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


The highly decorated Imperial German officer Ludwig von Estorff spent much of his pre-War military service in German Southwest Africa as part of the Schutztruppen colonial forces. War's outbreak found Generalmajor von Estorff on the Western Front in command of 68th Infantry 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
	Pour le Mérite ....................	06.09.1917