Günther Hubertus von Reibnitz (8 September 1894 – 2 March 1983) was a cavalry officer in the German army during the First World War. He joined the Nazi Party in 1930 and was a member of the SS Cavalry Corps.
Reibnitz married four times and was the father of Princess Michael of Kent. Two of his grandchildren, Lord Frederick Windsor and Lady Gabriella Windsor, are in the line of succession to the British throne. They are also great-grandchildren of King George V.
Life
Reibnitz was a member of an ancient Reibnitz family, Silesian landowners, whose first recorded ancestor Henricus de Rybnicz was mentioned already in 1288. Günther was the son of Baron () Hans Egon von Reibnitz (1856–1918), who, on 19 February 1887 had married Baroness Ida von Eickstedt (1867–1937), a member of the von Eickstedt family, in Gieraltowitz, Upper Silesia. Reibnitz was born on 8 September 1894 at Mistitz in the Prussian province of Silesia, now called Miejsce Odrzańskie, having since become part of Poland. He was educated at the Royal Prussian Military Academy at Berlin-Lichterfelde, from which he graduated at the end of 1913.
Commissioning
In March 1914 he was commissioned as an ensign into the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg 2nd Regiment of Dragoons, No. 18, in Parchim. In August 1914, soon after the beginning of the First World War he was severely wounded and captured, remaining a prisoner of war of the French for most of the duration of the war. On 20 September 1918, shortly before Reibnitz was released in exchange for a French officer, his father died in Berlin.
Post-First World War
After the war, in the lead-up to the plebiscite to resolve competing German and Polish territorial claims in Upper Silesia, Reibnitz and his brother Joachim founded two regiments of German irregulars (), aiming to guard the border on the River Oder from Cosel to Ratibor.
First marriage
On 12 Jul 1921, Reibnitz married firstly Margherita von Seherr-Thoss (1893–1962), the widow of Friedrich Ernst Graf von Seherr-Thoss (1881–1918), and a daughter of Gustav Schoen by his marriage to Elisabeth Wentzel. Thereafter, he took over the management of her estate of Długomiłowice in Upper Silesia. Their daughter Margarita was born there on 18 January 1924. After separating from his wife, Reibnitz established a farm at Hahnenvorwerk, near Silverberg in Silesia, breeding animals for the fur trade. In 1933, this activity ended when he was appointed to the honorary position of Regional Director of Hunting for Silesia. On 1 December 1930 Reibnitz joined the Nazi Party, becoming member number 412855. On 15 April 1933 he then became a member of the Cavalry SS, with the SS number 66010.
Reibnitz and his first wife were divorced at Breslau on 15 April 1931. On 15 July 1937, his mother died at Groß-Grauden, Silesia, now Grudynia Wielka in Poland.