Hindenburg, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and Ludendorff.
Ludendorff was the Quartermaster General of the German Army during most of World War One. The title of that position was deceptive even at the time, and has nothing to do with provisioning of soldiers as the name would seemingly imply. Rather, along with Paul von Hidenburg, he was the leader of hte German Army. His resignation was effectively a dismissal, and it expressed his falling out of favor by insisting that the German Army fight on.
During the war Ludendorff had come into immense power within not only the Army but the government as well. He rose to prominence starting with the assault on Liege where, while he was an observer, he ended up in command when the senior German officer was killed. Thereafter, he was assigned to the East, together with Paul Von Hindenburg, who was an elderly officer called back into service from retirement. The two of them worked closely together although Hindenburg proved to have the more solid tactical mind.
While in the East Ludendorff began to display traits that would later play out during World War One to the German's ultimate detriment. During the 1915-16 winter he headquartered in the Baltics and operated to start colonizing the conquered area with German settlers with the aim of Germanizing it, given the East a taste of what German policy was to be in 1939-1945. He anticipated the expulsion of Slavic populations in some of the conquered territory the Germans were advancing into and envisioned a future war against the United Kingdom and United States. In short, his vision of Germany in the East very matched the one that was to be attempted some twenty five years later.
Following setbacks in 1916, Ludendorff was elevated to higher command and became Quartermaster General in the thought that the existing Army leadership was failing. His first acts concerned the Romanian entry into the war, but his leadership may have been relatively inconsequential in dealing with that, or at least the local commander, August von Mackensen felt that they were. During the same period Hindeburg was elevated to commander of the German Army overall, but he was subordinate to Ludendorff. By 1916-17, his military role combined with his administrative role, given that the German government was subordinate to the civil service and the Army, such that he weilded immence power and was widely seen as a near dictator.
In 1917 Ludendorff was complicit in the German navy's desire to resume unrestricted submarine warfare in spite of the clear knowledge that it would bring the United States into the war. He was brash and powerful enough to walk out of a meeting in which Kaiser Wilhelm II required his commanders to consider the views of German chemist Walther Nernst who was regarded by the Kaiser as an expert on the United States and opposed the move. He was one of the German generals who opposed the German Reichstag when it passed a resolution for peace without annexations in the Spring of 1917.
Ludendorff was directly complicit in Germany's 1918 failures as he was one of the German figures who insisted on forcing huge territorial concession on Russia in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which resulted in the necessity of Germany keeping 1,000,000 troops in the East, some of them engaged in wars that followed the Russian surrender, when they were clearly immediately needed in the West, something that should have been plain to all.
Ludendorff collapsed mentally when German fortunes turned in the summer of 1918. As a result he temporarily stepped away from his office but returned after a month's rest. On September 29, 1918, he had come to the realization that the war was lost and he and Hindenburg told the Kaiser that he must accept an Armistice with the Allies. The new chancellor approached President Wilson with a diplomatic note but the resulting terms were unacceptable to the German leadership at first as they required that Germany become a democratic state, thereby essentially demanding the complete capitulation of the German government and the formation of a new one prior to the commencement of negotiations.
This prompted Ludendorff and Hindenburg to send a telegram to German commanders that the fighting must continue. While the German rank and file troops had not cracked, this was simply too much to expect of the German people and their army and when the contents of the telegram were leaked to the press, it caused a domestic uproar in Germany.
Prince Maximilian of Baden, the chancellor, soon approached the Kaiser and indicated that if Lundendorff was not removed he and his cabinet would resign. He and Hindenburg were called in and both offered to resign. Hindenburg's resignation was refused but Ludendorff's was accepted. Ludendorff immediately snubbed Hindenburg by refusing to ride back to headquarters with him, claiming later Hindenburg had always treated him "shabbily".
He'd go on, of course, to be figure in far right wing movements in post war Germany and a co-conspirator with Hitler. Indeed, he was a significant right wing figure whose views anticipated the Nazis in some ways before their rise, and even had back into World War One. In 1920 he was part of the Kapp Putsch that attempted to overthrow the government. He was later part of the Beer Hall Putsch attempted by Hitler in 1923 and was amazingly acquitted in a trial in 1924, a sign of how weak the German republican government really was. He was elected to the Reichstag in 1924 as well a part of a coalition of far right political movements that included the Nazis.
By that time he was descending into what we'd now recognize as a slow onset of dementia and his behavior became increasingly erratic. He divorced his wife Margarethe, whom he had married in 1910 at age 45. Showing the degree to which the Army was the exception to the rule, she divorced her first husband to marry him in an age in which divorce was disapproved of, and both families approved (she was the daughter of wealthy industrialist). As he descended into madness he married Mathilde von Kemnitz who held radical religious views and he became a pagan and started worshiping Woton. In this period he came to a radical hatred of Jews and Catholics. He came to hold Hitler and Hindenburg in contempt and he refused a surprise personal attempt to promote him to Field Marshall in 1935. He died in 1937.
2. Americans take Gradnpre
3. Canadian Thanksgiving was held in Denain.
4. William George Barker, Victoria Cross
This prompted Ludendorff and Hindenburg to send a telegram to German commanders that the fighting must continue. While the German rank and file troops had not cracked, this was simply too much to expect of the German people and their army and when the contents of the telegram were leaked to the press, it caused a domestic uproar in Germany.
Prince Maximilian of Baden, the chancellor, soon approached the Kaiser and indicated that if Lundendorff was not removed he and his cabinet would resign. He and Hindenburg were called in and both offered to resign. Hindenburg's resignation was refused but Ludendorff's was accepted. Ludendorff immediately snubbed Hindenburg by refusing to ride back to headquarters with him, claiming later Hindenburg had always treated him "shabbily".
He'd go on, of course, to be figure in far right wing movements in post war Germany and a co-conspirator with Hitler. Indeed, he was a significant right wing figure whose views anticipated the Nazis in some ways before their rise, and even had back into World War One. In 1920 he was part of the Kapp Putsch that attempted to overthrow the government. He was later part of the Beer Hall Putsch attempted by Hitler in 1923 and was amazingly acquitted in a trial in 1924, a sign of how weak the German republican government really was. He was elected to the Reichstag in 1924 as well a part of a coalition of far right political movements that included the Nazis.
By that time he was descending into what we'd now recognize as a slow onset of dementia and his behavior became increasingly erratic. He divorced his wife Margarethe, whom he had married in 1910 at age 45. Showing the degree to which the Army was the exception to the rule, she divorced her first husband to marry him in an age in which divorce was disapproved of, and both families approved (she was the daughter of wealthy industrialist). As he descended into madness he married Mathilde von Kemnitz who held radical religious views and he became a pagan and started worshiping Woton. In this period he came to a radical hatred of Jews and Catholics. He came to hold Hitler and Hindenburg in contempt and he refused a surprise personal attempt to promote him to Field Marshall in 1935. He died in 1937.
2. Americans take Gradnpre
3. Canadian Thanksgiving was held in Denain.
4. William George Barker, Victoria Cross
5. The HMT Calceolaria struck a mine and sunk, as did the Cuban cargo ship Chaparra. The German U-boat U-78 was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS G2 in the Skagerrak, going down with all 40 hands.
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