Ludendorff in 1918

Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (sometimes given incorrectly as von Ludendorff) (April 9, 1865–December 20, 1937, Tutzing, Bavaria, Germany) was a German Army officer, Generalquartiermeister during World War I, victor of Liege, and, with Paul von Hindenburg, one of the victors of the battle of Tannenberg. After the war, he briefly supported Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. He was acquitted of criminal charges for his role in the Nazis' unsuccessful Beer Hall Putsch. He became disillusioned with politics and retired from public life that year. General Erich von Ludendorff, from 1918 magazine This image is in the public domain in the United States and possibly other jurisdictions. ... General Erich von Ludendorff, from 1918 magazine This image is in the public domain in the United States and possibly other jurisdictions. ... is the 99th day of the year (100th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ... is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Bavaria (disambiguation). ... An officer is a member of a military, naval, or if applicable, other uniformed services who holds a position of responsibility. ... A Quartermaster general is the staff officer in charge of supplies for a whole army. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Geography Country Belgium Community French Community Region Walloon Region Province Liège Arrondissement Liège Coordinates , , Area 69. ... Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, known universally as Paul von Hindenburg (2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German field marshal and statesman. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Hitler redirects here. ... The National Socialist German Workers Party (German: , or NSDAP, originally known as the DAP (this changed in 1920) and commonly known as the Nazi Party), was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945 that was known as the German Workers Party before the name was changed in 1920. ... The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed coup détat that occurred between the evening of Thursday, November 8 and the early afternoon of Friday, November 9, 1923, when the Nazi partys leader Adolf Hitler, the popular World War I General Erich Ludendorff, and other leaders of the Kampfbund...

Early years

Ludendorff was born in Kruszewnia near Posen, Province of Posen (now Poznań, Poland), the third of six children of August Wilhelm Ludendorff, descended from Pomeranian merchants, who had become a landowner in a modest sort of way, and who held a commission in the reserve cavalry. Erich's mother, Klara Jeanette Henriette von Tempelhoff, was the daughter of the noble but impoverished Friedrich August Napoleon von Tempelhoff, and his wife Jeannette Wilhelmine von Dziembowska—she from a Germanized Polish landed family, through whom Erich was a remote descendant of the Dukes of Silesia and the Marquesses and Electors of Brandenburg. He is said to have had a stable and comfortable childhood, growing up on a small family farm. He received his early schooling from his maternal aunt and had a flair for mathematics. Kruszewnia is a village in the Greater Poland Voivodeship of Poland. ... Coordinates: , Country Voivodeship Powiat city county Gmina PoznaÅ„ Established 8th century City Rights 1253 Government  - Mayor Ryszard Grobelny Area  - City 261. ... The Province of Posen (German: , Polish: ) was a province of Prussia from 1846-1918. ... Pommern redirects here. ... Not to be confused with Golgotha, which was called Calvary. ... According to the statute, constitution or last will of the Polish duke Boleslaus the Wrymouth Poland was divided into the 4-5 hereditary provinces distributed among his sons, and a royal province of Cracow for the eldest to be the high-duke of all Poland. ... The prince-electors or electoral princes of the Holy Roman Empire — German: Kurfürst (singular) Kurfürsten (plural) — were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Emperors of Germany. ...   (Lower Sorbian: Bramborska; Upper Sorbian: Braniborska) is one of Germanys sixteen Bundesländer (federal states). ...

His acceptance into the 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. Passing his Entrance Exam with Distinction, he was placed in a class two years ahead of his actual age group. Thereafter he was consistently first in his class. Heinz Guderian attended the same Cadet School, which produced many well-trained German officers. Plön is a town in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. ... This article is about the World War II general Heinz Guderian. ...

Despite Ludendorff's maternal noble origins, however, he married outside them, to Margarete née Schmidt (1875–1936). 1875 (MDCCCLXXV) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Rise in the military

In 1885 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 57th Infantry Regiment, at Wesel. Over the next eight years he saw further service as a lieutenant with the 2nd Marine Battalion at Kiel and Wilhelmshaven, and the 8th Grenadier Guards at Frankfurt (Oder). His service reports were of the highest order, with frequent commendations. In 1893 he was selected for the War Academy where the commandant, General Meckel, recommended him for appointment to the General Staff. He was appointed to the German General Staff in 1894, rising rapidly through the ranks to become a senior staff officer with V Corps HQ in 1902–04. In 1905, under von Schlieffen, he joined the Second Section of the Great General Staff in Berlin, responsible for the Mobilization Section from 1904–13. By 1911 he was a full colonel. Wesel is a city (population about 61,689 in 2004) in Germany, located at the point where the Lippe River empties into the Rhine. ... , For the city in the United States, see Kiel, Wisconsin. ... Wilhelmshaven is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. ... Frankfurt (Oder) ( Sorbian/Lusatian: Frankobord ) is a city in Brandenburg, Germany located on the Oder River, on the German-Polish border directly opposite the city of SÅ‚ubice. ... Year 1893 (MDCCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... The German General Staff, (Großer Generalstab, literally, Great General Staff) was an institution whose rise and development gave the German military a decided advantage over its adversaries. ... Alfred Graf von Schlieffen Alfred Graf von Schlieffen (February 28, 1833 - January 4, 1913), German field marshal and strategist, served as Chief of the German Imperial General Staff from 1891 to 1905. ... This article is about the capital of Germany. ...

Ludendorff was involved in testing the minute details regarding the Schlieffen Plan, assessing the fortifications around the Belgian fortress city of Liege. Most importantly, he attempted to prepare the German army for the war he saw coming. The Social Democrats, who by the 1913 elections had become the largest party in the Reichstag seldom gave priority to army expenditures, building up its reserves, or funding advanced weaponry such as Krupp's siege cannons. Funding for the military went to the Kaiserliche Marine. He then tried to influence the Reichstag via the retired General Keim. Finally the War Ministry caved in to political pressures about Ludendorff's agitations and in January 1913 he was dismissed from the General Staff and returned to regimental duties, commanding the 39th (Lower Rhine) Fusiliers ar Dusseldorf. Ludendorff was convinced that his prospects in the military were nil but took up his mildly important position. Alfred Graf von Schlieffen For the French counter-plan, see Plan XVII The Schlieffen Plan was the German General Staffs overall strategic plan for victory on the Western Front against France, and was executed to near victory in the first month of World War I; however, a French counterattack... Geography Country Belgium Community French Community Region Walloon Region Province Liège Arrondissement Liège Coordinates , , Area 69. ... The Reichstag (German for Imperial Diet) was the parliament of the Holy Roman Empire, the North German Confederation, and of Germany until 1945. ... For the U.S. town, see Krupp, Washington. ... The Kaiserliche Marine or Imperial Navy was the German Navy created by the formation of the German Empire and existed between 1871 and 1919; it grew out of the Prussian Navy and the Norddeutsche Bundesmarine. ... Fusilier was originally the name of a soldier armed with a light flintlock musket called the fusil. ... Düsseldorf in Germany The Düsseldorf Coat of Arms Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. ...

Barbara Tuchman describes Ludendorff in her book The Guns of August as Schlieffen’s devoted disciple who was a glutton for work and a man of granite character. He was deliberately friendless and forbidding, and remained little known or liked. Lacking a trail of reminiscences or anecdotes as he grew in eminence, Ludendorff was a man without a shadow. Barbara Wertheim Tuchman (January 30, 1912 – February 6, 1989) was an American historian and author. ... The Guns of August (1962) (also published as August 1914) is an enormously popular military history book written by Barbara Tuchman. ...

However, John Lee (p.45) states that while Ludendorff was with his Fusiliers "he became the perfect regimental commander......the younger officers came to adore him."

World War I

In April 1914 Ludendorff was promoted to Major-General and given the command of the 85th Infantry Brigade, stationed at Strassburg. For other uses, see Strasburg. ...

With the outbreak of The Great War, Ludendorff was first appointed Deputy Chief of Staff to the German Second Army under General Karl von Bülow. His assignment was largely due to his knowledge and previous work investigating the dozen forts surrounding Liege, Belgium. The German assault in early August 1914, according to the Schlieffen Plan for invading France, gained him national recognition. “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Karl von Bülow (April 24, 1846 – August 31, 1921) was a German General commanding the German 2nd Army during World War I from 1914 to 1918. ...

The Germans experienced their first major setback at Liege. Belgian artillery and machine guns killed thousands of German troops attempting frontal assaults. On August 5, Ludendorff took command of the 14th Brigade, whose general had been killed. He cut off Liege and called for siege guns. By August 16, all forts around Liege had fallen, allowing the German First Army to advance. As hero of Liege, Ludendorff was awarded Germany's highest military decoration for gallantry, the Pour le Mérite, presented by the Kaiser himself on August 22. is the 217th day of the year (218th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Order Pour le Mérite, known informally as the Blue Max (German: Blauer Max), was Prussias highest military order until the end of World War I. The award was a blue-enameled Maltese Cross with eagles between the arms, the Prussian royal cypher, and the French legend Pour... is the 234th day of the year (235th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Russia had prepared for and was waging war more effectively than the Schlieffen Plan anticipated. German forces were collapsing as the Russians advanced towards Koenigsberg in East Prussia. Only a week after Liege's fall, Ludendorff, then storming Belgium's second great fortress at Namur, was urgently requested by the Kaiser to serve as Chief of Staff of the Eighth Army on the Eastern Front. Former German name of the city of Kaliningrad at the Baltic Sea. ... East Prussia (German: Ostpreu en; Polish: Prusy Wschodnie; Russian: Восточная Пруссия — Vostochnaya Prussiya) was a province of Kingdom of Prussia, situated on the territory of former Ducal Prussia. ...

Ludendorff went quickly with Paul von Hindenburg, who was recalled from retirement, to replace Commander Maximilian von Prittwitz, who had proposed abandoning East Prussia altogether. Hindenburg relied heavily upon Ludendorff and Max Hoffmann in crafting victory in the battles of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes. Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, known universally as Paul von Hindenburg (2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German field marshal and statesman. ... Maximilian von Prittwitz. ... East Prussia (German: Ostpreu en; Polish: Prusy Wschodnie; Russian: Восточная Пруссия — Vostochnaya Prussiya) was a province of Kingdom of Prussia, situated on the territory of former Ducal Prussia. ... Max Hoffmann Max Hoffman (one n) is the name of an Austrian-born car importer in 1950s New York - see Hoffmann for others. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... During World War I, there was: First Battle of the Masurian Lakes, September 1914 Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes, February 1915 This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

In August 1916, Erich von Falkenhayn resigned as Chief of the General Staff. Paul von Hindenburg took his place, with Ludendorff as his First Generalquartiermeister (Deputy Chief of Staff), forming the so-called Third Supreme Command. The "Third OHL", (Oberste Heeresleitung or "Supreme Army Command"), was effectively a military-industrial dictatorship, which largely relegated Kaiser Wilhelm II to the periphery. They meddled with domestic politics and forced government ministers to resign, including three chancellors. Afterward, they held an effective veto over appointments in the state hierarchy. Erich von Falkenhayn Chief of the General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn (11 November 1861 - 8 April 1922) was a German soldier and Chief of the General Staff during World War I. Falkenhayn was a career soldier. ... Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, known universally as Paul von Hindenburg (2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German field marshal and statesman. ... A Quartermaster general is the staff officer in charge of supplies for a whole army. ... The Oberste Heeresleitung or OHL (Supreme Army Command) was the highest echelon of command of the German army in World War I. Between the OHL and the Seekriegsleitung (SKL, or Naval Warfare Command), which was responsible for naval warfare, there was insufficient coordination, at least during the preparations for war... The Oberste Heeresleitung or OHL (Supreme Army Command) was the highest echelon of command of the German army in World War I, while the Navy was led by the Seekriegsleitung or SKL, (Naval Warfare Command). ... Forms of government Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by a dictator. ... German Emperor Wilhelm (born Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albrecht, Prince of Prussia 27 January 1859–4 June 1941), was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia (de: Deutscher Kaiser und König von Preußen), ruling from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. ...

Ludendorff was the chief manager of the German war effort, with von Hindenburg his pliant front man.^{[citation needed]} Ludendorff advocated unrestricted submarine warfare to break the British blockade, which became an important factor in bringing the United States into the war in April 1917. Unrestricted submarine warfare is a kind of naval warfare in which submarines sink merchant ships without warning. ...

Russia withdrew from the war in 1917 and Ludendorff participated in the meetings held between German and the new Bolshevik leadership. After much deliberation, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed in March 1918. That same year, as commander-in-chief on the Western Front, Ludendorff planned and organized Germany's final offensive, known as Operation Michael. This final push to win the war fell short and as the German war effort collapsed, Ludendorff's tenure of war-time leadership ended. On September 29, the Kingdom of Prussia assumed its pre-war authority, which lasted until Kaiser Wilhelm II's abdication. Ludendorff fled Germany for Sweden. For other uses, see Bolshevik (disambiguation). ... The first two pages of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, in (left to right) German, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Ottoman Turkish and Russian The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, at Brest-Litovsk (now Brest, Belarus) between the Russian SFSR and the Central Powers, marking... The Spring Offensive (Operation Michael) was a German offensive along the Western Front during the First World War which marked the deepest advance by any side since 1914. ... is the 272nd day of the year (273rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Anthem Preußenlied, Heil dir im Siegerkranz (both unofficial) The Kingdom of Prussia at its greatest extent, at the time of the formation of the German Empire, 1871 Capital Berlin Government Monarchy King  - 1701 — 1713 Frederick I (first)  - 1888 — 1918 William II (last) Prime minister  - 1848 Adolf Heinrich von Arnim...

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, the Stab-in-the-back myth, for which he is considered largely responsible. 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. Magazine title from 1924, example of a propaganda illustration in support of the legend The Dolchstoßlegende, (German dagger-thrust legend, often translated in English as stab-in-the-back legend) refers to a social mythos and persecution-propaganda theory popular in post-World War I Germany. ...

Ludendorff was also extremely suspicious of the Social Democrats and leftists, whom he blamed for the humiliation of 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 soldiers 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: Woodrow Wilson with the American Peace Commissioners The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 is the peace treaty created as a result of six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 which put an official end to World War I between the Allies and Central Powers. ...

My War Memories, 1914–1918

“November Revolution” redirects here. ...

Political career

Ludendorff eventually returned to Germany in 1920. 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. Throughout his life, Ludendorff maintained a strong distaste for politicians and found most of them to be lacking an energetic national spirit. However, Ludendorff's political philosophy and outlook on the war brought him into right-wing politics as a German nationalist and won his support that helped to pioneer the Nazi Party. Early on, Ludendorff also held Adolf Hitler in the highest regard. In Fritz Thyssen's 1941 book, I Paid Hitler, Thyssen recalled a conversation he had with Ludendorff in 1923: Anthem Das Lied der Deutschen Germany during the Weimar period, with the Free State of Prussia (in blue) as the largest state Capital Berlin Language(s) German Government Republic President  - 1918-1925 Friedrich Ebert  - 1925-1933 Paul von Hindenburg Chancellor  - 1919 Philipp Scheidemann(first)  - 1933 Kurt von Schleicher (last) Legislature... Field Marshal August von Mackensen August von Mackensen (December 6, 1849–November 8, 1945), was a German Field Marshal, born August Mackensen in Haus Leipnitz, in the Prussian province of Saxony, to Louis and Marie Louise Mackensen. ... The National Revolutionary Army (NRA) (Chinese: 國民革命軍; pinyin: guo2 min2 ge2 ming4 jun1) was the national army of the Republic of China. ... In politics, right-wing, the political right, or simply the right, are terms which refer, with no particular precision, to the segment of the political spectrum in opposition to left-wing politics. ... The National Socialist German Workers Party (German: , or NSDAP, originally known as the DAP (this changed in 1920) and commonly known as the Nazi Party), was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945 that was known as the German Workers Party before the name was changed in 1920. ... Hitler redirects here. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

At Hitler's urging, Ludendorff took part in the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. The plot failed but Ludendorff was acquitted in the trial that followed. In 1924, he was elected to the Reichstag as a representative of the NSFB (a coalition of the German Völkisch Freedom Party and members of the Nazi Party), serving until 1928. He ran in the 1925 presidential election against former commander Paul von Hindenburg and received just 285,793 votes. Ludendorff's reputation may have been damaged by the Putsch, but he conducted very little campaigning of his own and remained aloof, relying almost entirely on his lasting image as a war hero, an attribute which Hindenburg also possessed. The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed coup détat that occurred between the evening of Thursday, November 8 and the early afternoon of Friday, November 9, 1923, when the Nazi partys leader Adolf Hitler, the popular World War I General Erich Ludendorff, and other leaders of the Kampfbund... The National Socialist Freedom Movement (NSFM) (German: , or NSFB) or National Socialist Freedom Party (German: , or NSFP) was a German political party created in April 1924 in the aftermath of the Munich Putsch. ... The German Völkisch Freedom Party (German: , or DVFP) was a right-wing and antisemitic political party of Weimar Germany. ... The presidential election (Reichspräsidentenwahl) of 1925 was the first direct election to the office of Reichspräsident (Reich President), Germanys head of state during the 1919-1933 Weimar Republic. ... Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, known universally as Paul von Hindenburg (2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German field marshal and statesman. ...

His last years

After 1928, Ludendorff went into retirement, having fallen out with the Nazi party. He no longer approved of Hitler and began to regard him as just another manipulative politician, and perhaps worse. After learning that Hitler had been appointed chancellor of Germany, an aging Ludendorff reportedly sent a telegram to President von Hindenburg:

Although the original copy of the telegram has yet to be found, one of the first sources to mention the memo was Hans Frank, who served as Reichsminister and General Governor of Poland during the Nazi Era. He wrote about the note in his memoirs, appearing shortly before his execution as a war criminal. Perhaps a more reliable account was that of Captain Wilhelm Breuker, a close associate of Ludendorff's. When Breuker wrote his memoirs in 1953, he also attested to the existence of the telegram. Hans Frank (May 23, 1900 – October 16, 1946) was a lawyer for the Nazi party during the 1920s and a senior official in Nazi Germany. ...

In his later years, Ludendorff went into a relative seclusion with his second wife, Mathilde von Kemnitz (1874–1966), authoring several books. He concluded that the world's problems were the result of Christians, Jews, and Freemasons; together with Mathilde, he founded the "Bund für Gotteserkenntnis" (Society for the Knowledge of God), a small and rather obscure esoterical society that survives to this day. Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Christianity is... “Freemasons” redirects here. ... Look up Esotericism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

During the early 1930s, however, that cult seems to have been better known than it is today. In a May 27, 1933 article in the Illustrated London News, G. K. Chesterton would regard it as something that was common knowledge among the well-read English. In that article, he contrasted Italian Fascism, where Mussolini, for all his evils, criticized rather praised Italians, with Hitler's Nazism, which encouraged and fed Germanic pride: "It is certain that Germans had always been too arrogant, and that Hitler has made them more arrogant." Having contrasted Italians with Germans, he turns to his own people, the British: is the 147th day of the year (148th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Gilbert Keith Chesterton (May 29, 1874–June 14, 1936) was an influential English writer of the early 20th century. ... Italian fascism (in Italian, fascismo) was the authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. ... “Mussolini” redirects here. ...

For this peculiar sort of pride is the problem of Germany, especially North Germany, and primarily, of course, Prussia…. I know that we have also been poisoned by that pride, in a more subtle and perhaps a more dangerous form, but never in quite so extreme or extravagant a form. For instance, there is doubtless many an old Tory Colonel, or rigid reactionary General, cursing and swearing in Bath or Brighton, whose view of the damned natives and the dirty niggers and the infernal Irishman or Indians is, in fact, a mere heathen hate and scorn, quite untinged by Christian charity, and certainly blankly unacquainted with the very existence of Christian humility. But if you will show me a retired British General who travelled round England with a sort of torchlight procession, proclaiming the restoration of the worship of Odin and Thor, I shall be much surprised. If you tell me that Earl Haig or Lord Plumer went from town to town with a brass band, abolishing the worship of Christ and excitedly restoring the old gods to Asgard, I shall think it very odd. But that is precisely what was done by one of the leading Generals who directed the whole German army during the Great War: General Ludendorff, a man whose military fame and responsibility were like those of Hindenburg or Foch.

In an attempt to regain Ludendorff's favor, Hitler paid Ludendorff an unannounced visit in 1935 and offered to make him a field marshal. Infuriated, Ludendorff thundered back: "a field marshal is born, not made." When Ludendorff died in 1937, he was given a state funeral attended by Hitler, who declined to speak. Ferdinand Foch OM GCB (October 2, 1851 – March 20, 1929) was a French soldier, military theorist, and writer credited with possessing the most original and subtle mind in the French Army in the early 20th century. ... Note: This article is about the military usage of the word marshal. For other usages, see the end of this article. ...

References

• Ludendorff, Erich [1920] (1971). Ludendorff's Own Story: August 1914–November 1918; the Great War from the siege of Liège to the signing of the armistice as viewed from the grand headquarters of the German Army (in English, translated from German). Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press. ISBN 0-8369-5956-6. 
• Ludendorff, Erich. The Coming War. Faber and Faber, 1931. (= "Weltkrieg droht auf deutschem Boden")
• Ludendorff, Erich. The Nation at War. Hutchinson, London, 1936. (= "Der totale Krieg")
• Goodspeed, Donald J. [1966]. Ludendorff: Genius of World War I. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. 
• Lee, John (2005-03). The Warlords: Hindenburg and Ludendorff (Hardback), London: Orion Books. ISBN 0-297-84675-2. 
• Asprey, Robert B (1991). The German High Command at War: Hindenburg and Ludendorff and the First World War. New York: W. Morrow. ISBN 0-688-08226-2. 

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
• My War Memories by Erich Ludendorff at archive.org
• The Triumph Of The Immortal Will by Mathilde Ludendorff at archive.org