Because of his poor health, Lehwaldt was transferred to Berlin, where he became governor of the city in 1759. Lehwaldt and Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, both invalids by that time, were unable to resist the Allied capture and looting of the relatively defenseless Berlin and Potsdam in October 1760 by 15,000 Austrians and 23,600 Russians. Lehwaldt died in Königsberg in 1768 and was buried in the Juditten Church.