German cavalry commander conspicuous early in the Thirty Years' War.

Pappenheim served with the Catholic League, headed by the elector Maximilian I of Bavaria and commanded by Johann Tserclaes, Graf von Tilly (Tilly, Johann Tserclaes, Graf von). Idolized by his regiment of cuirassiers, the Pappenheimers, he proved a tempestuous cavalry officer, always charging ahead of his men, frequently wounded, and ruthless. He fought in the Bohemian War of 1620 and for the next two years campaigned in the Rhine against Ernst von Mansfeld (Mansfeld, Ernst, Graf von), the feared mercenary serving Protestant Bohemia. He then served with the Spaniards in Lombardy and with the Grisons (1623–26). Recalled by Maximilian, he quelled a rebellion of Upper Austrian peasants in 1626 and conquered Wolfenbüttel (1627) in the Danish War. In the Swedish War he showed great courage in storming Magdeburg (1631), skillfully covered Tilly's retreat, and executed independent actions against the Swedes in northwestern Germany. In November 1632 Pappenheim, by this time an imperial field marshal, was mortally wounded while reinforcing Albrecht von Wallenstein's imperial army against the Swedish king at the Battle of Lützen (Lützen, Battle of).