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Early life

Moltke was born in Parchim, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, son of Generalleutnant Friedrich Philipp Victor von Moltke (1768–1845), a German in Danish service. In 1805, his father settled in Holstein (then a possession of the King of Denmark). But the next year he was left impoverished when during the War of the Fourth Coalition of 1806–1807 French troops burned his country house and plundered his townhouse in Lübeck, where his wife and children were. At nine the younger Moltke was sent as a boarder to Hohenfelde in Holstein, and at age twelve went to the Royal Danish Military Academy at Copenhagen, being destined for the Danish army and court. In 1818 he became a page to King Frederick VI of Denmark and a second lieutenant in the Oldenburg Infantry Regiment. de At twenty-one, Moltke decided to leave Denmark and enter the Prussian army, despite the loss of seniority. In 1822 he became a second lieutenant in the 8th Infantry Regiment stationed at Frankfurt an der Oder. At twenty-three he was allowed to enter the general war school (later called the Prussian Military Academy), where he studied the full three years, graduating in 1826.