Franz Ritter von Epp Franz Xaver Ritter von Epp ( 16 October 1868 – 31 December 1946 ) was a regular officer in the Imperial German Army of the early part of the 20th century , who rose to the office of " Reichsstatthalter " of Bavaria , a position of dictatorial power , under the Nazis . Life . Military career . 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 1900 – 01 and then became a company commander in the German colony " Deutsch - Südwestafrika " ( now Namibia ) , where he took part in the bloody Herero and Namaqua Genocide . During the First World War , he served as the commanding officer of a Bavarian regiment , the " Infanterie - Leibregiment " , in France , Serbia , Romania and at the Isonzo front . For his war service , he received a large number of medals , the Pour le Mérite ( 29 May 1918 ) being the most prominent . He was also knighted , being made " Ritter von Epp " on 25 February 1918 , and received the Bavarian Militär - Max Joseph - Orden ( 23 June 1916 ) . Freikorps . After the end of the war he formed the " Freikorps Epp " , a right - wing paramilitary formation mostly made up of war veterans , of which future leader of the SA Ernst Röhm , was a member . It took part in the crushing of the Bavarian Soviet Republic in Munich , being responsible for various massacres . He joined the Reichswehr and was promoted to Generalmajor in 1922 . He took his leave from the German army after getting involved with right - wing associations in 1923 . When it became necessary for the NSDAP to purchase a newspaper to publicize its political creed , Epp made available some 60 , 000 Reichsmarks from secret army funds to acquire the " Völkischer Beobachter " , which became the daily mouthpiece of the Nazi party . As the Sturmabteilung expanded , it became an armed band of several hundred thousand men , whose function was to protect and guard Nazi rallies and to disrupt those of other political parties . Some of its leaders , particularly Roehm , visualized the SA as supplanting the regular army when Hitler came to power . To this end a department was set up under Epp called the Wehrpolitisches Amt ( Army political office ) . Nothing came of this , as the role of the SA was dramatically recast after the Night of the Long Knives . Career in parliament . Epp became a member of the German parliament , the Reichstag , for the Nazi Party after leaving the Bavarian People ' s Party in 1928 , holding this position until 1945 . He served as the Nazi Party ' s head of its Military - Political Office from 1928 to 1945 , and later as leader of the " German Colonial Society " , an organization devoted to regaining Germany ' s lost colonies . Reichskommissar of Bavaria . Epp ' s final notable historical action occurred on 9 March 1933 , two weeks before the Reichstag passed the enabling act which granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers . On the orders of Hitler and Wilhelm Frick he abolished the Government of Bavaria and set up a Nazi regime . He became " Reichskommissar " , later " Reichsstatthalter " , for Bavaria in 1933 , in this position clashing with Bavaria ' s Nazi prime minister Ludwig Siebert , with Siebert eventually succeeding Epp . Epp ' s attempt to limit the influence of the central government into Bavarian politics failed . Epp however continued in his post as " Reichsstatthalter " until the end of the war , politically insignificant . Arrest and death . He was arrested on Paul Giesler ' s orders in 1945 , being associated with the " Freiheitsaktion Bayern " , led by Rupprecht Gerngroß , a group opposed to the Nazis . Epp however did not want to be directly involved with the group as he considered their goal , surrender to the allies , a form of backstabbing of the German army . Suffering from a heart condition , he was hospitalized at Bad Nauheim at the end of the war . On 9 May 1945 , a clerk at the hospital alerted agents from the US Counter Intelligence Corps that von Epp was a patient there , and he was arrested and sent to a prison camp in Munich to await trial at Nuremberg . His health deteriorated due to anxiety and depression and he died in detention on 31 December 1946 .