Ludwig Gustav Adolf von Estorff  
(25.12.1859 - 05.10.1943)
place of birth:  Hannover, Niedersachsen  (Lower Saxony)
Königreich Preußen:  KG,  Generalleutnant


The highly decorated Imperial German officer Ludwig von Estorff spent much of his pre-War military service in German South West Africa as part of the Schutztruppen colonial forces. From 1894 to 1898, Hauptmann von Estorff and his company were engaged in numerous skirmishes with indigenous Herero warriors.  In 1899, he returned to Great General Staff and Colonial Protection Forces Headquarters in Berlin and was promoted. June of 1900 found Major von Estorff back on the African continent, initially for duty with Prussian military forces in German East Africa. He was transferred to Protection Forces headquarters in West Africa in 1901. Estorff remained there until 1911, seeing action during the Herero Uprising and ultimately replacing Berthold von Deimling as commander of Colonial Protection Forces for South West Africa.

Oberst von Estorff returned to Germany in 1911 to command a regiment and then the 68th Infantry Brigade in Metz. The outbreak of World War One found Generalmajor von Estorff on the Western Front with his brigade attached to Crown Prince Wilhelm's Fifth Army (XVI.AK, 34.ID)  He was wounded at Dannevoux in September 1914 and spent the next eight months recuperating. He returned to active duty as a divisional commander, spending the last year of the war in charge of Generalkommando 60.  

Following the Great War, von Estorff temporarily served as military governor of Königsberg and later commanded Gruppenkommando 3 in the Reichswehr. He was placed on inactive reserve status in April 1920, after having been involved in the Kapp Putsch. He retired at the end of the war at the rank of Generalleutnant, but was later awarded the brevet rank of General der Infanterie (charakter) on 27 August 1939 for Tannenberg Remembrance Day. A deeply religious man, General von Estorff later associated with German theologian and anti-Nazi Friedrich von Bodelschwingh, thus became involved with the opposition to the National Socialist movement. He died in 1943 in Uelzen. 

	Generalleutnant	06.06.1916
	DSW-Afrika Medaille	Deutsch-Südwestafrika, Herero Aufstand  1904-06
	Pour le Mérite	06.09.1917