His father was a Rittmeister and estate owner and his uncle was Remus von Woyrsch, a Prussian Field Marshal in the First World War.

Commissioned as a Leutnant in the Prussian Army in August 1914, he served on the eastern front during the First World War and earned the Iron Cross first and second class.

"[6] This included Woyrsch's ordering the execution of his SS rival Emil Sembach, despite a prior agreement with Himmler that he was to be arrested and taken to Berlin.

However, one such dispute with Silesian Gauleiter Helmuth Brückner and other officials resulted in Woyrsch being removed from his command in Dresden and assigned to Himmler's Personal Staff in January 1935.

[8] At this early stage of the war Poland was still considered a military operational area under the command of Generaloberst Gerd von Rundstedt.

On 20 September 1939, they complained that it was having an effect on the morale of German troops who resented that the SS were not fighting the enemy on the front but instead "demonstrating their courage against defenceless civilians."

Ostensibly, his removal was for health reasons but the real issue was conflicts and disputes with Gauleiter Martin Mutschmann whom he accused of cowardice.

[4] According to Richard Grunberger, Woyrsch was part of Himmler's entourage trailing about northern Germany in May 1945 close to the end of hostilities.

[15] In 1957, he was sentenced by a court in Osnabrück to a further 10 years in prison after being convicted as an accessory to six counts of manslaughter for his role in the murders during the Night of the Long Knives, including that of Emil Sembach.