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Karl Freiherr von
Plettenberg
(18.12.1852 - 10.02.1938)
place of birth: Neuhaus bei Paderborn,
Westfalen (Westphalia)
Königreich
Preußen: KG,
Generaladjutant
SM, General der Infanterie
German baron and Imperial general officer
Karl von Plettenberg commanded the elite Guard Corps
during the first two years of the Great War. He
also served as Kaiser Wilhelm II's Adjutant General. Karl was a
descendant of the aristocratic Plettenberg family out of Sauerland,
with one of his ancestors having received the Pour le Merite honor from
King Frederick the Great. Karl's mother was the former Minnette von der
Borch, and his father Eugen served as a Prussian cavalry officer. After
seeing action as a young lieutenant during the Franco-Prussian
War of 1870-71, Karl was selected in 1898 to serve for three
years as an aide-de-camp in Kaiser Wilhelm II's entourage. In 1913, he
was chosen to command the elite Guard Corps in Berlin, and
simultaneously functioned as an Adjutant General to His Majesty.
At the outbreak of the Great War,
von Plettenberg's guards marched into Belgium as a subordinate corps to
General von Bülow's Second Army. Von Plettenberg was awarded the
Pour le Merite in 1915, but in the wake of his criticism of
OHL's execution of the War on the Western Front, he was relieved of his
post in January 1917. He nevertheless remained attached to the Kaiser's
court as Adjutant General. One of General von Plettenberg's soldiers
was his son Karl-Wilhelm, who serving as a lieutenant was killed in
action in August 1914 during the Battle of St Quentin. Another son Kurt
was arrested for participating in the 20 July 1944 plot to kill Adolf Hitler. To
avoid forced testimony against other co-conspirators, he committed suicide in
March 1945 while being detained at the Gestapo's house prison in Berlin. General der
Infanterie Karl von Plettenberg died on 10 February 1938 at Bückeberg where
the street Plettenbergstraße was named after him.
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