Wilhelm Ritter Von Leeb - World War I and After

World War I and After

At the outbreak of World War I, Leeb was on the General Staff of the Bavarian I Corps, then served with the Bavarian 11th Infantry Division. Upon promotion to major, Leeb was transferred to the Eastern Front in the summer of 1916. The following year, he was appointed to the staff of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. On 29 May 1916, for his military achievements on May 2, 1915, Leeb received the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Max Joseph. This was the Bavarian equivalent of the Prussian Pour le Mérite, and its receipt elevated Leeb to the ranks of nobility: on 21 June 1916, he received a patent of nobility, which changed his name by adding the title "Ritter" ("knight") and the German nobiliary particle "von" ("of").

After the war, Ritter von Leeb remained in the Reichswehr, the 100,000-man army permitted Germany under the Treaty of Versailles. In 1923, he was involved in putting down the Nazi Beer Hall Putsch. Then, before the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, von Leeb commanded Wehrkreis VII ("Military District VII", which covered Bavaria) as a major-general.