Strachwitz was born in 1893 on his family estate in Silesia. He was educated at various Prussian military academies and served in World War I. He was taken prisoner by the French forces in October 1914. He returned to Germany after the war in 1918. He joined the "Freikorps" and fought against the Spartacist uprising of the German Revolution in Berlin, and in the Silesian Uprisings. In the mid-1920s he took over the family estate from his father and became a member of the Nazi Party and the "Allgemeine-SS".