LUDENDORFF, ERICHVON
Ludendorff, Erich von
(April 9, 1865–December 20, 1937)
German Staff Officer
B
rilliant but mercu-
rial, Ludendorff pos-
sessed one of the
best tactical minds of
World War I. When cou-
pled with the steadying in-
fluence of Paul von Hin-
denburg, they constituted
a formidable offensive
team. However, Luden-
dorff proved stubborn and
shortsighted in a strategic
sense, and his policies ac-
tually hastened Germany’s
defeat in World War I.
Erich von Ludendorff
was born in Kruszevnia,
East Prussia (modern-day
Poland), on April 9, 1865,
the son of middle-class
parents. Despite these
nondescript origins, he
decided upon a military
career and became a
cadet in 1877 at the age of 12. Prospects for
men of nonaristocratic birth were usually lim-
ited, but Ludendorff proved himself exception-
ally adept as an officer. Rising through merit,
he breezed through the Kriegsakademie(war
college) in 1893 and two years later joined the
prestigious General Staff as a captain. In this
capacity he ultimately headed the mobilization
and deployment section of that body. But hav-
ing arrived at such a high station, Ludendorff
began exhibiting two qualities that character-
ized his later military career: intense brilliance
and abrasive impetuosity. In 1913, he drafted
extensive plans for expanding manpower and
munitions, an excellent scheme that was re-
jected by the war ministry as too risky. More-
over, when he clandestinely and illegally lob-
bied several politicians to support his plan,
Ludendorff was dismissed and assigned to an
infantry regiment far from
Berlin. The following year
he rose to brigadier gen-
eral at Strasbourg just
prior to the commence-
ment of World War I.
In August 1914, Luden-
dorff functioned as
deputy chief of staff to
Gen. Karl von Bulow’s
Second Army and accom-
panied the advance into
Belgium. There he distin-
guished himself in the
capture of several strate-
gic forts, winning the
prestigious Pour le
Merite, Germany’s high-
est honor. At this time,
large Russian armies
were poised to overrun
East Prussia, then
weakly garrisoned, and
Gen. Max von Prittwitz
ordered a hasty withdrawal. To counter this,
Ludendorff was teamed with a little-known
officer named Paul von Hindenburg as the
latter’s chief of staff and sent east. From the
onset, the two men formed one of the great-
est fighting duos of military history, with Hin-
denburg’s gravity and prudence counterbal-
anced by Ludendorff’s impetuous brilliance.
In short order, the two men turned around
the German Eighth Army, attacking and rout-
ing the Russians at Tannenburg and Masurian
Lakes in August and September 1914.
Throughout the fall and well into winter, Lu-
dendorff continued hammering away at huge
Russian armies, capturing thousands of pris-
oners and pushing the enemy back. Conse-
quently, like Hindenburg, he acquired na-
tional acclaim and accorded near-mythic
qualities. Both men, furthermore, felt that theErich von Ludendorff
Archive Photos