Wilhelm Meisel

Wilhelm Meisel (4 November 1891 – 7 September 1974) was an Admiral of the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during World War II and a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

Meisel was born in Zwickau and joined the Navy as a midshipman in 1913. During the First World War he served on the battlecruiser , the light cruiser and the . He later served as a staff officer on Torpedo boats and was interned in Scapa Flow. After the scuttling of the High Seas Fleet he was held as a POW by the British and repatriated in 1921.

During the 1920s Meisel commanded a torpedo boat flotilla and held several staff posts and commanded the in 1929.

During World War II Meisel commanded a destroyer flotilla in the invasion of Poland of 1939 and was appointed commander of the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper in 1940. He was made Chief of Staff of Naval Group west in 1943 and Chief of Naval staff in 1943.

Awards Iron Cross (1914) 2nd Class (17 March 1915) & 1st Class (15 April 1917) Hanseatic Cross of Hamburg (June 1916) Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939) 2nd Class (26 October 1939) & 1st Class (8 May 1940) Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd class (Japan)