Walther von Brauchitsch
Haeften was born in Berlin, the son of Hans von Haeften (1870–1937), an army officer and President of the "Reichsarchiv", and his wife the former Agnes von Brauchitsch (1869–1945), a relation of Walther von Brauchitsch. His siblings were Elisabeth (1903-1980) and Werner (1908–1944). He passed his Abitur in 1924 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf and then studied law, which took him as an exchange student to the University of Cambridge.