance along the Kipen-Narva railway against vastly superior Soviet forces. On 28 January 1944 the Red Army broke through south of the road near Osertizy and Gurlewo, threatening to encircle Kampfgruppe Lohmann and elements of the 10. Luftwaffe-Feld-Division. Scholz immediately launched a night counter-thrust from Ljalizy to Gurlewo, personally directing the assault through freezing darkness and driving snow. His grenadiers recaptured the vital road, reopened the escape route and threw the enemy back in savage close-quarters fighting. During the subsequent withdrawal from Jamburg to Dubrowka he became the soul of resistance. Night after night Soviet assault groups up to regimental strength, supported by tanks, attacked the rearguard. Scholz moved from company to company under fire, inspiring exhausted Norwegian, Danish, Dutch and German volunteers with his unshakeable presence. At Jamburg, Dubrowka and Komarowka the division held for days against multiple Soviet divisions, buying precious time for the remnants of the 61., 227. Infanterie-Divisionen and 10. Luftwaffe-Feld-Division to cross the Narva river and for Panzergrenadier-Division “Feldherrnhalle” to arrive. His toughness and personal example welded the still-green division into a cohesive fighting force and created the foundation for the successful occupation of the Narva bridgehead.
Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern #85 (8 August 1944, posthumously). The Swords recognised Scholz’s final heroic stand on 24 July 1944 during the opening day of the Soviet Narva Offensive at the Tannenberg Line near Sinimäe. After a two-hour drumfire barrage that turned the Estonian hills into a moonscape of craters and flying steel, Soviet tanks and infantry of the 120th Rifle Division smashed a one-kilometre-wide and one-kilometre-deep breach in the sector of Grenadier-Regiment 45 along the Lipsu road, seizing vital high ground that threatened to split the entire front and open the way to the Gulf of Finland. With the line crumbling and soldiers streaming rearward, Scholz rushed forward into the foremost positions. Standing amid exploding shells and machine-gun fire he personally rallied the retreating troops, formed a new defensive line and prevented an immediate breakthrough. Then, gathering 4./SS-Panzer-Abteilung 11 and 2./Pionier-Kompanie, he led a lightning counterattack through smoke and dust. The small battle group stormed back up the shattered slope, recaptured the lost high ground in brutal hand-to-hand combat and restored the original front line. The 120th Rifle Division was bloodied so severely that the planned Soviet thrust toward the coast was shattered. Scholz’s personal intervention on that blood-soaked day saved the III. SS-Panzer-Korps from being cut in two and made possible the planned withdrawal to the Tannenberg Line. Severely wounded by artillery shrapnel the following day (27 July) while again visiting the front, he died on 28 July aboard the hospital train. The Schwerter were awarded posthumously on 8 August 1944 in recognition of this last supreme act of courage and leadership.
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Friedrich "Fritz" Max Karl von Scholz Edler von Rarancze was a high-ranking officer in the Waffen-SS during World War II who commanded the 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland and rose to the rank of SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS. Born on 9 December 1896 in Pilsen, Bohemia, within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he was the son of Ferdinand Scholz and Caroline Hopfengärtner. Scholz died on 28 July 1944 at the age of 47 from wounds sustained in combat near Sinimäe during the Battle of Narva in Estonia. A veteran of World War I and the interwar Freikorps, he became one of the most decorated commanders in the Waffen-SS, receiving the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords for extraordinary leadership and personal bravery in some of the fiercest defensive battles on the Eastern Front. His career spanned service in the Austro-Hungarian artillery, paramilitary units after the Great War, and elite SS formations, where he led multinational volunteer troops through grueling campaigns from France to the Caucasus and finally the Baltic states.
Scholz entered military service at the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, joining the Austro-Hungarian Army and serving first with Feld-Kanonen-Regiment 22 and later with Feld-Haubitzen-Regiment 3. He distinguished himself in combat, earning several imperial decorations including the Goldene Tapferkeitsmedaille in 1918, the Militärverdienstkreuz III. Klasse, the Militär-Verdienstmedaille in both bronze and silver, and the Karl-Truppenkreuz. Discharged in 1919 after the empire's collapse, he briefly served in the Reichswehr Brigade Dessau before joining the paramilitary Freikorps Oberland in 1921 as part of the Studentenkompanie Köthen. These experiences in the chaotic postwar years, marked by street fighting and border skirmishes, forged his commitment to nationalist causes and prepared him for the political upheavals of the 1930s.
In October 1932 Scholz joined the Nazi Party with membership number 1,304,071 and soon entered the SA, where he participated in violent street clashes in Austria. Facing arrest for these activities, he fled to Nazi Germany in late 1933. On 10 June 1933 he enlisted in the SS with number 135,638, initially serving in the Austrian SS Legion and at the SS-Hilfswerk in the Dachau concentration camp. His integration into the SS-Verfügungstruppe came in January 1935, and he advanced steadily through the ranks, holding positions that transitioned him from political enforcer to professional military leader within the emerging Waffen-SS structure. By the eve of World War II he had already proven his organizational skill and ideological reliability, setting the stage for frontline command.
Scholz began World War II as commander of the II Battalion of SS-Regiment Der Führer, participating in the Western Campaign of 1940 known as Fall Gelb. He earned the Iron Cross Second Class on 17 May 1940 and the First Class twelve days later on 29 May 1940, along with the Infantry Assault Badge in Silver for his aggressive leadership in the breakthrough operations. In December 1940 he assumed command of SS-Regiment Westland, followed shortly by SS-Regiment Nordland within the newly formed SS Division Wiking attached to Army Group South. During the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union the regiment captured Tarnopol in Galicia, and Scholz's growing reputation for calm under fire led to his promotion to SS-Oberführer and the award of the German Cross in Gold on 22 November 1941 for sustained excellence in regimental operations.
The decisive actions that secured Scholz the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 18 January 1942 as commander of SS-Regiment Nordland unfolded during the brutal defensive fighting at the Dnepropetrovsk bridgehead and north of Rostov in November 1941. His battle group held a vital 24-kilometer sector against five Soviet rifle divisions backed by a full tank brigade, heavy armor, Katyusha rocket barrages, and waves of bombers and ground-attack aircraft. For four days from 17 to 20 November relentless enemy assaults hammered the positions in snow-swept terrain, with tanks smashing into rear areas and infantry surging across open fields under artillery cover. Scholz positioned himself day and night at the hottest spots, personally directing defense at Dobropolje on 18 November with rifle in hand as Caucasian and rifle divisions pressed forward. When enemy tanks overran parts of Tuslowo, his III Battalion held firm against the accompanying infantry, and Scholz orchestrated immediate counterthrusts that restored the line. Each evening he reported all armored attacks repulsed and infantry assaults shattered with heavy Soviet losses, enabling an orderly withdrawal to the Mius line while covering the entire Panzerarmee's exposed flank and halting the drive on Rostov through sheer force of will and personal example.
In early 1943 Scholz briefly commanded the 1st SS Infantry Brigade attached to Army Group Center and then the 2nd SS Infantry Brigade, composed largely of Latvian recruits, under Army Group North. On 1 May 1943 he was appointed commander of the 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland, which he led first in anti-partisan operations in Croatia before its transfer to the Oranienbaum sector near Leningrad in January 1944 as part of the III SS Panzer Corps. The division's grueling retreat to the Narva bridgehead and subsequent defensive stands earned him promotion to SS-Brigadeführer and the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross on 12 March 1944. When Soviet forces broke through south of the Kipen-Narva railway near Osertizy in late January, threatening encirclement, Scholz launched a nighttime counterattack through freezing darkness and driving snow to recapture key roads and villages. During the withdrawal from Jamburg to Dubrowka he became the living spirit of resistance, moving from company to company under constant fire to inspire his exhausted Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, and German volunteers. Night after night his rearguard repelled regimental-strength Soviet assaults supported by tanks, holding positions at Jamburg, Dubrowka, and Komarowka long enough for neighboring divisions to cross the Narva River and for reinforcements to arrive, forging the multinational division into a cohesive force that anchored the critical bridgehead.
As the Soviet Narva Offensive erupted in July 1944 the division defended the Tannenberg Line in the Sinimäe Hills. On 24 July, after a two-hour hurricane of artillery that cratered the Estonian landscape into a wasteland of smoke and steel, tanks and infantry of the Soviet 120th Rifle Division tore a kilometer-wide breach along the Lipsu road, seizing high ground that threatened to split the entire III SS Panzer Corps and open the path to the Gulf of Finland. With the front crumbling and troops streaming rearward, Scholz raced forward into the inferno of exploding shells and machine-gun fire, personally rallying the panicked soldiers to form a new defensive line. Gathering elements of the division's Panzer battalion and pioneer company, he led a lightning counterattack through choking dust and flames, storming back up the shattered slopes in savage hand-to-hand combat to retake the lost heights and restore the original positions. The Soviet division was mauled so badly that its planned thrust toward the coast collapsed. Scholz continued visiting the forward lines the next day until severe artillery shrapnel wounds felled him on 27 July. He died aboard a hospital train on 28 July 1944 while being evacuated toward the field hospital at Wesenberg. For this final supreme intervention that saved the corps from being cut in two he received the Swords to the Knight's Cross posthumously on 8 August 1944 as the 85th recipient. Scholz was laid to rest at the German War Cemetery in Reval-Marienberg, now known as Tallinn-Maarjamäe in Estonia, leaving behind a legacy as a commander who repeatedly turned desperate situations through personal courage and unyielding resolve in the face of overwhelming Soviet superiority.
Arrival at the Soldatenheim (soldiers' home), where the comradeship evening in honor of the new Ritterkreuzträger (Knight's Cross recipient), SS-Sturmmann Gerardus Mooymann, is taking place. In the back seat with Mooyman is SS-Brigadeführer Fritz von Scholz (Kommandeur SS-Freiwilligen-Legion “Nederland”). The picture was taken in February 1943 by SS-Kriegsberichter Reinsberg.
SS-Sturmmann Gerardus Mooyman (Geschützführer in 14.Panzerjäger-Kompanie / SS-Freiwilligen-Legion “Nederland”) reporting about his action to SS-Brigadeführer Fritz von Scholz (Kommandeur SS-Freiwilligen-Legion “Nederland”), at a social evening at the soldatenheim (soldiers' home). The picture was taken in February 1943 by SS-Kriegsberichter Reinsberg.
Soviet
Union, May 1944. From left to right: Generaloberst Georg Lindemann
(Oberbefehlshaber Heeresgruppe Nord), SS-Brigadeführer Fritz von Scholz
(Kommandeur 11. SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division "Nordland"),
and SS-Oberführer Franz Augsberger (20. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS
[Estland Nr.1]).
Source
https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_von_Scholz
https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/13909/Scholz-von-Friedrich-Fritz-Waffen-SS.htm
https://grokipedia.com/
https://rk.balsi.de/
https://www.unithistories.com/units_index/index.php?file=/officers/personsx.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20091027052912fw_/http://geocities.com/orion47.geo/index2.html
https://forum.axishistory.com/
https://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/
https://www.bundesarchiv.de/en/
https://www.geni.com/
https://books.google.com/
Veit Scherzer: Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939-1945, Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, 2007
Franz Thomas: Die Ritterkreuzträger der Deutschen Wehrmacht, 1998
Klaus D. Patzwall & Veit Scherzer: Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941-1945, 2001
Walther-Peer Fellgiebel: Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939-1945, 2000
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