Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist military branch cavalry
Early military career
Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist was born in Braunfels to the noble family Kleist, an old Pomeranian family with a long history of military service. There had been two previous Prussian field marshals, numerous generals and Pour le Mérite recipients in the family. His father was Geheimer Studienrat Christof Hugo von Kleist, a high-ranking civil servant.
At the age of 18, Kleist joined the Prussian field artillery regiment, "General Feldzeugmeister" No. 3 on 9 March 1900 as a fahnenjunker. He was commissioned as a leutnant on 18 August 1901. He became a battalion adjutant in 1904 and regimental adjutant in 1907. After attending the cavalry school at Hanover from 1908-9, he was promoted to oberleutnant in 1910 and was sent to the prestigious War Academy in Berlin, to undergo general staff training. On 22 March 1914 he was promoted to captain and joined the 1st Life Hussars Regiment (Leib-Husaren-Regiment No. 1).During the First World War, Kleist served on the Eastern Front and commanded a cavalry squadron at the Battle of Tannenberg. From 1915 to 1918 he served as a staff officer of the Guards Cavalry Division on the Western Front.Inter-war period
After the First World War ended, Kleist joined the Freikorps and participated in the Latvian and Estonian Wars of Independence as a member of the Iron Division. In June 1919, he led an attack group during the Battle of Cēsis.Kleist joined the Reichswehr in 1920. From 1924 to 1928 he was assigned as a tactics instructor at the Hannover Cavalry School. In 1928 he served as the chief of staff of the 2nd Cavalry Division in Breslau, then from 1929 to 1931 he held the same position in the 3rd Division in Berlin. Kleist was promoted to Colonel in 1931 and was given command of the 9th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment in Potsdam. At the beginning of 1932, he was given command of the 2nd Cavalry Division. In October 1932, he was promoted to Major General.Kleist was a monarchist, and did not heavily involve himself in the politics of the Weimar Republic. He openly favored the restoration of the House of Hohenzollern. After the Nazis seized power the Reichswehr was united with the newly formed Wehrmacht. On 1 December 1933 he was promoted to lieutenant general. In October 1934 he was given command of the "Breslau Army", which was later reorganized into the VIII. Army Corps. In 1935 he was given command of the newly formed military district VIII responsible for Silesia while simultaneously serving as the commanding general of the VIII. Army Corps. On 1 August 1936 he was promoted to General of the Cavalry.
Kleist was a member of the Order of Saint John, an ancient Protestant religious order. In 1935, Prince Oskar of Prussia, the Order's Grand Master, made him a Knight of Justice of the Order.After the war, Kleist claimed that being forced to listen to the proclamation of the antisemitic Nuremberg Laws was a "great humiliation" of his life. On February 5, 1938, during the Blomberg–Fritsch affair when Hitler purged the army of staff who were unsympathetic to the Nazi regime, Kleist was forced to retire from service for his monarchist attitudes. Despite his forced retirement, Kleist received a significant departing honor when he was authorized to wear the uniform of the 8th Cavalry Regiment. According to Kleist, he withdrew from the army because he spoke out too loudly in favor of Christianity and the church, which clashed with Nazi ideology. To secure his retirement, he acquired a property near Breslau.
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