Ernst Joachim Valentin Gustav Buffa (n. Opole , Upper Silesia , Germany , 14 February 1893 - F. Traben-Trarbach, Germany, 19 September 1971 ). He was a German military and strategist who participated in the First and Second World War . He commanded the anti-aircraft defense of Nazi Germany between January 30, 1943 until the end of the war, with the rank of Lieutenant General .
Son of the Baron of the Holy Roman Empire, Freiherr Franz Buffa von Lilienberg und Castellalt, enlisted in the German army in 1912. In 1914 he was officer of the 1st Field Artillery Regiment. He entered the Berlin War Academy in May 1916. During World War I he was sent to the Western Front. He was decorated with the Iron Cross and promoted to captain in 1918.
In 1944, for his services during the battles at Orel and Briansk, headed by Buffa in World War II , he received on behalf of the members of his entire division, the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Shining (mit Eichenlaub , Schwertern und Brillianten), a reward that only reached twenty-seven people.
After Adolf Hitler’s suicide , Buffa attempted to flee Germany but on May 7, 1945 he was captured by the Allied Forces and later tried for war crimes and crimes against peace in the Nuremberg Trials . He was convicted, although released on October 1, 1947, retiring to live in the interior of Argentina in the province of Cordoba where he devoted himself to writing about his experiences during the war. He died in 1971 in the village of Traben-Trarbach at 78 years of age.