Lutz Graf Schwerin Von Krosigk - Early Life

Early Life

He was born Johann Ludwig von Krosigk in Rathmannsdorf, Anhalt, Germany to a father from an old noble family of Anhalt and a mother who was a daughter and heiress of a Count (Graf) von Schwerin, a member of the same family as Richardis of Schwerin, Queen of Sweden. He studied law and political science at Halle, at Lausanne and as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. During World War I, he served in the German Army, finally as a First Lieutenant, and was awarded the Iron Cross. In 1918, Krosigk married Baroness Ehrengard von Plettenberg (1895–1979), with whom he had four sons and five daughters. In 1922, he became an Oberregierungsrat (senior government official) and 1929, ministerial director and superior of the budget department at the finance ministry. In 1931, he joined the department of reparations payments, formed to deal with the reparations Germany owed the Allied Powers after World War I.