 Gertrud von Hindenburg was born as Gertrud Wilhelmine von Sperling, the daughter of the Prussian Major General Oskar von Sperling (1814-1872) and his wife Pauline von Klass.Her older brother was infantry general Kurt von Sperling (1850-1914).Sometime in the mid-1870s Gertrud von Sperling met her future husband in Stettin, where he belonged to the General Command of the II Army Corps.