Marwitz was born in Tuchlin, West Prussia to Alexander von der Marwitz and Marianne née Wysocki. He grew up bilingual German and Polish and attended school in Danzig. He volunteered Blücher's Hussar Regiment No 5 in 1813 in the liberation wars against Napoleon and returned to his father's estate in 1814. Marwitz passed his Abitur in Braunsberg and studied catholic theology and philosophy at the Universities of Breslau, Bonn and in Pelplin in 1825-29.