Ludendorff, Erich

Ludendorff, Erich (1865-1937), Germany's chief strategist during World War I. Ludendorff was born April 9, 1865, near Posen, Prussia (now Poznán, Poland). He entered the army at the age of 18. Eleven years later, in 1894, he was assigned to the general staff. In the first days of World War I he took command of an infantry brigade on the death of its general and captured the fortress city of Liège, Belgium. Almost immediately afterwards, he was appointed chief of staff to Paul von Hindenburg, the German general then assigned to the command of German forces fighting the Russians in East Prussia. In the Battle of Tannenberg in East Prussia (now Stebark, Poland) in 1914, Ludendorff proved the merit of his contention that annihilation of the enemy was more important than seizure of territory. His overwhelming victory in that battle altered the entire military situation on the eastern front.

After Hindenburg was appointed chief of general staff of all German field armies in 1916, he made Ludendorff his first quartermaster general. The Allies then outnumbered the Germans in men and supplies, and their advantage was increasing. Ludendorff, although nominally concerned chiefly with organizational and supply problems, took advantage of every opportunity to inject himself into the planning and direction of combat operations. It was his skilful strategy that kept alive the possibility of a German victory until almost the end of the war.

Ludendorff fled to Sweden after the signing of the armistice but returned to Germany in 1919 to propagandize for a war of revenge against the victors. In November 1923 he joined Hitler in his abortive putsch in Munich, but he was acquitted in the subsequent trial. From 1924 to 1928, Ludendorff was a member of the Reichstag as a National Socialist, and in 1925 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the German Republic. He died on December 20, 1937.