He left Schutztruppe service on 31 July 1908 and rejoined the Prussian Army on 1 August 1908 with a simultaneous promotion to Oberleutnant and was assigned to the 4.

On 10 August 1914, he was assigned as the Commander of the Infanterie-Stabswache ("Infantry Staff Guard") at the Kaiser's General Field Headquarters.

When he and his wife moved to Germany in 1932, they refused to join the Nazi Party, despite the deleterious effect this had on his business and social connections.

Nevertheless, despite his manifest anti-Nazism, von Lindeiner felt obliged to accept a position in the Luftwaffe in 1937 as one of Hermann Göring’s personal staff.

[2] He unsuccessfully tried to retire on the grounds of ill health, and his appointment to be the Kommandant of Stalag Luft III at Sagan (today Żagań in Poland) in the spring of 1942 during World War II therefore represented an opportunity to serve his country without directly serving the regime he so despised.

Deputy Commandant Major Gustav Simoleit described von Lindeiner as an "honest, open-minded, liberal man [who] influenced and formed with his plans, ideas and orders the whole spirit in the relations between the prisoners and the German personnel".

"[3] The Gestapo investigated the escape and, whilst this uncovered no significant new information, von Lindeiner was removed and threatened with court martial.

In February 1945, he was wounded by Russian troops advancing towards Berlin while acting as second in command of an infantry unit defending Sagan.

Von Lindeiner donated material and a stone for the memorial to the murdered fifty escapees down the road toward Sagan.

[3] Von Lindeiner was imprisoned for two years at the British prisoner of war camp known as the "London Cage".

Friedrich von Lindeiner-Wildau received the Prussian Order of the Crown 4th Class with Swords for the brutal fighting in the German East Africa campaign of 1905–07.

[5] He has been portrayed by Manfred Andrae in the made-for-TV film The Great Escape II: The Untold Story (1988).