Gustav von Below.

About Gustav von Below

Gustav Ernst Anton Wilhelm Ewald von Below was the son of Livonian born Prussian hauptmann Karl Gustav von Below (1759–1840) and Charlotte Wilhelmine von Woedtke (1757–1798), one of three brothers and two sisters. The family owned several estates in Pomerania, including Gatz, where Gustav was born, and Reddentin where he died. Like most male members of his family and class, he joined the Prussian Army. However, led by figures such as Ernst von Senfft-Pilsach, many of the military aristocracy from Pomerania reacted against the luxuriousness of court life in Berlin after the Napoleonic Wars and became deeply religious, under the influence of Pietism, which was especially strong in this part of the Kingdom of Prussia.