Friedrich Wilhelm von Oertzen

Friedrich Wilhelm von Oertzen (October 5, 1898 – July 8, 1944) was a nationalistic German journalist. He fought in the First World War, in which two of his brothers were killed. At the end of the war, during the November Revolution, he joined the Freikorps and later wrote a history of the outfit. He played an important role in the capture of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, who were immediately executed. Afterwards, he fought against Polish insurgents in Upper Silesia and spent the rest of his career writing anti-Polish screeds. In 1924, he began his journalistic career, writing on international and military affairs from a right-wing, irridentist perspective. Over the course of the 1930s and early 1940s, Oertzen maintained his nationalist outlook but seems to have become increasingly skeptical of Hitler and the Nazis. Nevertheless, he volunteered for the Wehrmacht in 1944 and was killed on the Eastern Front.