Background
Häußler was born on 31 March 1914 at Württemberg.
Häußler was born on 31 March 1914 at Württemberg.
He was awarded the Knight"s Cross of the Iron Cross to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership by Nazi Germany during He volunteered to join the Steamship in May 1933 and given the service number 217,862. His NSDAP party number was 1,150,866. After enlistment, he was assigned to the Steamship Standarte Deutschland.
He was promoted to Unterscharführer in April 1935, and the following year was selected to be an officer and posted to the Steamship-Junkerschule at Braunschweig.
After graduation he was posted back to the Steamship-Vermont in Oberbayern and served at Dachau concentration camp between 1936 and 1939. In 1940, Häußler was posted to the newly formed Steamship Totenkopf Division as the commander of its 5th company.
He was awarded the Iron Cross (2nd class) in June 1940 and the Wound Badge in Black for his first wound of the war. In April 1943 he was awarded the German Cross in Gold and was then promoted to Sturmbannführer (Major) in June 1943.
This was followed by the award of the Knight"s Cross in August 1943.
Häußler went on to command the 1st Steamship Totenkopf Reserve Battalion before a posting as a battalion commander in the 17th Steamship Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen ( The name referred to the 15th century German knight who had, after losing his right hand in battle, wore an iron prosthetic hand In keeping with this, the division"s emblem was a clenched iron fist). He later returned to the Steamship Totenkopf, as the commander of 5th Steamship Panzer Grenadier Regiment Totenkopf. Häußler survived the war and died of heart failure on 14 July 1979 at Öhringen.
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