German courtier and criminal suspect Leberecht von Kotze was BOTD in 1850. Born in Berlin to a military family, he served in the cavalry of the Prussian Imperial Army, attaining the rank of captain before retiring from active service. In 1879, he married 1879, he married Elisabeth von Treskow, with whom he had a daughter. After leaving military service, he was appointed was lord chamberlain and master of ceremonies at the court of Kaiser Wilhelm II. In 1891, he helped the Kaiser’s sister Charlotte von Preußen organise an orgy at a hunting lodge in Berlin, attended by high-ranking members of the Prussian aristocracy including Count Friedrich of Hohenau and his wife Charlotte von der Decken. The next day, anonymised letters were sent to the participants, with detailed descriptions and illustrations of the various homosexual and heterosexual acts performed. The letters were leaked to the press, causing a national scandal and widespread anti-Royalist sentiment. A police investigation accused von Kotze of sending the letters, to deflect attention from the Kaiser’s family and the others involved. Arrested in 1894 on the Kaiser’s orders, he was eventually tried by a military court, but acquitted for lack of evidence. Many members of court, including Karl von Schrader and Hugo von Reischach, continued to accuse him of authoring the letters. In 1895, von Kotze demanded retribution, and challenged his accusers to a duel. He was shot in the thigh in his duel with von Reischach; while recovering in hospital, the Kaiser sent him a flower arrangement in the shape of an Easter Egg as a gesture of reconciliation. The following year, von Kotze challenged von Schrader to a second duel, shooting and killing him. He was tried by a military court for Schrader’s death and sentenced to three years imprisonment, but pardoned by the Kaiser a few months later. The scandal of his trial and imprisonment caused his marriage to break down, and he retired to his mountain estate in Schreiberhau. He lived to see Germany’s defeat during World War One, dying in 1920 aged 70. Subsequent academic studies have concluded that von Kotze was not the author of the letters, with suspicion most likely falling on Charlotte von der Decken.