Otto Freiherr von Brandenstein
(21.10.1865 - 08.08.1945)
place of birth:  Hohenstein, Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Königreich Preußen:  AK-Stabschef,  Generalmajor  (Kav)


Generalmajor von Brandenstein served as an Imperial German cavalry officer during the Great War. He was deployed to both the Western and Eastern Fronts as a corps-level chief of staff and later as a brigade commander. Brandenstein graduated from Gymnasium and in 1885 joined the Mecklenburg Dragoner-Regiment Nr. 18 as a Fahnenjunker (officer candidate.) After commissioning as a Sekonde-Lieutenant in 1887, he was tasked as the cavalry regiment's adjutant for the next seven years. He spent approximately nine years as a general staff officer and in 1912 was assigned command of Garde-Dragoner-Regiment Nr. 23.

As German forces pushed into Belgium and France in August 1914, von Brandenstein functioned as General von Hollen's chief of staff with Höheres Kavallerie-Kommando Nr. 4 (4th Cavalry Corps.) As the fighting in northern France settled into trench warfare, HKK-4 was dispatched to the Prussian-Polish border area of the Eastern Front and was engaged near Przasnysz. When the cavalry divisions of HKK-4 were dissolved in December 1914, Brandenstein was sent back to the Flanders region to serve as chief of staff in VII. Armee-Korps headquarters, under the command of General von Claer. In February 1915, however, Brandenstein received orders to the Kurland region (Western Latvia) to take command of his old unit, Garde-Dragoner-Regiment Nr. 23. Here he was wounded and after a couple weeks of convalescence, returned to the front lines as temporary commander of 16. Kavallerie-Brigade.

After his August 1915 promotion to Oberst, Brandenstein was acting commander of 22. Kavallerie-Brigade during the Battle of Vilnius, returning to his Dragoon regiment later that October. He was once again lightly wounded during the 1916 springtime Battle of Postawy. From September 1916 through April 1917, Brandenstein commanded Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 22 during fighting in Romania's Carpathian Mountains. He spent the rest of 1917 heading up 30. Infanterie-Brigade during heavy fighting in Flanders. As 1917 came to a close, he once again returned to Kurland in order to lead the troops of 3. Garde-Kavallerie-Brigade.

In April 1918, Baron von Brandenstein's cavalry brigade was reformed into the so-called Detachment Brandenstein, a 3,000 man unit which landed at Loviisa, Finland to help fight the Finnish Civil War. The unit was assigned the task of disrupting the Bolshevist's railway connections and cutting the supply lines between Helsinki and Viipuri. The detachment was later subordinated to the Baltic Sea Division, commanded by General Rüdiger Graf von der Goltz. For his involvement in helping purge Finland of the Bolshevist insurgents, Oberst von Brandenstein was awarded the Pour le Merite upon recommendation from General Ludendorff. August of 1918 found him back in France in command of Infanterie-Brigade-Kommando Nr. 6. Brandenstein retired at the end of the War with the rank of Generalmajor, and he was later brevetted as a Generalleutnant on 27 August 1939 for Tannenberg Remembrance Day. After his retirement, Baron von Brandenstein returned to Mecklenburg to oversee his estate located near Goldberg. In 1945, he was murdered by Russian activist soldiers.

	Generalmajor	18.10.1918
	Pour le Mérite	15.05.1918