Some of the early promotions to the rank included Ernst Röhm, Viktor Lutze, Edmund Heines, August Schneidhuber, and Fritz Ritter von Kraußer.

[8] A number of men were promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer in 1934, these being Fritz Weitzel, Richard Walther Darré and Walter Buch.

The year 1936 saw several promotions to the rank, including Friedrich Jeckeln who would become one of the most infamous SS and police leaders on the Eastern Front during World War II.

The last pre-war promotion to the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer was in April 1939 for Friedrich Graf von der Schulenburg who died the following month.

During the Second World War, there were 88 promotions to the rank, of which 22 were considered regular officers of the Waffen-SS and the rest members of the Allgemeine SS.

Sepp Dietrich remained senior, having served as General der SS-VT (SS-Verfügungstruppe) upon the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

Two SS officers would be demoted from the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer: Rudolf Hess and Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff.

Helldorff was a unique case, in that his SS rank had been bestowed for technical reasons in order to command the Berlin Police.

Several men with the rank would die during World War II; some of the more notable being Heydrich, Eicke, and Artur Phleps.