Jurgen von Oertzen (?-1941)

Jurgen Von Oertzen was a German student who attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1933-1934 and earned a bachelor's degree with the class of 1934 on June 11, 1934. From Mecklenburg in northern Germany, he was a student at the University of Rostock and was participating in the Institute of International Education's exchange program. The following year, William Woodward, class of 1934, brother of Paul Woodward, class of 1937, studied physics and chemistry at the university in Munich. Known as "Ekky," von Oertzen concentrated his studies in history and economics with the goal of entering the German civil service. He also participated in the varsity soccer team.

When the call for the fifteenth reunion of his class went out in 1949, relatives sent information that on August 21, 1941, Jurgen von Oertzen had been killed in action serving in the German Army during the battle for the Latvian capital of Riga. Latvia had been independent until 1940 when it came under Soviet domination; the German attack was part of the general advance in Hitler's invasion of Russia.

He had married his wife Elizabeth before the war broke out and she and their son and daughter survived the war and lived in western Germany. Unlike other Dickinsonian casualties of the Second World War, von Oertzen does not appear on the plaque in Memorial Hall.

More information about other Dickinson war casualties can be found through the online project "In Remembrance" (see link for related entries below).