When Friedrich-Wilhelm Alexander Karl von Schlieffen was born on 5 May 1923, his father, Leo Henning Wilhelm Graf von Schlieffen, was 61 and his mother, Irmengard Cécile Elise Christiane von Quistorp, was 32. He married Gertrud Wilhelmine Hermine Luise von Rose on 4 December 1946. He died on 20 July 2009, at the age of 86.