Harry von Rochow

Harry von Rochow grew up on the family estate in Brandenburg as the son of Major Hans von Rochow. After attending the military school in Waldstedt, he began his military career with the 16th (Altmark) Uhlan Regiment “Hennigs von Treffenfeld” of the Prussian Army in Gardelegen. As one of the best German riders in eventing, then First Lieutenant von Rochow riding his horse Idealist competed in both the individual and team events alongside First Lieutenant Eduard von Lütcken, Captain Carl von Moers, and Lieutenant Richard Graf von Schaesberg-Tannheim against the favoured teams from Sweden, France, and the USA, winning the silver medal in both disciplines at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm.

Von Rochow served during World War I in the cavalry on the Eastern Front and was severely wounded by a lunge shot. He was transported to a Russian military hospital and eventually to a POW camp, from which he fled. Von Rochow returned to the army in 1917 as a captain in the 1st (Silesian) Life Cuirassier Regiment, attached to the Royal Stables in Berlin. In 1919, he inherited his family’s property, Gut Reckahn in Brandenburg, and worked in Trakehner horse breeding and livestock farming. In the same year, he married Hertha von dem Hagen auf Gollwitz und Plötzin, the widow of his eldest brother, who fell in World War I. They resided in Gollwitz Castle.

In 1937, von Rochow’s health deteriorated as his war wound became infected, and he developed lung cancer. He was captured by Russian soldiers and severely wounded by a bayonet stabbing. Although he was immediately taken to the Brandenburg hospital, he never recovered. As a reserve officer, von Rochow reached the rank of lieutenant colonel by 1945.