Gerhard von Schwerin

Gerhard von Schwerin
Gerhard von Schwerin
Born	(1899-06-23)23 June 1899 Hanover
Died	29 October 1980(1980-10-29) (aged 81) Rottach-Egern
Allegiance	German Empire  Weimar Republic  Nazi Germany  West Germany
Service/branch	Army
Years of service	1914–20, 1923–45.
Rank	General der Panzertruppe
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
Other work	Political advisor

World War I

Gerhard von Schwerin (23 June 1899 – 29 October 1980) was a German general during World War II.

Gerhard von Schwerin was born to a Prussian aristocratic family 1899; his father was a civil official in the Prussian State Government. At the age of 15 entering the military cadet school at Koslin. Joining the Prussian Army's 2nd Foot Guards Regiment as a Fahnrich (commissioned officer cadet), he subsequently transferred to the 2nd (1st Pomeranian) Grenadier Regiment.

Schwerin saw action with the infantry on both the Eastern and Western fronts in 1918 whilst still a teenager, serving as a company commander and battalion adjutant. He was wounded in action on 26 September 1918, and hospitalized until the war's end in November 1918. In 1918 he was awarded the Iron Cross for gallantry in action, both 2nd Class and 1st Class.

Schwerin was discharged from the army in 1920. He spent the following two years engaged in a managerial business apprenticeship with a coffee import firm in Bremen, and a petroleum company in Berlin. In 1922 he rejoined the Reichswehr as a professional soldier, being commissioned with the rank of lieutenant into the Prussian Army's Infantry Regiment No.1. In 1931 he joined Infantry Regiment No.18 in Paderborn. He was promoted to captain in May 1933. From 1933 to 1935 he attended the General Staff course at the Prussian Military Academy in Berlin. Whilst Schwerin was at the Academy the German Chancellor Adolf Hitler seized autocratic governing power in a paramilitary political revolution in Berlin, abolished the Weimar Republic state with the passing into law of the Enabling Act of 1933, and declared an ideological militarist dictatorship titled the III Reich, fundamentally altering the post-World War 1 political order in Europe. In October 1938 Schwerin was promoted to the rank of major. At the end of the 1930s he was a staff-officer with Oberkommando des Heeres (Supreme High Command on the German Army).