Witold Dzierżykraj-Morawski was born in 1895 in his family's manor in Oporów near Krummensee, Province of Posen, German Empire. At the age of 15 he inherited the manor and the surrounding village. As a German citizen, after the outbreak of the Great War he was drafted into the Imperial German army. Promoted to officer's grade, in December 1918 he joined the newly-reborn Polish Army. A field commander during the Greater Poland Uprising, during the Polish-Bolshevik War he became the chief of staff of the Polish 7th Cavalry Brigade.