Maurice was the fifth son of Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, by his morganatic wife, Anna Louise Föhse.

[1] At Kesselsdorf it was the wing led by the young Maurice that carried the Austrian lines and won his father Leopold's last campaign.

When the king took the field again in 1756, Maurice was in command of one of the columns which hemmed in the Saxon army in the lines of Pirna, and he received the surrender of Rutowski's force after the failure of the Austrian attempts at relief.

At the Battle of Kolin he led the left wing, which, through a misunderstanding with the King, was prematurely drawn into action and failed hopelessly.

At the close of that day, Frederick rode down the lines and called out to General Prince Maurice, "I congratulate you, Herr Feldmarschall!"