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Erich Ludendorff Facts

Erich Ludendorff Facts
Erich Ludendorff was a Prussian born German military general who led the German Army throughout most of World War I. Although he led the army successfully in the early stages of the war, his failure in the Spring Offensive of 1918 cost him his position. After the war, Ludendorff entered the public sphere by becoming a leading figure in German far-right politics, writing several books and taking part in many protests. Although he shared many of Adolf Hitler's views and the political podium with him more than once, Ludendorff was no friend of Germany's future dictator. Ludendorff was born Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff on April 9, 1865 in Posen, Prussia (now Poland) to August and Klara Ludendorff. He was a precocious youth who entered the Prussian Army as a junior officer at the age of twenty. Ludendorff was married twice.
Interesting Erich Ludendorff Facts:
Ludendorff was described by those who knew him as a workaholic with few friends or hobbies.
Ludendorff's first taste of action was also one of his most successful. He led a commando style raid of Liege, Belgium, which helped the Allies to take the city and the surrounding area.
As a result of Liege, Ludendorff was promoted to General Paul von Hindenburg's chief of staff on the Eastern Front.
Despite being heavily outnumbered by the Russians, Ludendorff and Hindenburg defeated the Russians at the Battle of Tannenberg and then drove them from Prussia at the Battle of the Masurian Lakes.
Ludendorff was promoted to Quartermaster general in 1916.
Blamed by many for Germany's lost in World War I, Ludendorff went into exile until early 1919.
While he was in exile, he began articulating his political views and writing books and articles about Germany's political, military, and social situation.
Ludendorff became one of the early proponents of the German "stab in the back" theory to explain their loss in World War I. According to Ludendorff, domestic protests by leftists were scheduled to coincide with the army's major offensive, thereby ending any hope Germany had of winning the war.
He became a leading figure in the Freikorps of the 1920s and was involved in one plot to overthrow the German government and another to overthrow the Bavarian government. The plot to overthrew the Bavarian government was the famous Munich Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, which was led by Adolf Hitler.
Although Ludendorff never severed his ties with the National Socialist, he served as a representative for the German Volkisch Freedom Party in the Reichstag from 1924 to 1928.
Ludendorff's political ideas were anti-democratic, anti-Semitic, and pan-German, which put in in line with the views of Hitler and the National Socialists. It is believed that his rivalry with Hitler was more personal and practical than political.
Ludendorff died of liver cancer in Munich on December 20, 1937 at the age of seventy-two. He was given a state funeral by Hitler and buried in Tutzing, Bavaria, Germany.


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