Gustav von Alvensleben

He was born in Eichenbarleben in 1803, to the Low German noble family of Alvensleben. His parents were Gebhard Johann von Alvensleben (1773-1856), a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Prussian Army, and his kinswoman Caroline Friederike Eleonore von Alvensleben (1773-1826). Gustav had four brothers; two of them, Werner and Constantin, would go on to serve in the military as generals.

Von Alvensleben joined the Prussian Army in 1821, serving in the Kaiser Alexander Guards Grenadiers Regiment No. 1 as a Second Lieutenant.[1] In 1849 von Alvensleben became Chief of Staff of the Prussian Corps in the insurrection in Baden and, in 1850, Chief of Staff of the VIII Army Corps. He went on to become the military governor of the Prussian Rhine Province and Westphalia in 1854, and the personal adjutant of King William I of Prussia in 1861. In this position he signed the Alvensleben Convention with Russia to co-ordinate Russian and Prussian politics throughout the Polish January Uprising.[2]

He served in the Royal headquarters in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and led the peace negotiations with George V of Hanover. On 30 October 1866 he took over the command of the IV Corps. In 1868 Alvensleben was promoted to General der Infanterie and commanded the IV Corps in the Battles of Beaumont and Sedan during the Franco-Prussian War.

He eventually retired on 10 October 1872, and died unmarried and childless on 30 June 1881 in Gernrode.