Fritz-Dietlof Von Der Schulenburg - Personal Development

Personal Development

Von der Schulenburg was born in London, as his father Friedrich Bernhard Graf von der Schulenburg was the German Empire's military attaché in the British capital. His mother was Freda-Marie (née von Arnim, 1873). Von der Schulenburg and his four brothers as well as his sister Tisa von der Schulenburg grew up, as a result of the nature of their father's work, in various places, among them Berlin, Potsdam, Münster, and the family's mansion, Schloss Tressow. In accordance with traditional Prussian noble practices, the children were at first strictly educated privately by a governess.

In 1920, von der Schulenburg did his Abitur in Lübeck, and thereafter chose not to pursue a career as a military officer, which had been the family tradition, but rather he studied law in Göttingen and Marburg. At that time, he became a member of the Corps Saxonia Göttingen (a Studentenverbindung), during his membership in which he sustained several sword gashes — traditionally called Schmisse in German — the result of traditional Studentenverbindung fighting. He bore the scars with a certain pride. In 1923, he did the state examination in Celle and became for the next five years a government trainee in Potsdam and Kyritz. In 1924, he interrupted his training for three months and went on a steamship as a sailor to South America. In 1928, he completed his training and became a graduate civil servant (Assessor) in Recklinghausen.

Von der Schulenburg saw himself as part of the national élite, which was first and foremost defined by the two pillars that upheld the state, the military and the civil service. Citizens outside these structures were to him, at best, "civilians" or simply the mob. However, this élite saw itself as a very patriarchal system in which officials and military men had at the same time the job of acting in the people's best interests. For this reason, von der Schulenburg busied himself with such themes as agrarian debt and land reform. His romantic vision of the farming community and of social justice soon brought him the nickname "roter Graf" ("the Red Count") from his colleagues. Nevertheless, it was also clear that von der Schulenburg's stance was against any left-wing current.