He fought in the First World War and was severely wounded on 26 September 1914 in the Forest of Argonne, which resulted in the amputation of his left arm.

After a long recovery, Heydebreck returned to the front line in the spring of 1916 and, with the rank of Hauptmann, he was deployed as a company and battalion commander at Verdun, in Romania, Italy and on the Somme.

Adolf Hitler reestablished the Nazi Party in February 1925, after the ban imposed on it following the failed Beer Hall Putsch was lifted.

[9] Heydebreck was one of the eleven victims named by Hitler in his speech to the Reichstag of 13 July 1934 justifying his actions in ordering the executions.

[11] However, despite his execution and official ostracism, the Nazis did not rename the Silesian town named after him and it continued to be called Heydebreck until it was ceded to Poland following the end of the Second World War.

In May 1957, the former SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer Sepp Dietrich was sentenced to 18 months in prison as an accessory to manslaughter due to his role in the firing squad that executed Heydebreck and the others.