Home > Erich Ludendorff

Ludendorff was born near Posen (now Poznan) in present-day Poland, then in Prussia. Though, strictly speaking, not a Junker himself Ludendorff's entré into the Junker class was via his mother, Klara von Tempelhoff, the daughter of a prominent Junker family.

Commissioned as an officer at 18, he made a splendid military career, appointed to the German General Staff in 1894, serving as head of the deployment section in 1908 assisting with the fine-tuning of the invasion strategy for France, the Schlieffen PlanThe Schlieffen Plan the German General Staff's overall strategic blueprint for victory on the western front against France in the years up to 1914, takes its name from its author, Alfred Graf von Schlieffen. In essence it envisaged a rapid German mobilisa.

In World War I Ludendorff was first appointed quartermaster general to Germany's Second Army, under Karl von Bülow , responsible for capturing the forts of LiègeThe city of Liege ( Dutch: Luik German: Luttich on the Meuse River is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Liege, of which it is the capital. On January 1, 2004, Liege had a total population of 185,488 (90,431 males and 95,057 females) and ab, without which the Schlieffen Plan could not succeed. This task successfully accomplished, Ludendorff was sent to East PrussiaEast Prussia ( German: Ostpreussen Polish: Prusy Wschodnie Russian: Vostochnaya Prussiya was a province of Kingdom of Prussia, situated on the territory of former Ducal Prussia. The northern part of East Prussia corresponds today to Russia's Kaliningrad O where he worked with Paul von HindenburgPaul von Hindenburg (full name Paul von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg ( October 2, 1847 August 2, 1934) was a German general and politician born in Posen in Prussia (now Poznan, Poland), as the son of the Prussian Robert von Beneckendorff und von Hinde as his Chief of StaffThe term Chief of Staff can refer to: The White House Chief of Staff, the highest-ranking member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States. The head of the Prime Minister's Office of Canada The most senior aide in the office of state g.

Hindenburg relied heavily upon Ludendorff in crafting his victories in the Battle of Tannenberg (1914)For the 1410 battle at the same location, refer to Battle of Grunwald Battle of Tannenberg Conflict World War One Date August 17 to September 2, 1914 PlaceNear Tannenberg ResultDecisive German victory Combatants Germany Russia Commanders Field Marshal Pau and the Battle of Masurian Lakes .

From August 19161916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) Events January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. Impressionist Monet paints Water Lilies'. January 8 Allied forces withdraw from Hindenburg, adjointed by Ludendorff, was Chief of Staff of the German Armed Forces, creating what was effectively a military-industrial dictatorship, the Third Supreme Command , largely relegating the Kaiser, Wilhelm II, to the periphery. Ludendorff was the chief engineer behind the management of the German war effort during this time, with Hindenburg his pliant front man.

Ludendorff was a supporter of unrestricted submarine warfare, ultimately responsible for bringing USA into the war.

With Russia's withdrawal from the war in 1917, Ludendorff played a key role in the advantageous Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918.

Ludendorff realised that the war was lost once the following West-Front offensive failed, aware that with the arrival of fresh American troops the impetus would quickly swing to the Allies. He therefore, with Hindenburg, transferred power back to the Reichstag on September 29, demanding an immediate peace, whereafter he left Germany for Sweden.

In exile, he wrote numerous books and articles mythologizing the German military's conduct of the war, practically founding the Dolchstoßlegende, claiming that the army had been "stabbed in the back" by left-wing politicians.

Ludendorff eventually returned to Germany in 1920, where as a right-wing politician he took part in Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch ( 1923).

In 1924 he was elected to the Reichstag as a representative of the Nazi party, serving until 1928. He lost the 1925 presidential election against his former commander, Paul von Hindenburg.

A highly militaristic man, Ludendorff held that peace was merely the interval between wars, and that the nation's chief duty was to provide the means with which to conduct war.