Originally formed in 1921, it was known as the Wachregiment Berlin[3] and served as a ceremonial guard unit and by the 1939 had grown into a regiment of the combined Wehrmacht German armed forces.

[4] The division was assigned to XXXXVIII Panzer Corps during the opening phases of Fall Blau, the Wehrmacht's 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia.

During the buildup period, a regiment of two battalions were equipped with the new Panther tanks, which were plagued by technical problems, suffering from engine fires and mechanical breakdowns before reaching the battlefield.

[11] After the Kursk offensive was canceled, the division was transferred back to Army Group Center and resumed its role as a mobile reserve.

[14] Over the next months, Großdeutschland was involved in heavy fighting in both East Prussia, including a counter-attack on Wilkowischken and the Baltic States, suffering high casualties in both men and materiel.

[citation needed] Eight hundred men of the division were evacuated on ferries via the Baltic Sea and surrendered to British forces in Schleswig-Holstein on May 9.

During the battle of France, soldiers of the division perpetrated the summary executions of hundreds of Black prisoners of war in French service.

These executions were racially motivated, as German troops had been conditioned by Nazi propaganda to see Black people as subhuman.

[19] The book German Army and Genocide mentions the following incident, from the invasion of Yugoslavia: When one German soldier was shot and one seriously wounded in Pancevo, Wehrmacht soldiers and the Waffen SS rounded up about 100 civilians at random...the town commander, Lt. Col. Fritz Bandelow conducted the Courts Martial...The presiding judge, SS-Sturmbannführer Rudolf Hoffmann sentenced 36 of those arrested to death.

In postwar war crimes trials, reprisal killings were deemed to be illegal, a conclusion enshrined in international law by the United Nations.