page_title: 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen
section_title: Commanders
hierarchical_section_title: 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen / Commanders
context_page_description: The 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen" was a German mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS during World War II. It served only in occupied Yugoslavia. The Waffen-SS was the armed wing of the German Nazi Party that served alongside but was never formally part of the Wehrmacht. Formed in 1941 from both Germans and Volksdeutsche volunteers and conscripts from the Banat, Independent State of Croatia, Hungary and Romania, the division fought a counter-insurgency campaign against communist-led Yugoslav Partisan resistance forces in the German-occupied territories of Serbia and Montenegro, and in the NDH. It was given the title Prinz Eugen after Prince Eugene of Savoy, an outstanding military leader of the Habsburg Empire who liberated the Banat and Belgrade from the Ottoman Empire in the Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18. It was initially named the SS-Freiwilligen-Division Prinz Eugen.
context_section_description: The following officers commanded the division:
  SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS Artur Phleps (30 Jan 1942 – 15 May 1943)
  SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS Karl Reichsritter von Oberkamp (15 May 1943 – 30 Jan 1944)
  SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS Otto Kumm (30 Jan 1944 – 20 Jan 1945)
  SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS August Schmidthuber (20 Jan 1945 – 8 May 1945)
caption: Otto Kumm as an SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) in March 1943. Kumm commanded the 7th SS through some of its hardest fighting in 1944, and ended the war with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords.
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