Erich Ludendorff

Erich Ludendorff was born on April 9, 1865, in Krusevia, a small town near Posen (now Poznan, Poland). His father was a decrepit Prussian landowner. At the age of 12, he entered the Army Junior School. He graduated from the Army Non-commissioned Officer School in 1881 and enlisted in the army the following year, where he was awarded the rank of second lieutenant.

In 1883, Ludendorff served in the 39th Bright Musketeer Regiment. In 1890, he entered the Army Military Academy in Berlin with a straight personality, excellent intelligence, and ability to do hard work. In 1893, he graduated with honors and received the following evaluation: "Clear-minded, rigorous thinking, good habits of life, excellent grades in all subjects, especially in war history and tactics, adaptable to any job." Ludendorff gradually became an energetic, power-hungry, and jittery soldier. His interest in everything was subordinate to the military. "You don't know Ludendorff," commented von Bedmann, the German prime minister before World War I. "He is only great when he succeeds, and if things go bad, he will be depressed."

In 1894, Ludendorff joined the General Staff Headquarters and was appreciated by Schlieffen and participated in all revisions of the Schlieffen Plan. From 1904, Ludendorff served in the Second Branch responsible for training and mobilization, and was promoted to director of the Branch in 1908. Based on his years of experience in office, he submitted a report explaining the military and political form to his superiors. Both Kaiser Wilhelm II and Chief of the General Staff Mowatch appreciated his clear insight and careful design. In 1912, he proposed a plan to expand the standing army by 300,000, which attracted the attention of the German Emperor. After a quarrel with Secretary of State Herringen, he was transferred to the command of the 39th Mine-Musketeers Regiment in 1913. At the end of the year, he served as commander of the 85th Infantry Brigade in Strasbourg. In 1914, he was promoted to Major General and served as Deputy Chief of Staff of Von Bello's Second Army.

After the outbreak of the war, during the siege of the Belgian fortress of Liège, he took over command of the 14th Infantry Brigade after the death of General Voussot. After analyzing the situation in Liège in detail, Ludendorff led his troops into Liège at night through the gap between Fréron and Evne, playing a key role in the final turnaround and capture of the fortress. In recognition of Ludendorff's actions in the Battle of Liège, the German Emperor appointed Ludendorff to succeed Waldzer as Chief of Staff of the Eighth Army. Ludendorff quickly joined Hindenburg, the new commander of the Eighth Army, in a special train and rushed to the Eastern Front.

The Kaiser intended Ludendorff to be the de facto commander of the Eastern Front, but his lower-middle-class background and the strict hierarchy of the Imperial German army (he was not yet an aristocrat) prevented him from being appointed commander. But this arrangement formed a brilliant Hindenburg-Ludendorff pairing that would have a major impact on Germany.

Although the real work was done by Colonel Max Hoffmann in the glorious Battle of Tannenberg that followed, most of the major victories that followed were masterminded by him as the brains behind this famous partnership with Hindenburg. He was responsible for the German battle plans for the Battle of Lake Masuriy (September 10-13) and the Battle of Central Poland (September 17-early December). The German army reached the pinnacle of victory in the Battle of Ross, which began on November 21, 1914. Ludendorf planned and won the Second Battle of Lake Mazuri (January 31-February 21, 1915), although most of its gains were offset by the subsequent costly Austrian offensive in Galicia in March. He then planned the Gorlice-Tarnov summer offensive that began in May 1915, which captured most of Poland, but failed to fully eliminate the Russians due to Falkenhein's shortsightedness. After more than a year of fierce fighting, the Germans achieved a huge victory. The Russians were expelled from East Prussia and were also forced to give up Poland, Lithuania, lands west of Riga, and the Warren area, with losses of more than 1.70 million men. Due to this series of brilliant victories, Ludendorff and Hindenburg became iconic figures in the hearts of the German people.

The Battle of Verdun, which was launched in 1916, led to sharp criticism of Falkenhain from all sides. William II dismissed Falkenhain and appointed Hindenburg Chief of Staff. Ludendorff also became the first quartermaster general-a position equivalent to deputy chief of staff and was promoted to infantry general in the same year.

Ludendorff was even more universally popular than Hindenburg, playing a major role in the duet. They forced the Austro-Hungarian army to accept unified German command in September 1916, and further proposed a reorganization of the political structure of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty in order to strengthen German influence in Austrian political affairs; demanded a change in the state of government powerlessness, increased militarization of government departments, and forced Prime Minister Bateman Holvig to finally agree to unlimited submarine warfare on January 8, 1917. The growing strength of this partnership finally forced Bateman Holvig to step down on July 19, 1917. In this way, the Hindenburg-Ludendorff combination gained the status of a de facto military dictator.

The military led by Ludendorff exercises military dictatorship in the country and strictly restricts gatherings. They used weapons to suppress strikes, believing that only a victory in association could avoid social revolution. At the military and political summit held in Belgium, Ludendorff insisted on occupying the iron ore fields of Belgium, Lorraine and the Mosel Valley, establishing new naval bases, and occupying vast colonies in Africa. In September 1917, Ludendorff also planned to establish the Fatherland Party. The party's political program is to oppose any peace resolution and any reform and support the policy of foreign annexation. The Fatherland Party was supported by Hindenburg, the Steel Society and other monopoly organizations, and its membership continued to increase, surpassing the Social Democratic Party by September 1918.

In October 1917, Ludendorff commanded the Auder coalition forces to launch the Caporetto Offensive. The Austrian-German army used sixteen divisions to confront the fifty-five divisions commanded by Cardona, causing direct losses of more than 300,000 people to the Italian army and almost driving Italy out of the war. That same year, he played a key role in the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, which cost the Russians a high price. For his outstanding performance in the war, he was made a aristocrat and became Erich von Ludendorff.

With the advent of 1918, Ludendorff and Hindenburg were determined to achieve decisive victory on the Western Front before the United States was ready for war. Using a series of new tactics, including the infiltration tactics of the Storm Force, he launched three successive offensives - the Somme Offensive on March 21, the Leith Offensive on April 9, and the Aisne Offensive on May 27. These offensives made some progress, but failed to achieve their goal of destroying the British. He went on to launch the fourth and fifth offensives - the Nouillon-Mondier Offensive on June 9-13 and the Champagne-Marne Offensive on July 15-17, both of which were quickly stopped by the Allied forces. These offensives depleted the German army's strength, making it difficult to resist the Allied counteroffensive carried out between July 10 and October 28. Ludendorff was shocked by the scale and ability of this counteroffensive, and exclaimed that July 18 was a "black day" for the Germans. On this "black day", Ludendorff and Hindenburg had a public quarrel, and although the broken relationship was repaired, the two gradually became separated.

On August 8, 1918, the beginning of the Battle of Amiens gave Ludendorf another "bleak day". On September 26, when the Allies launched the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Bulgaria withdrew from the war, which was a double blow to Ludendorf. Ludendorf's spirit quickly collapsed and he began to become restless.

On September 28, 1918, at a regular meeting of the General Staff, Ludendorff rebuked anyone but himself for the situation in Germany, and gave a long and heated discussion. His men sat in embarrassment. Finally, Ludendorff collapsed to the floor in excitement. After the meeting, Ludendorff, still unsatisfied, exhorted Hindenburg to withdraw from all occupied Western territories in vague and intelligible language, and demanded peace on the terms expressed by President Wilson in his fourteen-point proposal, which he seemed to have misinterpreted.

On September 29, 1918, Ludendorff and Hindenburg officially declared that an armistice must be signed and a government acceptable to the Allies would be formed. However, Ludendorff refused to accept the American demand for "unconditional surrender" and was forced to resign on October 26 after a clumsy attempt to interfere in the peace talks between Baden and Prince Max.

In November 1918, after the armistice, he moved to Sweden to write articles and memoirs, including "Ludendorff's Personal Story" published in 1919 and "My Memories of the War of 1914-1918" and "The General Staff and Its Problems" published in 1920. He claimed that the undefeated German army had been "stabbed in the back" by left-wing politicians.

In the spring of 1919, Ludendorff returned to Germany. He espouses far-right policies, espouses the unusual religion of the Nordic Germanic people, and is extremely hostile to the existing regime. He joined the so-called "National Club" and planned to eliminate the Weimar Republic and establish a military dictatorship, for which he participated in organizing the Karp Riots in March 1920. Soon after, he established close ties with the Nazis and participated in the "Beer Hall Riots" in Munich on November 9, 1923. During the subsequent trial, Ludendorff made inflammatory speeches attacking the Weimar Republic, and he was finally acquitted.

In May 1924, he became a Nazi member of the Weimar Reichstag. In April 1925, Ludendorff ran for the right-wing National People's Party and the Bavarian People's Party, winning only 1.1% of the vote. As the Nazi Party grew in power, Ludendorff increasingly despised Hitler and the Nazis as gutless fools.

After the 1920s, he basically retired from politics and devoted himself to writing books on strategy and total warfare, which was later published in 1935. This book systematically expounds the theory of total warfare, believing that war overrides politics, requires all aspects of national life to obey the needs of war preparation in peacetime, and advocates using all means, even extremely brutal means to carry out war. Generally speaking, this theory is based on militarism, requiring the militarization of the national economy and the wartime economy, the establishment of a dictatorship war command system, and the concentration of the material and spiritual strength of the entire nation to fight a quick battle. Although this theory is based on a wrong starting point, Ludendorff was the first spiritual theorist to focus on total war based on the new era background, and the discussion of many issues is valuable.