When Eberhard von der Osten was born on 6 December 1899, in Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, his father, Dinies Karl Theodor von der Osten, was 33 and his mother, Cassandra Elisabeth Octavia Julia von Neumann, was 20. He married Erika Henzler on 12 September 1942. He died on 18 May 1967, in Wetzlar, Lahn-Dill-Kreis, Hessen, Germany, at the age of 67.