Oberste Heeresleitung The Oberste Heeresleitung or OHL ( Supreme Army Command ) was Germany ' s highest echelon of command of the German Army ( " Heer " ) in World War I . Formation . The law made Emperor Wilhelm II the Commander - in - chief of the German Army , but the generals at the OHL made decisions largely on their own . At the end of the war they had practically superseded the government as the center of political power . However , the Imperial German Navy was led by the Admiralty Staff , from August 1918 by the " Seekriegsleitung " ( Naval Warfare Command , SKL ) . Co - ordination was poor at the beginning of the war between OHL and SKL : the Imperial Navy did not even know about the Schlieffen Plan of an initial attack on France through Belgium . At the start of the war on 1 September 1914 , the commanders of the Prussian , Saxon , Württemberg and Bavarian troops joined forces in the OHL . Colonel general Helmuth von Moltke ( 1848 - 1916 ) , nephew of the legendary Helmuth von Moltke the Elder and a close confidant of the emperor , was appointed chief of the Great German General Staff . His subordinate as Quartermaster General was Hermann von Stein . However , Moltke was compelled to resign after 14 days upon the failure of the Schlieffen Plan in the Marne offensive . The Prussian War minister Erich von Falkenhayn was appointed as his successor . Abandoning the initial plans , he threw the German Army into the Race to the Sea , which ended in the First Battle of Ypres . Von Falkenhayn came into conflict with the emperor and his General Staff colleagues , when he — despite the German victories at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes — pleaded for a peace agreement with Russia . Especially the commanders of the 8th Army on the Eastern Front , General Paul von Hindenburg and Major general Erich Ludendorff reacted with fierce protest . Already in January 1915 , von Falkenhayn was replaced as War Minister by Adolf Wild von Hohenborn . On the Western Front , he advocated a " war of attrition " ( " Abnutzungsschlacht " ) which showed its limitations in the Battle of Verdun . Third OHL . Upon Falkenhayn ' s failure , the " Tannenberg Hero " Hindenburg on 29 August 1916 took over the supreme command . His chief - of - staff Ludendorff , who had instigated Falkenhayn ' s demission , was appointed deputy chief of the " Third OHL " in the rank of a Quartermaster general ( " Generalquartiermeister " ) . Hindenburg and Ludendorff had worked successfully in the same relative position on the Eastern Front . By his rhetoric and intellectual skills , Ludendorff was the actual chief manager of the German war effort throughout this time , with Hindenburg his pliant front man . Together , they acted as like military dictators , superseding both the emperor and Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann - Hollweg . The third OHL made serious political and strategic mistakes . While the public wanted peace , the OHL by the Hindenburg Programme of a total war strategy sought victory at all costs . Ludendorff ordered the resumption of the U - boat Campaign , which provoked the United States entry in to the war . The OHL ensured safe passage for Lenin and his accomplices from Switzerland to Russia . It negotiated the peace of Brest - Litovsk only to be able to attempt a victory on the Western front in 1918 . Ludendorff was succeeded as Quartermaster General in October 1918 by Wilhelm Groener . The German collapse followed soon after , and in November 1918 the OHL was moved from Spa in eastern Belgium to Schloss Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel , in order to supervise the withdrawal of the German armies from enemy territory . In July 1919 it and the Great General Staff were disbanded by order of the Treaty of Versailles .