Ludwig von der Leyen

Ludwig von der Leyen
Birth name	Ludwig Friedrich von der Leyen
Birth date	17 August 1885(1885-08-17)
Place of birth	Charlottenburg near Berlin, Province of Brandenburg, German Empire
Death date	3 February 1967 (aged 81)
Place of death	Malente, Lower Saxony, West Germany
Allegiance	German Empire Weimar Republic National Socialist Germany
Service/branch	Prussian Army Schutztruppe Imperial German Army Freikorps Reichswehr Heer
Years of service	1903–1945
Rank	Generalleutnant
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Awards	Iron Cross House Order of Hohenzollern
Relations	∞ 1911 Erna Anna Helene Schrader

Ludwig Friedrich von der Leyen (1885–1967) was a German officer of the Prussian Army, the Schutztruppe, the Imperial German Army, the Freikorps, the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht, finally Lieutenant General of the Heer in World War II.

Career (chronology)

Ludwig von der Leyen

Rangliste 1927

Hans-Georg von Zanthier (1) and Ludwig von der Leyen (2), among others

• Entered Army Service (01 Oct 1903)
• Fahnenjunker in the Guards-Rifle-Battalion / Garde-Schützen-Battailon of the Garde-Korps (01 Oct 1903-07 Feb 1910)
• Transferred to the Protection Troop in Kamerun (07 Feb 1910-01 Feb 1912)
• Transferred back into the Guards-Rifle-Battalion (01 Feb 1912-01 Oct 1913)
• Detached to the War Academy (01 Oct 1913-01 Aug 1914)
• Company-Leader (Kompanieführer) in the Guards-Rifle-Battalion (01 Aug 1914-00 Jan 1915)
• With the Replacement-Battalion of the Guards-Rifle-Battalion (Jan 1915-00 Nov 1915)
• Adjutant with the General-Command of XXI. Army-Corps (Nov 1915-00 Aug 1916)
• With the Staff of the General-Command of X. Army-Corps (Aug 1916-00 Jan 1917)
• In the General-Staff of the 20th Landwehr-Division (Jan 1917-00 Apr 1917)
• With the General-Staff of Army-Group Kronzprinz Rupprecht von Bayern (Apr 1917-00 Apr 1918)
• Chief of Operations (Ia) in the General-Staff of the 220th Infantry-Division (Apr 1918-01 Oct 1919)
• 20 December 1918 Return to the Garde-Schützen-Bataillon for demobilization
• Early February 1919 Company Commander in the Freikorps Garde-Schützen
  • Other sources claim he served in the Freikorps „Lützow“ of the Garde-Kavallerie-Schützen-Division.
• 28 April 1919 Transferred z. b. V. (for special use) to the XVII. Armee-Korps (Heimatschutz West in Kassel) under General der Infanterie Otto Ernst Vinzent Leo von Below
• End June 1919 Transferred z. b. V. (for special use) to the Armee-Oberkommando Nord in Bartenstein, Ostpreußen (Oberkommando Grenzschutz Nord)
• 1 October 1919 Aide-de-camp with the Reichswehr-Gruppenkommando 3
• 31 March 1920 Transferred to the Reichswehr-Schützen-Regiment Nr. 4 as General Staff Officer in Kolberg
• Company Commander in the 6th Infantry-Regiment (01 Oct 1920-01 Feb 1922)
• Advisor in the Training-Department T4, RWM (Feb 1922-01 Feb 1925)
  • 20 February 1922 transfer ordered with effect from 1 March 1922
• With the Staff of Infantry-Leader I (01 Feb 1925-01 Mar 1928)
• Instructor at the Infantry School (01 Mar 1928-01 Nov 1930)
• Commander of III. Battalion of the 6th Infantry-Regiment (01 Nov 1930-01 Feb 1933)
• Commandant of the Fortifications around Lötzen (Ostpreußen) / Kommandant der Befestigungen bei Lötzen (01 Feb 1933-01 Apr 1938)
• Commander of the 12th Division in Schwerin (1 April 1938 to 10 March 1940)
  • Poland Campaign; his successor was Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach
• General of Infantry (title, not rank) with the Commander-in-Chief East / General der Infanterie beim Oberbefehlshaber Ost (01 Apr 1940-00 Jun 1940)
• Military-Replacemwnt-Inspector (Wehrersatzinspekteur/Inspekteur der Wehrersatz-Inspektion) Allenstein (Jun 1940-15 Nov 1940)
• Military-Replacement-Inspector (Wehrersatzinspekteur/Inspekteur der Wehrersatz-Inspektion) Metz (15 Nov 1940-00 Sep 1944)
• Rhine-Commandant (Rhein-Kommandant) Mainz (Sep 1944-00 Nov 1944)
• Führer-Reserve OKH (Sep 1944-28 Feb 1945)
• Retired (28 Feb 1945)

Family

Ludwig was the son of the railroad lawyer and honorary professor Real Privy Councilor (Wirklicher Geheimrat; Wirklicher Geheimer Oberregierungsrat) Dr. jur. Alfred Friedrich von der Leyen (1844–1934) and his wife Luise Isabella Kapp (1852–1908). Luise was the daughter of Friedrich Kapp (German-American lawyer, writer, and politician) and sister of Wolfgang Kapp (member of the Reichstag and leader of the Kapp Putsch). He had four siblings:

• Friedrich Gustav (1873–1966), Prof. Dr. phil., philologist as well as Germanic medievalist and folklorist; ∞ 29 March 1901 in Hamburg Antonie Bertha Helene Asher (1874–1950)
• Elisabeth "Else" Karoline (1874–1908), Dr. med. (since 9 July 1901) in Berlin, one of the first female students to enroll at the medical faculty of the University of Heidelberg; On 26 September 1908, she died in an accident on the elevated railway at the Berlin Gleisdreieck while driving to see a patient; ∞ 1907 Oskar Louis Rosenthal (d. 12 March 1942 in China due to typhus); daughter Marie-Luise (b. 1908), studied German and worked at the Academy of Sciences in Berlin until she retired in 1973.
• Margarete Johanna (1875–1956); ∞ 5 September 1901 in Berlin Prof. Dr. phil. Felix Jacoby (1876–1959); three children: Hans (1902–1980), Eduard Georg (1904–1978) and Annemarie (b. 1905).
• Ruth Ida (1888–1935), trained welfare worker, reformer of psychopath welfare in Germany and author

Marriage

On 12 September 1911, Leutnant von der Leyen married in Deutsch-Wilmersdorf (since 1912 Berlin-Wilmersdorf) his orphaned fiancée Erna Anna Helena Schrader (b. 23 March 1887 in München), daughter of wealthy lord of the manor (Rittergut Waldhof) Rudolf Ludwig Eduard Schrader (d. 14 November 1901 in Berlin-Schöneberg) and his wife Anna Maria Luise, née Rosenow (d. 9 April 1908 in Königsberg).

Promotions

Prussian Army

• Fahnenjunker (1 October 1903)
• Oberjäger (27 January 1904)
• Fähnrich (24 April 1904)
• Leutnant (27 January 1905 with Patent from 28 January 1904)
• Oberleutnant (27 January 1913)

Imperial German Army

• Hauptmann (24 December 1914)
  • 1 February 1922 received rank seniority (RDA) from 24 December 1914

Reichswehr

• Major (31 January 1927 with effect from 1 February 1927)
• Oberstleutnant (1 April 1931)
• Oberst (1 October 1933)

Wehrmacht

• Generalmajor (1 October 1936)
• Generalleutnant (1 June 1938)

Awards and decorations

BArch PERS 6/712 (excerpt)

• Prussian Order of the Crown (Preußischer Kronenorden), 4th Class with Swords on 10 July 1911
• Colonial Medal (Kolonial-Denkmünze) mit der Spange (with the clasp) "Kamerun 1911", 1912
• Iron Cross (1914), 2nd and 1st Class
  • EK II on 16 September 1914
  • EK I on 24 December 1916
• Friedrich-August-Kreuz, 2nd and 1st Class (OK1) on 30 January 1917
• Brunswick War Merit Cross (Herzoglich Braunschweigisches Kriegsverdienstkreuz), 2nd Class (BrK2) on 27 February 1917
• Hanseatic Cross of Hamburg (HH) on 19 September 1917
• Military Merit Order (Bavaria), 4th Class with Swords (BMV4⚔/BM4⚔) on 19 November 1917
• Lippe-Detmold War Merit Cross (Lippisches Kriegsverdienstkreuz; LK) in 1918
• House Order of Hohenzollern, Knight's Cross with Swords (HOH3⚔) on 30 September 1918
• German Knight Cross (Deutschritter-Kreuz des Grenzschutzkommandos Abschnitt West) in 1919
• Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 with Swords
• Wehrmacht Long Service Award (Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung), 4th to 1st Class on 2 October 1936
• Repetition Clasp 1939 to the Iron Cross 1914, 2nd and 1st Class
  • 2nd Class on 19 September 1939
  • 1st Class on 2 October 1939

Writings

• Memories of life (Lebenserinnerungen)
  • among other things, his service with the Schutztruppe in Cameroon and as a general staff officer in World War I, with the Commander-in-Chief East in 1940, as Military Replacement Inspector in Allenstein 1940 and Metz 1940 to 1944 and as commandant of the Rhine in Mainz in 1944