Karl Freiherr von Plettenberg  
(18.12.1852 - 10.02.1938)
place of birth:  Neuhaus bei Paderborn, Westfalen  (Westphalia)
Königreich Preußen:  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 part of the 20 July 1944 plot to kill Adolf Hitler and was executed at Gestapo headquarters in March 1945. General der Infanterie Karl von Plettenberg died on 10 February 1938 at Bückeberg where the street Plettenbergstraße was named after him.

	General der Infanterie ....	12.04.1910
	Eisernes Kreuz II ..............	Deutsch-Französischer Krieg  1870–1871
	Pour le Mérite ....................	14.05.1915