a war correspondent role in the Waffen-SS. He was transferred to the SS Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler in May 1942 and became a company commander in the SS Division Hitlerjugend in May 1943. He was promoted to Hauptsturmführer on 21 June 1944 and severely wounded six days later, losing his right arm. After recovery from his injuries Ruckdeschel spend time in a SS training unit before serving as an inspector of the Volkssturm from January 1945 onward. It was at this point that he was promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer. Ruckdeschel, according to the historian Ian Kershaw, was a fanatical Nazi. After Gauleiter Wächtler left Bayreuth on 13 April 1945 ahead of advancing US forces, Ruckdeschel denounced his long-term rival as a coward and deserter. On orders from Martin Bormann, he led an SS contingent that executed Wachtler on 19 April. He then served as the Acting Gauleiter and Reich Defense Commissioner of Gau Bayreuth in the final weeks of the war. In post-war Germany Ruckdeschel was arrested in August 1947 and sentenced to eight years in jail the following year for attempted manslaughter and negligence for the execution of two citizens of Regensburg, one of them the preacher Johann Maier, who had advocated the peaceful surrender of the city. The sentence was expanded to 13 years in 1949. Released in 1952 he worked for Volkswagen until 1968 and died in Wolfsburg in 1986. References External links History of the Gauleiters of Bavaria Historisches Lexikon Bayerns of the Bavarian State Library 1907 births 1986 deaths People from Bayreuth People from the Kingdom of Bavaria German Protestants Nazi Party politicians Members of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany Gauleiters SS-Sturmbannführer Waffen-SS personnel Sturmabteilung personnel Volkswagen Group people Nazis convicted of crimes Prisoners and detainees of Germany Heads of government who were later imprisoned Volkssturm personnel