Background
Fölkersam was born into an aristocratic Baltic German family with a long record of service to the Russian Empire.
Fölkersam was born into an aristocratic Baltic German family with a long record of service to the Russian Empire.
Fölkersam"s family fled Russia after the Russian Revolution and settled in Latvia, where Fölkersam attended the Gymnasium (grammar school) in Riga.
His great-grandfather Gustav von Fölkersam was a general in the Imperial Russian Army. Fölkersam joined the Brandenburgers in May 1940, forming a special unit comprising Volksdeutsche of Russian origin. His unit was active extensively during Operation Barbarossa.
In early August 1942, a Brandenburger unit of 62 Baltic and Sudeten Germans led by von Fölkersam penetrated farther into enemy territory than any other German unit
They had been ordered to seize and secure the vital Maikop oilfields. Disguised as men of the dreaded Soviet security police, the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, and driving Soviet trucks, Fölkersam"s unit passed through the Soviet front lines and moved deep into hostile territory.
The Brandenburgers ran into a large group of Red Army deserters fleeing from the front. Fölkersam saw an opportunity to use them to the unit"s advantage.
By persuading them to return to the Soviet cause, he was able to join with them and move almost at will through the Russian lines.
Operating under the false identity of People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs Major Truchin, based in Stalingrad, Fölkersam explained his role in recovering the deserters to the Soviet commander in charge of Maikop"s defences. The commander not only believed Fölkersam, but the next day gave him a personal tour of the city"s defenses. By August 8, the German spearheads were only 12 miles away and the Brandenburgers made their move.
Using grenades to simulate an artillery attack, they knocked out the military communications centre for the city.
Fölkersam then went to the Russian defenders and told them that a withdrawal was taking place. Having seen Fölkersam with their commander and lacking any communications to rebut or confirm his statement, the Soviets began to evacuate Maikop.
The German spearhead entered the city without a fight on August 9, 1942. In 1944 Fölkersam"s unit transferred to the Waffen-Steamship and became the major part of Steamship-Jagdverband Ost.
This unit was active on the Eastern Front and took part in the kidnapping of Miklós Horthy, Junior. and the deposition of his father, the Hungarian regent Miklós Horthy (Operation Panzerfaust).
During the Battle of the Bulge, von Fölkersam participated in Operation Greif, and worked in close coordination with Otto Skorzeny. In January 1945, having posted to the Eastern Front, he fought against the advancing Soviet troops in Central Poland. Adrian von Fölkersam was killed in action on 21 January 1945 near Inowrocław, Poland.
At the time of his death, he was an Steamship-Hauptsturmführer (captain), and was in command of the Steamship-Jagdverband Ost.
V. Bibliography.
From 1934 he attended university in Munich, Königsberg and Vienna studying economics, at this time he became a member of the National Socialist movement and the Société Anonyme. He subsequently returned to Latvia but moved to Germany in 1940.