page_title: Erich Ludendorff
hierarchical_section_title: Erich Ludendorff
caption_attribution_description: English: Cropped photograph of German general, Erich Ludendorff
context_page_description: Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff was a German general, politician and military theorist. He achieved fame during World War I for his central role in the German victories at Liège and Tannenberg in 1914. Upon his rise to First Quartermaster-general of the Imperial Army's Great General Staff in 1916, he became the chief policymaker in a de facto military dictatorship that dominated Germany for the rest of the war. After Germany's defeat, he emerged as a leading figure in the nation's right-wing fringe and contributed significantly to the Nazis' rise to power.
  Erich Ludendorff was born on April 9, 1865 to a family of lower nobility in Kruszewnia near the Prussian province of Posen. After completing his education as a cadet, he received his commission as a junior officer in 1885. Later in 1893, Ludendorff received admission to the prestigious German War Academy and was recommended by its commandant to the General Staff Corps only a year later. By 1904, he had rapidly risen through the ranks to become a member of the Army's Great General Staff where he oversaw the development of the Schlieffen Plan.
context_section_description: Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (9 April 1865 – 20 December 1937) was a German general, politician and military theorist. He achieved fame during World War I for his central role in the German victories at Liège and Tannenberg in 1914. Upon his rise to First Quartermaster-general (German: Erster Generalquartiermeister) of the Imperial Army's Great General Staff in 1916, he became the chief policymaker in a de facto military dictatorship that dominated Germany for the rest of the war. After Germany's defeat, he emerged as a leading figure in the nation's right-wing fringe and contributed significantly to the Nazis' rise to power.
  Erich Ludendorff was born on April 9, 1865 to a family of lower nobility in Kruszewnia near the Prussian province of Posen. After completing his education as a cadet, he received his commission as a junior officer in 1885. Later in 1893, Ludendorff received admission to the prestigious German War Academy and was recommended by its commandant to the General Staff Corps only a year later. By 1904, he had rapidly risen through the ranks to become a member of the Army's Great General Staff where he oversaw the development of the Schlieffen Plan.
  Despite temporarily being removed from the Great General Staff for intervening in politics, Ludendorff restored his standing in the army through his success as a commander during World War I. On 16 August 1914, he led the successful German assault on Liège, a feat for which he received the Pour le Mérite. Ludendorff was then transferred to the Eastern Front under the command of General of the Infantry Paul von Hindenburg. There, he was instrumental in inflicting a series of crushing defeats against the Russians such as Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes. By August 1916, he successfully lobbied for Hindenburg's appointment as Chief of the Great General Staff while having himself named First-Quartermaster General. Once he and Hindenburg established a military dictatorship in all but name, Ludendorff became the architect behind Germany's entire military strategy and war effort. In this capacity, he secured Russia's defeat in the East and launched a new wave of offensives in the West resulting in advances not seen since the war's outbreak. However, by the end of 1918, any improvements in Germany's fortunes were reversed after its forces were decisively defeated in the Second Battle of the Marne and the Allies' Hundred Days Offensive. Faced with defeat and the prospect of revolution, the German Emperor, Wilhelm II, forced Ludendorff to resign. 
  After the war, Ludendorff became a prominent nationalist leader, and a promoter of the Stab-in-the-back myth, which posited that Germany's defeat resulted from its army's betrayal by Marxists, Freemasons and Jews who were likewise responsible for the emasculating settlement reached in the Treaty of Versailles. He also took part in the failed 1920 Kapp Putsch and 1923 Beer Hall Putsch before unsuccessfully running for President against his former wartime superior, Paul von Hindenburg. Thereafter, he retired from politics and devoted his final years to the study of military theory. His most famous work in this field was Der totale Krieg (The Total War) where he argued that a nation's entire physical and moral resources should remain poised for mobilization because peace was merely an interval between wars. On 20 December 1937, he died of liver cancer in Munich.
caption: Ludendorff in 1915
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