Brauchitsch was born in Berlin on 4 October 1881 as the sixth child of Bernhard von Brauchitsch [de], a cavalry general, and his wife, Charlotte Bertha von Gordon. The Brauchitsch family had a long tradition of military s… See more

At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Brauchitsch had reached the rank of captain. He was appointed staff officer to the XVI Army Corps, stationed near Metz. During World War I, he served with the 34th Infantry Div… See more

In 1918, together with thousands of other officers, he was dismissed to the Reserve Corps. But the next year he was back as a major. The German military underwent a forced reduction in 1919 to comply with the Treaty of V… See more

In 1933, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power and began to expand the military, in order to realize Hitler's military ambitions. On 1 February 1933, Brauchitsch was named commander of the East Prussian military dist… See more

During the invasion of Poland, Brauchitsch oversaw most plans. The Polish campaign was often cited as the first example of "blitzkrieg", but blitzkrieg was not a theory or an official doctrine. The campaign did not resemble t… See more