Otto von Brandenstein


Otto Hans Karl August Freiherr von Brandenstein was a German officer. On 27 August 1939, Tannenbergtag, he received the Charakter as honorary Lieutenant General of the Wehrmacht.

Life

Freiherr von Brandenstein joined the Prussian Army as an officer candidate in 1885 and served with the 2nd Grand Ducal Mecklenburg Dragoon Regiment No. 18 in Parchim. He was promoted to Oberstleutnant in 1913. During World War I, Brandenstein served in the Western Front as a staff officer under the command of the generals Gustav Freiherr von Hollen and Eberhard von Claer.
In 1918, Colonel Freiherr von Brandenstein was the commander of the brigade-sized cavalry unit Detachment Brandenstein which landed in Loviisa, Finland on 3 April. The detachment served in the Finnish Civil War and fought on the side of the Finnish Whites. After the Battle of Lahti, the unit was attached to the Baltic Sea Division.
Colonel von Brandenstein was awarded the Pour le Mérite on 15 May 1918 and promoted to Major General on 18 October 1918. He resigned from the German Army on 27 February 1919.

Death

On 8 May 1945, lord of the manor Otto Freiherr von Brandenstein and his estate secretary were murdered by Soviet troops and buried in a trench by the Bolsheviks. The two were later recovered and buried in the cemetery of the village church in Unter Brüz.
Baroness von Brandenstein was dispossessed and forced to leave Mecklenburg with her two daughters, who had been living with her and had endured terrible violations. The family Bible remained in the Goldberg rectory. After the German reunification, the valuable heirloom was returned to her granddaughter Gisela von Dallwitz in Hamburg in 1990.

Family

Otto was the son of Werner Hans Georg Joachim Freiherr von Brandenstein and his wife Minka Auguste Caroline Henriette, née von Arnim. His father was a retired Rittmeister First Class in the Austo-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Army and co-owner of the fiefdoms of Hohenstein and Heinrichswalde. His mother was the daughter of the lord of the manor Hans Carl Friedrich von Arnim and his wife Auguste Wilhelmine Sophie Marie, née von Heyden. Otto had six siblings.

Marriage

First Lieutenant von Brandenstein married his fiancée Elisabeth Auguste Friederike Julie von Passow on 19 June 1896 in Grabow. The marriage produced five children:
  • Ilse Margarete Minka Marie ; ∞ September 1920 Otto von Dallwitz
  • Margarethe Therese Elisabeth Johanna
  • Marie Martha Lilla Wolfine Andrea Johanna
  • Irmgard Minka Christine Carola Victoria
  • August Werner David Rudolf Georg
  • * Werner Freiherr von Brandenstein was killed in action on 8 August 1944, as a captain of the reserves on the Eastern Front west of Szafranow.

Promotions

Awards and decorations