Background
Hermann Maringgele was born on the 29 November 1911, in Tschars in Tyrol in the Austrian Empire and was the tenth child in the family.
Hermann Maringgele was born on the 29 November 1911, in Tschars in Tyrol in the Austrian Empire and was the tenth child in the family.
He graduated from school in 1932 and had to do his national service in the Italian Army and served in Abyssinia in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War in 1935, until he was released from the Italian Army in 1937.
He was awarded the Knight"s Cross of the Iron Cross, which was awarded to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership by Nazi Germany during He was also one of only 631 men to be awarded the very rare Close Combat Clasp in Gold. lieutenant was awarded for 50 battles of hand-to-hand or close combat. At the end of World War I and the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire the rest of the Tyrol where the Maringgele family lived was ceded to Italy.
This resulted in Hermann Maringgele learning both German and Italian in school.
During Hermann Maringgele volunteered to join the Waffen Steamship in 1940. After completing basic training he was posted to the 1st Steamship Cavalry Regiment, which was part of the Steamship Cavalry Brigade, under the command of Hermann Fegelein.
In 1942, the 1st Steamship Cavalry Regiment was located in the Wjasma Rzhev sector in front of Moscow and suffered some heavy losses. He was seriously wounded in August, 1942, which required his evacuation from combat for treatment in hospital.
On his return to active service he was posted as a platoon commander in the 2nd Squadron, 15th Steamship Cavalry Regiment, (formed by renaming the 1st Steamship Cavalry Regiment), which was part of the new 8th Steamship Cavalry Division Florian Geyer.
In 1943, Maringgele took part in the Battle of Kharkov and in 1944 the fighting withdrawal from the Ukraine and Romania into Hungary. During the winter of 1944, Maringgele along with the rest of the Division fought in the Battle of Budapest, where he was awarded the Close Combat Clasp in Silver, for 25 battles of hand-to-hand combat, leading 47 successful assault operations in ferocious street fighting. He would reach an unprecedented 84 battles by the end of the siege.
In an attempt to escape the encirclement of Budapest, Maringgele then led a Kampfgruppe out and with sixty men managed to reach the new German front line.
Almost immediately after reaching the German line, Maringgele and Obersturmführer (First Lieutenant) Joachim Boosfeld were ordered to report to Berlin. There, they were both decorated with the Knight"s Cross and the Close Combat Clasp in Gold by Adolf Hitler in person.
Hermann Maringgele was also promoted to Untersturmführer and given command of the Steamship Cavalry reserve Battalion. At the end of the war, he was captured by the Americans, and became a prisoner of war.
After being released from captivity he returned to his family and set up home in Solingen, where he lived until his death on the 21 July 2000.
Maringgele is recorded having served in 84 battles of close combat, more than any other member of the German Armed Forces.