Erich Ludendorff
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Image:VonLudendorff.jpg Erich Ludendorff (sometimes given incorrectly as Erich von Ludendorff) (April 9, 1865 – December 20, 1937, Tutzing, Bavaria, Germany) was a German Army officer, noted as a general during World War I.
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Early Years
Ludendorff was born in Kruszewnia near Posen, Prussia (now Poznań, Poland). Though, strictly speaking, not a Junker himself, Ludendorff was loosely connected to the privileged class through his mother, Klara von Tempelhoff. He grew up on a small family farm and received his early schooling from his maternal aunt. His acceptance into cadet school at Plön was largely due to his excellence in mathematics and extraordinary work ethic that he would carry with him throughout his life. Ludendorff and Heinz Guderian attended the same cadet school, which produced many well trained German officers.
Rise in the Military
Commissioned as an officer at 18, he began what appeared to be a promising military career. He was appointed to the German General Staff in 1894, serving as head of the deployment section in 1908. Ludendorff was involved in testing the minute details regarding the Schlieffen Plan, scoping out the fortifications in the Belgian fortress city of Liege. Most importantly, he valiantly attempted to prepare the German army for the war he saw coming, a proposition that many dismissed. Consequently, the Social Democrats in the Reichstag seldom approved army expenditures, the building up of its reserves or the funding of advanced weaponry such as Krupp's siege cannons. What finances were given to the military went directly towards the Kaiserliche Marine. Due to his adament position, Ludendorff was dismissed from the General Staff and harshly demoted to the head of a Fusileers division as the army betrayed Ludendorff, succumbing to outside pressures. Ludendorff was convinced that his prospects in the military were a thing of the past, but dutifully took to the helm of his mildly important position. Without World War I, Ludendorff probably would have been right.
World War I
In World War I Ludendorff was first appointed Deputy chief of staff to Germany's Second Army, under Karl von Bülow, as he was knowledgeable about capturing the forts of Liege. This was a crucial part of the Schlieffen Plan. This task accomplished, Ludendorff was sent to East Prussia where he worked with Paul von Hindenburg as his Chief of Staff. Hindenburg relied heavily upon Ludendorff and Hoffmann in crafting his victories in the battles of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes.
In August of 1916, when Falkenhayn resigned as Chief of the General Staff — the Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL or "Supreme Army Command"), Hindenburg took his place with Ludendorff as his First Generalquartiermeister — his Deputy Chief of Staff. Ludendorff was the chief manager of the German war effort throughout this time, with Hindenburg his pliant front man. Ludendorff advocated unrestricted submarine warfare, which was ultimately an important factor responsible for bringing the USA into the war.
Their so-called Third Supreme Command or "Third OHL", was effectively a military-industrial dictatorship, which largely relegated Kaiser Wilhelm II to the periphery. They meddled with domestic politics to the point of forcing the resignation of government ministers, including the Chancellor himself three times in a row; they then held an effective veto over appointments in the state hierarchy.
With Russia's withdrawal from the war in 1917, Ludendorff played a key role in the Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918. Effective commander-in-chief on the Western Front in 1918, Ludendorff planned and executed a series of German offensives which came close but failed to collapse the Entente (see Operation Michael). The massive American military buildup made Germany's position untenable, causing Ludendorff to lose his nerve and transfer power back to the Reichstag on September 29. He demanded an immediate peace, whereafter he left Germany for Sweden.
Reflections on the War, a Look to the Future
In exile, he wrote numerous books and articles about the German military's conduct of the war while forming the foundation for the Dolchstoßlegende, which he was also largely responsible for. Ludendorff was convinced that Germany had fought a defensive war and in his opinion, Kaiser Wilhelm II had failed to organize a proper counter-propaganda campaign or provide efficient leadership. Ludendorff was also extremely suspicous of the Socialist Democrats and leftists, who appeared to sell out Germany through the Versailles Treaty. Ludendorff also claimed that he paid close attention to the business element (especially the Jews), and saw them turn their backs on the war effort by letting profit dictate production and financing rather than patriotism. Again focusing on the left, Ludendorff was appalled by the strikes that took place towards the end of the war and saw the homefront collapse before the front, with the former poisoning the morale of the soldier on temporary leave. Most importantly, Ludendorff felt that the German people as a whole had underestimated what was at stake in the war: he was convinced the Entente had started the war and was determined to dismantle Germany completely.
In what has proven to be somewhat prophetic, Ludendorff wrote "by the Revolution the Germans have made themselves pariahs among the nations, incapable of winning allies, helots in the service of foreigners and foreign capital, and deprived of all self-respect. In twenty years' time, the German people will curse the parties who now boast of having made the Revolution."{My War Memories, 1914-1918}
Political Career
Ludendorff eventually returned to Germany in 1920. Ludendorff's political philosophy and outlook on the war effectively influenced Hitler, who largely admired Ludendorff. 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.
Before the Nazi rise to power, the Weimar Republic planned to send him and several other noted German generals (von Mackensen, et al) to reform the National Revolutionary Army of China, but this was cancelled due to the limitations of the Treaty of Versailles and the image problems with selling such a noted general out as a mercenary.
After 1928, Ludendorff went into retirement, having fallen out with the Nazi party. He concluded that the world's problems were the result of Christians, Jews and Freemasons; together with his second wife Mathilde, he founded the "Bund für Gotteserkenntnis" (Society for the Knowledge of God), a small and rather obscure esoterical society that has survived until today. In his later years, many believed Ludendorff to be little more than an eccentric. He rejected Hitler's offer to make him a field marshal in 1935. At his death in 1937, he was given a state funeral attended by Hitler.
External links
- Erich Ludendorff Firstworldwar.com Who's Who
- Ludendorff by H. L. Mencken published in the June 1917 edition of the Atlantic Monthly
- Biography of Erich Ludendorff From Spartacus Educational
Bibliography
- General Erich Ludendorff, My War Memoirs, 1914-1918. 2v. ("Meine Kriegserinnerungen 1914-1918", written in Sweden, 1919).
- Donald James Goodspeed, Ludendorff: Genius Of World War I, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1966.
- John Lee, The Warlords: Hindenburg And Ludendorff (Great Commanders S.)
- Robert B Asprey, The German High Command at War: Hindenburg and Ludendorff and the First World War, Time Warner, 1994.bs:Erich Ludendorff
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