Charged with the killing of Franz Xaver Holzhey [de] in the closing days of the war, Tolsdorff was convicted in 1954 but acquitted in 1960 in trials that drew substantial public interest and media coverage.

Tolsdorf was born on 3 November 1909, in the family estate in Lehnarten in the Province of East Prussia, a state of the German Empire.

He was the youngest of four children and only son of Theodor Tolsdorff, who had served in the military during World War I as a Hauptmann (captain) in the artillery.

[1] Tolsdorff was five years old in 1914 when his mother briefly evacuated the estate following the invasion of East Prussia by the Russian First Army, led by Paul von Rennenkampf.

He attended the Gymnasium (advanced secondary school) in Königsberg, present-day Kaliningrad, and following the death of his father on 19 October 1919 took over the family estate and became a farmer.

Tolsdorff's convoy of 31 vehicles drove down from the mountains loaded with his personal baggage, liquor, cigars, cigarettes, and his girlfriends.

Private Edward Heffron took Tolsdorff's Luger pistol and a briefcase containing Iron Cross medals and a stash of pornographic pictures.

[15] In 1954, he faced charges for the execution of Franz Xaver Holzhey, an army captain and First World War veteran, on 3 May 1945.

[17][18] The same year, Tolsdorff was hired by Deutsche Asphalt GmbH, presently owned by Strabag Group,[19] and held a position of manager until 1969, when he took over the branch office in Dortmund.