that Steiner commanded so that he could participate in a new plan to relieve Berlin. Holste was to attack from the north while General Walther Wenck attacked from the west and General Theodor Busse attacked from the south. The attacks amounted to little, and on 25 April, the Soviet forces attacking to the north and the south of Berlin linked up to the west of the city. Post-war After the surrender, Steiner was incarcerated until 1948. He faced charges at the Nuremberg Trials, but they were dropped and he was released. In 1953, Steiner was recruited by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to found the Gesellschaft für Wehrkunde ("Society for Defense Studies"), composed of former German military officers, as a propaganda tool and a military think tank for West German rearmament. With Paul Hausser, Herbert Gille and Otto Kumm, Steiner became a founding member of HIAG, the lobby group founded by former high-ranking Waffen-SS officers in West Germany in 1951. From his home in West Germany he published Die Freiwilligen der Waffen-SS: Idee und Opfergang ("The Volunteers of Waffen-SS: Idea and Sacrifice") in 1958. Steiner's books and memoirs have been characterised by historian Charles Sydnor as one of the "most important works of apologist literature," together with warfare analyses Grenadiere by Kurt Meyer and Waffen-SS in Action by Paul Hausser. These works demanded rehabilitation of the military branch of the NSDAP, with Steiner's works being important in stressing the theme of the purely military Waffen-SS. A second book was published in 1963 under the title Die Armee der Geächteten (English: "The Army of the Outlaws") and was also tendentious. Steiner died on 12 May 1966, 11 days before his 70th birthday. He never married. Summary of SS career Promotions 1 June 1936 Entrance into the SS-Verfügungstruppe as SS-Standartenführer Started World War II as SS-Oberführer 9 November 1940 promoted SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS 1 January 1942 promoted SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS 1 July 1943 promoted SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS Awards Iron Cross (1914) 2nd Class (9 October 1914) & 1st Class (3 November 1917) Wound Badge (1918) in Black Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939) 2nd Class (17 September 1939) & 1st Class (26 September 1939) German Cross in Gold on 22 April 1942 as SS-Gruppenführer and Generalmajor of the Waffen-SS with the 5. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division "Wiking" Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords Knight's