Gerhard Helmut Detleff Graf[Note 1] von Schwerin (23 June 1899 – 29 October 1980) was a German General der Panzertruppe during World War II.

Along with the suggestion that Great Britain's and Germany's best interests would be served by Neville Chamberlain being replaced as prime minister by Winston Churchill, Schwerin advocated that pressure for an internal military coup by anti-Nazi elements of the Wehrmacht, of which he was aware, could be induced by the deployment of a squadron of Royal Navy battleships taking up a hostile position off Germany's Northern shore in the Baltic Sea, and by the Royal Air Force moving elements of its Bomber Command to a pre-battle theatre station in French airfields, as a means of indicating the British Empire's ultimate willingness for a confrontation with the Nazis.

However, Schwerin's representations to the British Government may have contributed to its collective assessments which were ongoing at that time as to how to deal with Adolf Hitler, and to the decision to make a stand on the Polish border eight months later rather than somewhere else.

From November 1942 he commanded the 16th Panzer Grenadier Division on the Eastern Front (being promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general in June 1943), being involved in the fighting around Stalingrad, and subsequently being awarded the Oak Leaves and also the Swords of the Knight's Cross (personally presented by Adolf Hitler at a ceremony in the Berghof on Schwerin's arrival back in Germany) for his handling of the Division during the retreat from Russia whilst harried continually by overwhelming pursuing Soviet forces.

[2] During the fighting with the American and British Empire forces that had entered France in 1944, Schwerin was temporarily removed from the command of 116th Division after a difference of opinion with a superior, but was re-appointed to the post shortly afterwards.

[8] As the American Army's advance crossed the Belgian border into Germany, it approached the town of Aachen where the remnants of Schwerin's 116th Panzer Division were deployed.

Coming to the conclusion that his force didn't possess the strength to deny the town to the Allies, and an attempt to do so would be a tactically futile loss of life and endangerment of the town's civilians, several thousand of whom had not been evacuated from what was now about to become the fighting line,[9] and also to try to protect the city's historical architecture and relics from being destroyed - Aachen being the ancient capital and crowning site of the kings of the Holy Roman Empire - Schwerin unilaterally decided to withdraw from Aachen and declare it an open town without seeking approval from superior command, in a manner similar to what General Dietrich von Choltitz had done in Paris two weeks earlier.

Schwerin wrote a communique, which he left at the town's post office, for the approaching American commander notifying him of this decision and requesting that he treat the remaining German civilian population humanely.

On reading the communique's content, they ordered Schwerin be immediately relieved of command and placed under close-arrest, and organized Colonel Gerhard Wilck being sent in to replace him at the head of the 116th Division.

[10] With the aid of Field Marshals Gerd von Rundstedt and Walter Model, Schwerin received only a severe reprimand for his actions at Aachen.

The honour of the street name was withdrawn in 2008 after local political opposition in the town, upon the basis that while Schwerin was briefly Aachen's military commandant, two teenage boys had been summarily executed for looting.

The first marriage was with Herta Kannengiesser; the second was with Julia Zulich, two children resulting: Gabrielle (b. August 1932) and Christian (b. January 1939), two grandsons Alex von Rutenberg and Maximilian zu Sayn Wittgenstein.