Marinebrigade Ehrhardt
Gottberg was born in East Prussia, to an old Farther Pomeranian aristocratic family. After a training in agricultural management, from 1912, he fought in World War I, serving from 2 August 1914. He served through nearly the entire war, receiving numerous bullet and shell wounds, and was decorated with the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class. Along with other demobilised officers, he then joined the "Marinebrigade Ehrhardt" (a "Freikorps"). Gottberg returned to East Prussia in 1924, finished his agricultural training and until the end of the 1920s managed personal estates near Königsberg.