He was the recipient of many decorations for his leadership, including the Order Pour le Mérite with Oakleaves, Prussia's highest military honor.

Friedrich Bertram Sixt von Armin was born on 27 November 1851 in Wetzlar, an exclave of the Rhine Province, Kingdom of Prussia, as the son of Heinrich Joseph Jacob Sixt von Armin (†1872), a career officer, and Amöne, née Hiepe (†1901).

Another, Hans-Heinrich, was also career officer, reaching the rank of Generalleutnant (lieutenant general); he was taken a prisoner of war in 1942 and died in the Soviet Union in 1952.

[9] On 17 April 1886, he was promoted to Hauptmann and transferred to the auxiliary establishment (Nebenetat) of the Great General Staff.

[14] On 15 July 1893, he was transferred to the Great General Staff[15] and on 18 August 1896, he was named a battalion commander in Magdeburgisches Füsilier-Regiment Nr.

[16] On 22 March 1897, he was promoted to Oberstlieutenant and on 20 July 1897 he became Chief of the General Staff of the XIII (Württemberg) Army Corps in Stuttgart.

[22] In this capacity he also served as deputy plenepotentiary to the Bundesrat of the German Empire, chairman of the Reichs-Rayon-Kommission,[23] and member of the Imperial Disciplinary Court (Reichsdisziplinarhof).

[30] At the end of September 1914, as part of the Race to the Sea, the corps was transferred to the 6th Army in the Artois region, where it remained in trench warfare until mid-1916.

The 4th Army was forced to give more ground in the Fifth Battle of Ypres, including losing control of the Flanders coast and the key submarine bases there.

[40] On 29 November 1918, Sixt von Armin took command of Army Group Crown Prince Rupprecht from its namesake, Field Marshal Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, and led the formation, redesignated Army Group A, in the withdrawal from Allied territory back to Paderborn, where Sixt von Armin's command was demobilized.

[43] After the war, Sixt von Armin lived in Magdeburg, Province of Saxony, where he was a popular speaker and made frequent appearances at public events.