Franz Ritter von Epp

Franz Xaver Ritter von Epp, from 1916 Ritter von Epp, was a German general and politician, who had started his military career in Imperial German Army. Succeeded and merited military service during war brought him a knighthood in 1916. After the armistice of Germany and dissolution of Empire, von Epp was a commanding officer in Freikorps and Reichswehr. He was member of Bavarian Peoples Party before joining with Nazi Party in 1928, when he got elected as a member of German parliament, Reichstag, to the position he held until the end of Third Reich. He acted as Reichskommissar, later Reichsstatthalter, for Bavaria in 1933.

Franz Epp was born in Munich in 1868, the son of the painter Rudolph Epp and Katharina Streibel. He spent his school years in Augsburg and after this joined the military academy in Munich. He served as a volunteer in East Asia during the Boxer rebellion in 190001 and then became a company commander in the colony of German SouthWest Africa , where he took part in the bloody Herero and Namaqua Genocide. During the First World War, he served as the commanding officer of the Royal Bavarian Infantry Lifeguards Regiment in France, Serbia, Romania, and at the Isonzo front.

Source: Wikipedia