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152-722: Mayr later became Hitler's opponent, and wrote in his memoirs that General Erich Ludendorff had personally ordered him to have Hitler join the German Workers' Party (DAP) and build it up. As far as it is known, his last rank was major. In 1933, he fled to France after the Nazis came to national power. Mayr was tracked down by the Gestapo , arrested, imprisoned, and later murdered at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in 1945. A fact-based portrayal of Mayr

304-571: A sealed train . Lenin ultimately agreed on 31 March, and would depart Switzerland on 8 April. In the spring of 1917 the Reichstag passed a resolution for peace without annexations or indemnities. They would be content with the successful defensive war undertaken in 1914. The OHL was unable to defeat the resolution or to have it substantially watered down. The commanders despised Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg as weak, so they forced his resignation by repeatedly threatening to resign themselves, despite

456-405: A Dietrich-Eckart-Foundation but also the restoration of the room where Eckart had been imprisoned. In addition, a street was dedicated to Eckart. Eckart has been called the spiritual father of Nazism, and indeed Hitler acknowledged him as being its spiritual co-founder. Eckart viewed World War I not as a holy war between Germans and non-Germans, as it was sometime interpreted toward the end of

608-421: A Messiah complex and Neroism" after Hitler had compared himself to Jesus throwing the money-changers out of the temple. Motivated by his temporary annoyance at Eckart, and by Eckart's impracticality in operational matters, Hitler began attempting to run the party without Eckart's assistance, and when forced to use Eckart again as a political operative, the results were disappointing. Hitler began to see Eckart as

760-473: A brief, overwhelming artillery barrage using many gas shells then followed by infiltrating infantry. The Bolsheviks seized power and soon were at the peace table. Ludendorff insisted on the huge territorial losses forced on Russia in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk , even though this required that a million German soldiers remain in the east. During the peace negotiations with Russia, his representative kept demanding

912-494: A brilliant artillery officer, who became a close friend. In 1910 at age 45 "the 'old sinner', as he liked to hear himself called" married the daughter of a wealthy factory owner, Margarethe Schmidt (1875–1936). They met in a rainstorm when he offered his umbrella. She divorced to marry him, bringing three stepsons and a stepdaughter. Their marriage pleased both families and he was devoted to his stepchildren. By 1911, Ludendorff

1064-634: A copy of the play he presented to him shortly after Hitler became the Nazi Party Fuhrer—that "[Gynt's] idea of becoming the king of the world should not be taken literally as the 'Will to Power'. Hidden behind this is a spiritual belief that he will ultimately be pardoned for all his sins." He counseled Hitler that in his quest to be the "German Messiah" his ends justified the means he used, so he need not be concerned about employing violence or other transgressions of societal norms because, like Gynt, he would be forgiven for his sins. In his introduction to

1216-419: A defensive war and, in his opinion, that Kaiser Wilhelm II had failed to organize a proper counter-propaganda campaign or provide efficient leadership. Dietrich Eckart Dietrich Eckart ( German: [ˈɛkaʁt] ; 23 March 1868 – 26 December 1923) was a German völkisch poet, playwright, journalist, publicist, and political activist who was one of the founders of the German Workers' Party ,

1368-527: A far less immediate impact on Hitler's politicization than hitherto assumed. Central for Hitler's radicalization was thus the post-revolutionary period, a time when he was still surrounded by people like Ernst Schmidt and Karl Mayr, who like him possessed fluctuating political attitudes. This period in Hitler's life is still clouded in much secrecy. In March 1920, Mayr sent Hitler, Dietrich Eckart and Robert Ritter von Greim to Berlin to observe at close range

1520-431: A further meeting on 3 October, Hitler stated to Mayr in his report "must join this club or party, as these were the thoughts of the soldiers from the front-line". Historian Thomas Weber described the obscurity and secrecy behind the relationship between Hitler and Karl Mayr during the years of 1919 and 1920: Piece by piece, the picture that has conclusively emerged by putting all the surviving pieces of evidence together

1672-464: A growing popular revolution , Kaiser Wilhelm II forced Ludendorff to resign. After the war, Ludendorff became a prominent nationalist leader and a promoter of the stab-in-the-back myth , which posited that Germany's defeat and the settlement reached at Versailles were the result of a treasonous conspiracy by Marxists , Freemasons and Jews . He also took part in the failed 1920 Kapp Putsch and 1923 Beer Hall Putsch before unsuccessfully standing in

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1824-533: A heart attack. Eckart was elevated to the status of a major thinker upon the establishment of Nazi Germany in 1933. He was acknowledged by Hitler to be the spiritual co-founder of Nazism and "a guiding light of the early National Socialist movement." Eckart was born on 23 March 1868 in Neumarkt , about 32 kilometres (20 mi) southeast of Nuremberg in the Kingdom of Bavaria , the son of Christian Eckart,

1976-433: A hero who challenges the trollish, i.e. Jewish, world. His transgressions are therefore noble, and Gynt returns to reclaim the innocence of his youth. This conception of the character was influenced by Eckart's hero, Otto Weininger, who led him to see Gynt as an antisemitic genius. In this racial allegory, the trolls and Dovregubben ("Dovre Giant") represent Weininger's concept of "Jewishness". Eckart later wrote to Hitler—in

2128-759: A member of the Army's Great General Staff , where he oversaw the development of the Schlieffen Plan . Despite being removed from the Great General Staff for meddling in politics, Ludendorff restored his standing in the army through his success as a commander in World War I. In August 1914, he led the successful German assault on Liège, earning him the Pour le Mérite . On the Eastern Front under

2280-611: A new Russia after the elimination of the Bolshevik regime." He felt strongly that Germany should support the Russian people in their struggle against the "current Jewish regime", by which he meant the Bolsheviks. Rosenberg also counseled Hitler along these lines, with the two men providing Hitler with the intellectual basis for his Eastern policy, which was then made practical by Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter . In March 1920, at

2432-594: A paganism or anti-Christian religion, Eckart held that, in Germany's postwar tailspin, Christ was a leader to be emulated." But historian Ernst Piper dismissed Steigmann-Gall's views about a relationship between the admiration of Christ by early members of the NSDAP and a positive relationship with Christianity; Eckart fervently opposed the political Catholicism of the Bavarian People's Party and its national ally

2584-474: A poem extolling the virtues and beauty of a Jewish girl. Before his conversion to antisemitism, the two people he admired most were the poet Heinrich Heine and Otto Weininger, who were both Jews. Weininger, however, had converted to Protestantism, and has been described as a " self-hating Jew " eventually espousing antisemitic views. Eckart's admiration for Weininger may have played a part in his conversion. In December 1918, Eckart founded, published and edited

2736-829: A poet, playwright, and journalist. Diagnosed with morphine addiction and nearly stranded, he moved to Berlin in 1899. There he wrote a number of plays, often autobiographical, and became the protégé of Count Georg von Hülsen-Haeseler (1858–1922), the artistic director of the Prussian Royal Theatre. After a duel, Eckart was incarcerated at the Passau Oberhaus . As a playwright Eckart had success with his 1912 adaptation of Henrik Ibsen 's Peer Gynt , which played for more than 600 performances in Berlin alone. Although Eckart never had another theatrical success like Peer Gynt , and blamed his numerous failures on

2888-406: A political liability due to his disorganization and his increased drinking. Hitler, however, did not discard or sideline him, as he had with other early comrades who had stood in his way. He stayed close to Eckart intellectually and emotionally, and continued to visit him in the mountains. The relationship between the two men was not simply a political one. On 9 November 1923, Eckart participated in

3040-511: A race apart, by the time the two met, Hitler's goal was "the total removal of the Jews", and Eckart had expressed the opinion that all Jews should be put on a train and driven into the Red Sea. He also espoused that any Jew who married a German woman should be jailed for three years, and executed if he repeated the crime. Paradoxically, Eckart also believed that the existence of humanity depended on

3192-495: A reliable indicator of [Eckart's] own views." Steigmann-Gall quotes from the book: In Christ, the embodiment of all manliness, we find all that we need. And if we occasionally speak of Baldur (a god in Norse mythology), our words always contain some joy, some satisfaction, that our pagan ancestors were already so Christian as to have an indication of Christ in this ideal figure. Steigmann-Gall concluded that, "far from advocating

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3344-555: A result of the Great Depression and the economic effects of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. Under Eckart's tutelage Hitler first began to think of himself as that person, a superior being. Because it was generally believed that geniuses were born and not made, he could not present himself as having been mentored by Eckart and others. Thus in Mein Kampf , Hitler did not mention Eckart or Karl Mayr, or

3496-542: A royal notary and lawyer, and his wife Anna, a devout Catholic . Eckart's mother died when he was ten years old and he was expelled from several schools. In 1895, his father died, leaving him a considerable amount of money that Eckart soon spent. Eckart initially studied law at Erlangen , later medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich , and was an eager member of the fencing and drinking Student Korps . He decided in 1891 to become

3648-482: A series of attacks to drive the British out of the war. During the winter all ranks were schooled in the innovative tactics proven at Caporetto and Riga. The first attack, Operation Michael , was on 21 March 1918 near Cambrai. After an effective hurricane bombardment coordinated by Colonel Bruchmüller , they slashed through the British lines, surmounting the obstacles that had thwarted their enemies for three years. On

3800-549: A success: Hitler, who wore a false beard, was afraid of heights and got airsick on the way –it was his first airplane flight– and when they arrived in Berlin, the putsch was already collapsing. Nor did they create a positive impression with the Berliners: Captain Waldemar Pabst is said to have told them "The way you look and talk –people are going to laugh at you." Eckart introduced Hitler to wealthy potential donors connected to

3952-474: A trip to Zurich, Switzerland to see Alfred Schwarzenbach , a rich entrepreneur in the silk industry. The trip was arranged by Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess , who used family connections. While no detailed records of the meeting survive, a repeat visit –with Hitler along as well– was made the following year. This trip was not successful. Hitler made a speech to German expatriates, right-wing Swiss officers, and several dozen Swiss businessmen, but it, and

4104-757: A true account. After living in Berlin for many years, Eckart moved to Munich in 1913, the same year that Hitler moved there from Vienna . In January 1919, he, Feder , Anton Drexler and Karl Harrer founded the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei ( German Workers' Party , or DAP). In order to increase its appeal to larger segments of the population, in February 1920 it changed its name to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party, or NSDAP); more commonly known as

4256-532: A woman, but Hitler was annoyed that Eckart didn't believe that a putsch launched in Munich could turn into a successful national revolution. "Munich is not Berlin," Eckart said, "It would lead to nothing but ultimate failure." Despite his own role in promoting Hitler as a genius and messiah, in May 1923 he complained to Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstaengl , another of Hitler's mentors, that Hitler had "megalomania halfway between

4408-556: Is dramatized in the 2002 film Max , a fictional account of Hitler's life in Munich just prior to joining the German Workers' Party. Mayr was the son of a magistrate. After graduating from high school, he was enrolled on 14 July 1901 in the 1st Bavarian Infantry Regiment in Munich as a cadet. Well regarded by his superiors, he made rapid progress, becoming Leutnant in 1903 and Oberleutnant in 1911. From August 1914 Mayr

4560-532: Is not mentioned in the book) characterized it as a showcase of his "caesar-mania". He was a brilliant general, according to John Wheeler-Bennett , stating that he was "certainly one of the greatest routine military organizers that the world has ever seen", but he also said he was a ruinous political meddler. The influential military analyst Hans Delbrück concluded that "The Empire was built by Moltke and Bismarck , destroyed by Tirpitz and Ludendorff." In exile, Ludendorff wrote numerous books and articles about

4712-535: Is the image of a Private Hitler who was shunned by most of the front-line soldiers as a 'rear area pig', and who was still unsure of his political ideology at the end of the war in 1918. The view of the List Regiment as a band of brothers, with Hitler a hero at its heart, has its origins in Nazi propaganda, not in reality. The First World War did not 'make' Hitler . Even the revolutionary period seems to have had

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4864-598: The völkisch movement. They worked together to raise money for the DAP in Munich, using Eckart's contacts, but did not have great success. In Berlin, however, where Eckart was better connected with the rich and powerful, they raised considerable funds, including from senior officials of the Pan-German League . Together, they made frequent trips to the capital. During one of them, Eckart introduced Hitler to his future etiquette tutor, socialite Helene Bechstein , and it

5016-489: The 1925 election for president against Hindenburg, his wartime superior. Thereafter, he retired from politics and devoted his final years to the study of military theory . His most famous work in this field was The Total War , where he argued that a nation's entire physical and moral resources should remain forever poised for mobilization because peace was merely an interval in a never-ending chain of wars. Following his death from liver cancer in Munich in 1937, Ludendorff

5168-598: The Centre Party , supporting instead a vaguely defined " positive Christianity ". From the pages of Vőlkischer Beobachter , Eckart tried to win over Bavarian Catholics to the Nazi's cause, but that attempt ended with the Beer Hall Putsch , which put Nazis at odds with Bavarian Catholics. Joseph Howard Tyson writes that Eckart's anti-Old Testament views show a strong resemblance to the early Christian heresy Marcionism . In 1935 Alfred Rosenberg published

5320-798: The Constitution of the German Empire the government was run by civil servants appointed by the Kaiser. Confident that army officers were superior to civilians, the OHL volunteered to oversee the economy: procurement, raw materials, labor, and food. Max Bauer, with his industrialist friends, began by setting overambitious targets for military production in what they called the Hindenburg Program . Ludendorff enthusiastically participated in meetings on economic policy—loudly, sometimes pummeling

5472-733: The Imperial German Navy . Ludendorff's calculations showed that to properly implement the Schlieffen Plan the Army lacked six corps. Members of the General Staff were instructed to keep out of politics and the public eye, but Ludendorff shrugged off such restrictions. With a retired general, August Keim , and the head of the Pan-German League, Heinrich Class, he vigorously lobbied the Reichstag for

5624-814: The Kerensky Offensive in July 1917, attacking the Austro-Hungarian lines in Galicia . After minor successes the Russians were driven back and many of their soldiers refused to fight. The counterattack was halted only after the line was pushed 240 kilometres (150 mi) eastwards. The Germans capped the year in the East by capturing the strong Russian fortress of Riga in September 1917, starting with

5776-589: The Nazi Party . Eckart was largely responsible for the party buying the Münchener Beobachter in December 1920, when he arranged for the loan which paid for it. The 60,000 Marks came from German Army funds available to General Franz Ritter von Epp , and the loan was secured with Eckart's house and possessions as collateral, with Dr. Gottfried Grandel, an Augsburg chemist and factory owner who

5928-671: The Nazis' rise to power . Erich Ludendorff came from a family of minor nobility in Kruszewnia , in the Prussian Province of Posen . After completing his education as a cadet, he was commissioned a junior officer in 1885. In 1893, he was admitted to the prestigious German War Academy, and only a year later was recommended by its commandant to the General Staff Corps. By 1904, he had rapidly risen in rank to become

6080-628: The Social Democrats and Jews were to blame for Germany's defeat in the war. Eckart's antisemitism was influenced by the publication The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , which had been brought to Germany by "white Russian" emigrés fleeing the October Revolution . The book purported to outline the international Jewish conspiracy for control of the world, and many right-wing and völkisch political figures believed it to be

6232-532: The Somme . Ludendorff's friends at the OHL , led by Max Bauer, lobbied for him relentlessly. The balance was tipped when Romania entered the war on the side of the Entente, thrusting into Hungary. Falkenhayn was replaced as Chief of the General Staff by Hindenburg on 29 August 1916. Ludendorff was again his chief of staff as first Quartermaster general , with the stipulation that he would have joint responsibility. He

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6384-488: The United States Ludendorff's plans went as far as making Crimea a German colony. As to the various nations and ethnic groups in conquered territories, Ludendorff believed they were "incapable of producing real culture" On 16 March 1916, the Russians, now with adequate supplies of cannons and shells, attacked parts of the new German defenses, intending to penetrate at two points and then to pocket

6536-727: The Waldbühne (Forest Stage), the "Dietrich-Eckart-Bühne" when it was opened for the 1936 Summer Olympics . The 5th Standarte (regiment) of the SS-Totenkopfverbände was given the honour-title Dietrich Eckart . In 1937 the Realprogymnasium in Emmendingen was expanded and renamed the "Dietrich-Eckart secondary school for boys". Several new roads were named after Eckart. All of these have since been renamed. Eckart's birthplace in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz

6688-601: The battle of the Vistula River , which ended with a brilliantly executed withdrawal during which they destroyed the Polish railway lines and bridges needed for an invasion. When the Russians had repaired most of the damage the Germans struck their flank in the battle of Łódź , where they almost surrounded another Russian army. Masters of surprise and deft maneuver, the pair argued that if properly reinforced they could trap

6840-593: The Allied blockade, everyone could have been fed adequately, but supplies were not managed effectively or fairly. In spring 1918, half of all the meat, eggs, and fruit consumed in Berlin were sold on the black market. The Navy advocated unrestricted submarine warfare , which would surely bring the United States into the war. At the Kaiser's request, his commanders met with his friend, the eminent chemist Walther Nernst , who knew America well, and who warned against

6992-636: The American armed forces were too feeble to fight effectively. By the end of the war, Germany would be at war with 27 nations. Ludendorff, with the Kaiser's blessing, helped Lenin and other 30 or so revolutionaries in exile return to Russia. Ludendorff agreed to send the Bolsheviks in Switzerland by train through Germany from where they would then travel to Russia via Sweden. Lenin, however, still took some convincing, insisting that he be sent on

7144-547: The Bavarian Reichswehr under Captain Mayr. Mayr believed demoralized and Bolshevized forces should be taught national sentiments. After this training Mayr issued Hitler the order to become " anti-Bolshevik educational speaker" to the soldiers at the Munich barracks. Furthermore, Hitler was sent as an observer to the numerous meetings of the various newly formed political parties in Munich. Hitler spent much time at

7296-518: The British back beyond their starting lines. At the beginning of 1918 almost a million munition workers struck; one demand was peace without annexations. OHL ordered that " 'all strikers fit to bear arms' be sent to the front, thereby degrading military service." With Russia out of the war, the Germans outnumbered the Allies on the Western Front. After extensive consultations, OHL planned

7448-529: The Eastern Army Group in Turkey from 20 July to 15 October 1918. Shortly after the war, from 1 December 1918, Mayr acted as company commander in the 1st Bavarian Infantry Regiment in Munich. On 15 February 1919 he was on leave from the military, but returned in May as commander of the 6th Battalion of the guards regiment in Munich and from 30 May as head of the "Education and Propaganda Department" of

7600-482: The French. One after another the OHL toppled government ministers they regarded as weak. In contrast to the OHL's questionable interventions in politics and diplomacy, their armies continued to excel. The commanders would agree on what was to be done and then Ludendorff and the OHL staff produced the mass of orders specifying exactly what was to be accomplished. On the western front they stopped packing defenders in

7752-645: The General Command von Oven and the Group Command No. 4 (Department Ib) under Lieutenant-General von Möhl. In his capacity as head of the intelligence department, Mayr recruited Adolf Hitler as an undercover agent in early June 1919. Hitler's role involved informing on soldiers suspected of communist sympathies. Hitler took part in "national thinking" courses at the Reichswehrlager Lechfeld near Augsburg which were organized by

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7904-545: The German military's conduct of the war while forming the foundation for the Dolchstosslegende , the "stab-in-the-back theory," for which he is considered largely responsible, insisting that a domestic crisis had sparked Germany's surrender while the military situation held firm, ignoring that he himself had pressed the politicians for an armistice on military grounds. Ludendorff was convinced that Germany had fought

8056-405: The German victories at Liège and Tannenberg in 1914. After his appointment as First Quartermaster General of the Army General Staff in 1916, he became the chief policymaker in a de facto military dictatorship until Germany's defeat. Later during the Weimar Republic , he took part in the failed 1920 Kapp Putsch and Hitler 's 1923 Beer Hall Putsch , thereby contributing significantly to

8208-406: The German war effort. He issued the two daily communiques, and often met with the newspaper and newsreel reporters. Before long the public idolized him as the German Army's brain. Historian and correspondent William L. Shirer later called him "virtually dictator of Germany from 1916 until the defeat." Ludendorff had a goal: "One thing was certain—the power must be in my hands." As stipulated by

8360-465: The Germans in the north were beaten back. On 27 July 1916, Hindenburg was given command of all troops on the Eastern Front from the Baltic to Brody in Ukraine. Ludendorff and Hindenburg visited their new command on a special train, and then set up headquarters in Brest-Litovsk . By August 1916 their front was holding everywhere. In the West in 1916 the Germans attacked unsuccessfully at Verdun and soon were reeling under British and French blows along

8512-489: The Kaiser reunited them. Erich von Falkenhayn , supreme commander at the OHL , came east to attack the flank of the Russian army that was pushing through the Carpathian passes towards Hungary. Employing overwhelming artillery, the Germans and Austro-Hungarians broke through the line between Gorlice and Tarnów and kept pushing until the Russians were driven out of most of Galicia , in Austro-Hungarian Poland. During this advance Falkenhayn rejected schemes to try to cut off

8664-419: The Kaiser's admonition that this was not their business. Bethmann Hollweg was replaced by a minor functionary, Georg Michaelis , the food minister, who announced that he would deal with the resolution as "in his own fashion". Despite this put-down, the Reichstag voted the financial credits needed for continuing the war. Following the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia , the new Russian government launched

8816-427: The Kaiser. He proposed massive annexations and colonization in Eastern Europe in the event of the victory of the German Reich, and was one of the main supporters of the Polish Border Strip . Ludendorff planned to combine German settlement and Germanisation in conquered areas with expulsions of native populations; and envisioned an eastern German empire whose resources would be used in future war with Great Britain and

8968-451: The Pension Moritz in Obersalzberg , and stayed with him for a few days as "Herr Wolf". It was Hitler's introduction to the area where he would later build his mountain retreat, the Berghof . Hitler had recently replaced Eckart as the publisher of Völkischer Beobachter with Alfred Rosenberg, although he softened the blow by making it clear that he still regarded Eckart highly. "His accomplishments are everlasting!" Hitler said, he just

9120-429: The Russians in Poland, preferring direct frontal attacks like Bug–Narew Offensive . Outgunned, during the summer of 1915 the Russian commander Grand Duke Nicholas shortened his lines by withdrawing from most of Poland, destroying railroads, bridges, and many buildings while driving 743,000 Poles, 350,000 Jews, 300,000 Lithuanians and 250,000 Latvians into Russia. During the winter of 1915–16 Ludendorff's headquarters

9272-426: The Western Front meeting—and evaluating—commanders, learning about their problems and soliciting their opinions. At each meeting Ludendorff did most of talking for Hindenburg. There would be no further attacks at Verdun and the Somme would be defended by revised tactics that exposed fewer men to British shells. A new backup defensive line would be built, like the one they had constructed in the east. The Allies would call

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9424-418: The additional men. In 1913 funding was approved for four additional corps but Ludendorff was transferred to regimental duties as commander of the 39th (Lower Rhine) Fusiliers , stationed at Düsseldorf . "I attributed the change partly for my having pressed for those three additional army corps." Barbara Tuchman characterizes Ludendorff in her book The Guns of August as Schlieffen's devoted disciple who

9576-472: The antisemitic weekly Auf gut Deutsch ("In plain German") —with financial support from the Thule Society —working with Alfred Rosenberg , whom he called his "co-warrior against Jerusalem", and Gottfried Feder . A fierce critic of the German Revolution and the Weimar Republic , he vehemently opposed the Treaty of Versailles , which he viewed as treason, and was a proponent of the so-called stab-in-the-back legend ( Dolchstoßlegende ), according to which

9728-399: The antithesis between Aryans and Jews, that one could not exist without the other. In 1919, Eckart had written that it would be "the end of all times ... if the Jewish people perished." Eckart provided Hitler with entré into the Munich arts scene. He introduced Hitler to the painter Max Zaeper and his salon of like-minded antisemitic artists, and to the photographer Heinrich Hoffmann . It

9880-450: The appearance of a walrus." Eckart was described by journalist Edgar Ansel Mowrer as "a strange drunken genius". His antisemitism supposedly arose from various esoteric schools of mysticism , and he spent hours with Hitler discussing art and the place of the Jews in world history. Samuel W. Mitcham calls Eckart an "eccentric intellectual" and "extreme antisemite" who was also a "man of the world" who liked "wine, women, and pleasures of

10032-433: The army together. The Kaiser called his commanders in, curtly accepting Ludendorff's resignation and then rejecting Hindenburg's. Fuming, Ludendorff would not accompany the field marshal back to headquarters: "I refused to ride with you because you have treated me so shabbily". Ludendorff had assiduously sought all of the credit; now he was rewarded with all of the blame. Widely despised, and with revolution breaking out, he

10184-404: The behest of Karl Mayr –the German General Staff officer who had first introduced Hitler to politics– Hitler and Eckart flew to Berlin to meet Wolfgang Kapp and take part in the Kapp Putsch , as well as to forge a connection between Kapp's forces and Mayr. Kapp and Eckart knew each other - Kapp had donated 1,000 Marks in support of Eckart's weekly magazine. However, the trip was not

10336-440: The bloodiest of the war. Among the dead was Ludendorff’s oldest stepson; a younger had been killed earlier. The Germans were unable to cut any vital railway. When Ludendorff motored near the front he was displeased by seeing how: "The numerous slightly wounded made things difficult by the stupid and displeasing way in which they hurried to the rear." The Americans doubled the number of troops being sent to France. Their next attack

10488-422: The book Dietrich Eckart. Ein Vermächtnis ("Dietrich Eckart. A Legacy") with collected writings by Eckart, including this passage: To be a genius means to use the soul, to strive for the divine, to escape from the mean; and even if this cannot be totally achieved, there will be no space for the opposite of good. It does not prevent the genius to portray also the wretchedness of being in all shapes and colors, being

10640-509: The command of General Paul von Hindenburg , Ludendorff was instrumental in inflicting a series of crushing defeats against the Russians, including at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes . By August 1916, Ludendorff had successfully lobbied for Hindenburg's appointment as Supreme Commander as well as his own promotion to First Quartermaster General. Once he and Hindenburg had established a de facto military dictatorship, Ludendorff directed Germany's entire military strategy and war effort until

10792-519: The command of the Eighth Army, Maximilian von Prittwitz with Georg von Waldersee as Chief of Staff, performed subpar and reportedly panicked. They accordingly were dismissed from command by the Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL), the German Supreme Army Command. The War Cabinet chose a retired general, Paul von Hindenburg , as commander, while the OHL assigned Ludendorff as his new chief of staff. Hindenburg and Ludendorff first met on their private train heading east. They agreed that they must annihilate

10944-527: The commandant, General Meckel, recommended him to the General Staff , to which he was appointed in 1894. He rose rapidly and was a senior staff officer at the headquarters of V Corps from 1902 to 1904. Next he joined the Great General Staff in Berlin, which was commanded by Alfred von Schlieffen , Ludendorff directed the Second or Mobilization Section from 1904 to 1913. Soon he was joined by Max Bauer ,

11096-511: The conflict, but as a holy war between Aryans and Jews, who, according to him, plotted the fall of the Russian and German empires. To describe this apocalyptic struggle, Eckart adopted extensive imagery from the legends of Ragnarok and from the Book of Revelation . In 1925, Eckart's unfinished essay Der Bolschewismus von Moses bis Lenin: Zwiegespräch zwischen Hitler und mir (" Bolshevism from Moses to Lenin : Dialogue Between Hitler and Me")

11248-706: The defenders. They attacked almost daily until the end of the month, but the Lake Naroch Offensive failed, "choked in swamp and blood". The Russians did better attacking the Austro-Hungarians in the south; the Brusilov Offensive cracked their lines with a well-prepared surprise wide-front attack led by well-schooled assault troops. The breakthrough was finally stemmed by Austro-Hungarian troops recalled from Italy stiffened with German advisers and reserves. In July, Russian attacks on

11400-425: The defense was directed by General von Lossberg , a pioneer in defense in depth, but when the British adjusted their tactics, Ludendorff took over day-to-day control. The British eventually took Passchendaele Ridge at great cost. Ludendorff worried about declining morale, so in July 1917 OHL established a propaganda unit. In October 1917 they began mandatory patriotic lectures to the troops, who were assured that if

11552-630: The early 1930s, Mayr collected among other things, information on Georg Bell, an associate of Ernst Röhm , and other material against the Nazi Party, which he leaked in the Social Democratic press. After Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933, Karl Mayr fled to France . After the German invasion of France in 1940, he was arrested in Paris by the Gestapo . Mayr was taken back to Germany and

11704-528: The economic concessions coveted by German industrialists. The commanders kept blocking attempts to frame a plausible peace offer to the western powers by insisting on borders expanded for future defense. Ludendorff regarded the Germans as the "master race" and after victory planned to settle ex-soldiers in the Baltic states and in Alsace-Lorraine , where they would take over property seized from Balts and

11856-604: The end of the conflict. In this capacity, he secured Russia's defeat in the east and launched a new wave of offensives on the Western Front resulting in advances not seen since the war's outbreak. However, by late 1918, all improvements in Germany's fortunes were reversed after its forces' decisive defeat in the Second Battle of the Marne and the Allies' Hundred Days Offensive . Faced with the war effort's collapse and

12008-595: The entire Russian army in Poland. During the winter of 1914–15 they lobbied passionately for this strategy, but were rebuffed by the OHL . Early in 1915 Hindenburg and Ludendorff surprised the Russian army that still held a toehold in East Prussia by attacking in a snowstorm and surrounding it in the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes . The OHL then transferred Ludendorff, but Hindenburg's personal plea to

12160-584: The entrance exam for the Cadet School at Plön with distinction, he was put in a class two years ahead of his age group, and thereafter he was consistently first in his class. The famous World War II General Heinz Guderian attended the same Cadet School, which produced many well-trained German officers. Ludendorff's education continued at the Hauptkadettenschule at Groß-Lichterfelde near Berlin through to 1882. In 1885, Ludendorff

12312-646: The events of the Kapp Putsch . On 8 July 1920, Mayr was released from military service as a major of the General Staff of the military district commands VII, but reappeared in September 1920 as commander of Section I b/P of army intelligence. Mayr in 1921 was a Nazi Party supporter, but later became a critic. In 1925 he joined the SPD . Subsequently, he was the leader and editor of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold , an SPD paramilitary force. In

12464-524: The failed Beer Hall Putsch . He was arrested and placed in Landsberg Prison along with Hitler and other party officials, but was released shortly thereafter due to illness. He then went to Berchtesgaden to recuperate. Eckart promoted Hitler as Germany's coming savior. Eckart's hero, Otto Weininger, had formulated a dichotomy in which genius and Jews were opposed. Genius, in Weininger's view,

12616-522: The false revolution of 1918 . Although the need to present himself as a self-made man prevented him from publicly writing or speaking about the debt he owed to Eckart, in private Hitler acknowledged Eckart as having been his teacher and mentor, and the spiritual co-founder of Nazism. The two first met when Hitler gave a speech before the DAP membership in the winter of 1919. Hitler immediately impressed Eckart, who said of him "I felt myself attracted by his whole way of being, and very soon I realized that he

12768-507: The first day they occupied as large an area as the Allies had won on the Somme after 140 days. The Allies were aghast, but it was not the triumph OHL had hoped for: they had planned another Tannenberg by surrounding tens of thousands of British troops in the Cambrai salient, but had been thwarted by stout defense and fighting withdrawal. They lost as many men as the defenders—the first day was

12920-536: The first day, crossing the Marne but stopping 56 kilometres (35 mi) from Paris. However each German triumph weakened their army and its morale. From 20 March 1918 to 25 June the German front lengthened from 390 kilometres (240 mi) to 510 kilometres (320 mi). Then the Germans struck near Reims, to seize additional railway lines for use in the salient, but were foiled by brilliant French elastic tactics. Undeterred, on 18 July 1918 Ludendorff, still "aggressive and confident", traveled to Flanders to confer about

13072-457: The flesh." Alan Bullock describes Eckart as having "violent nationalist, anti-democratic, and anti-clerical opinions, a racist with an enthusiasm for Nordic folklore and a taste for Jew-baiting" who "talked well even when he was drunk" and "knew everyone in Munich." According to Richard J. Evans , Eckart, the "failed racist poet and dramatist" blamed his career's failure on Jewish domination of German culture, and defined as "Jewish" anything that

13224-536: The forts around Liège had fallen, allowing the German First Army to advance. As the victor of Liège, Ludendorff was awarded Germany's highest military decoration for gallantry, the Pour le Mérite , presented by Kaiser Wilhelm II himself on 22 August. German mobilization earmarked a single army, the Eighth, to defend their eastern frontier. When two Russian armies invaded East Prussia earlier than expected

13376-498: The front during the First World War. The Hannover rabbi Samuel Freund named 20 Jewish families who met this condition and sued Eckart when he refused to pay the reward. During the trial, Freund named 50 more Jewish families with up to seven veterans, among whom were several which lost up to three sons in the war. Eckart lost the case and had to pay. Eckart was instrumental in creating the persona of Adolf Hitler as one of

13528-488: The front line, which reduced losses to enemy artillery. They issued a directive on elastic defense, in which attackers who penetrated a lightly held front line entered a battle zone in which they were punished by artillery and counterattacks. It remained German Army doctrine through World War II ; schools taught the new tactics to all ranks. Its effectiveness is illustrated by comparing the first half of 1916 in which 77 German soldiers died or went missing for every 100 British to

13680-428: The future dictator's most important early mentors, and was one of the first propagators of the " Hitler Myth ". Their relationship was not simply a political one, as there was a strong emotional and intellectual bond between the two men, an almost symbiotic relationship. It was Eckart who gave to Hitler his philosophy of the necessity of overcoming "soulless Jewishness" as the basis for a true German revolution, unlike

13832-407: The great artist that he is; but he does this as an observer, not taking part, sine ira et studio, his heart remains pure. ... The ideal in this, just like in every respect whatsoever is Christ; his words "You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one" show the completely divine freedom from the influence of the senses, the overcoming of the earthly world even without art as an intermediary. At

13984-606: The ground they gave up as a depopulated waste land. The Nivelle Offensive in April 1917 was blunted by mobile defense in depth. Many French units mutinied , though the OHL never grasped the extent of the disarray. The British supported their allies with a successful attack near Arras and had another success in June 1917 at Messines Ridge in Flanders . Then at the end of July 1917, the British attacked Passchendaele Ridge . At first

14136-452: The idea. Ludendorff promptly ended the meeting; it was "incompetent nonsense with which a civilian was wasting his time." Unrestricted submarine warfare began in February 1917, with the OHL ’s strong support. This fatal mistake reflected poor military judgment in uncritically accepting the Navy’s contention that there were no effective potential countermeasures, like convoying, and confidence that

14288-515: The influence of Jews in German culture, that one play not only made him wealthy, it gave him the social contacts that he later used to introduce Hitler to dozens of important German citizens. These introductions proved to be pivotal in Hitler's rise to power. Later on, Eckart developed an ideology of a "genius superman", based on writings by the Völkisch author Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels and by philosopher Otto Weininger . Eckart saw himself following

14440-471: The integrity of the Western front "for two hours" and they must have an immediate armistice. A new Chancellor, Prince Maximilian of Baden , approached President Woodrow Wilson , but Wilson's terms were unacceptable to the German leadership, and so the German army fought on. The chancellor told the Kaiser that he and his cabinet would resign unless Ludendorff was removed, but that Hindenburg must remain to hold

14592-527: The march route of the army in case of war. Deputies of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , which became the largest party in the Reichstag after the German federal elections of 1912 , seldom gave priority to army expenditures, whether to build up its reserves or to fund advanced weaponry such as Krupp 's siege cannons. Instead, they preferred to concentrate military spending on

14744-432: The meetings and wrote reports on the political ideas, goals and methods of the groups. This included studying the activities of the DAP (German Workers' Party). Hitler became impressed with founder Anton Drexler 's antisemitic , nationalist, anti-capitalist and anti-Marxist ideas. Drexler was impressed with Hitler's oratory skills and invited him to join the DAP, which Hitler accepted on 12 September 1919. After attending

14896-511: The nearest Russian army before they tackled the second. On arrival, they discovered that Max Hoffmann had already shifted much of the 8th Army by rail to the south to do just that, in an amazing feat of logistical planning. Nine days later the Eighth Army surrounded most of a Russian army at Tannenberg , taking 92,000 prisoners in one of the great victories in German history. Twice during the battle Ludendorff wanted to break off, fearing that

15048-647: The new fortifications the Hindenburg Line . The German goal was victory, which they defined as a Germany with extended borders that could be more easily defended in the next war. Hindenburg was given titular command over all of the forces of the Central Powers. Ludendorff's hand was everywhere. Every day he was on the telephone with the staffs of their armies and the Army was deluged with "Ludendorff's paper barrage" of orders, instructions and demands for information. His finger extended into every aspect of

15200-506: The news, for instance claiming that American troops had to be herded onto troop ships by special police. On 8 August 1918, the Germans were completely surprised at Amiens when British tanks broke through the defenses and intact German formations surrendered. To Ludendorff it was the "black day in the history of the German Army". The German retreats continued, pressed by Allied attacks. OHL still vigorously opposed offering to give up

15352-563: The next attack there. A telephone call reported that the French and Americans, led by a mass of tanks, had smashed through the right flank of their salient pointing toward Paris, on the opening day of the Battle of Soissons . Everyone present realized that surely they had lost the war. Ludendorff was shattered. OHL began to withdraw step by step to new defensive lines, first evacuating all of their wounded and supplies. Ludendorff's communiques, which hitherto had been largely factual, now distorted

15504-612: The next day's private meeting, was a fiasco. Hitler blamed Eckart's lack of social graces for the failure of the trip. After publishing a slanderous poem about Friedrich Ebert , the President of Germany at the time, Eckart ducked an arrest warrant by escaping in early 1923 to the Bavarian Alps near Berchtesgaden , close to the German-Austrian border, under the name "Dr. Hoffman". In April, Hitler visited him there at

15656-460: The north by a German and Austro-Hungarian army commanded by Falkenhayn. Bucharest fell in December 1916. According to Mackensen, Ludendorff's distant management consisted of "floods of telegrams, as superfluous as they were offensive." When sure that the Romanians would be defeated the OHL moved west, retaining the previous staff except for the operations officer, blamed for Verdun. They toured

15808-467: The other end you find Heine and his race ... all they do culminates in ... the motive, in subjugating the world, and the less this works, the more hate-filled their work becomes that is to satisfy their motive, the more deceitful and fallacious every try to reach the goal. No trace of true genius, the very opposite of the manliness of genius ... Early Nazi adherent Ernst Hanfstaengl remembered Eckart as "a perfect example of an old-fashioned Bavarian with

15960-600: The others who had been instrumental in creating what the world was now meant to see as the natural genius, Adolf Hitler, the German Messiah. Shortly after the Party purchase of the Völkischer Beobachter in December 1920, and Eckart's installation as editor, with Rosenberg as his assistant, the two men had begun to use the newspaper as a vehicle to disseminate this " Hitler Myth ", the notion that Hitler

16112-401: The party's dictator, its "Fuhrer". The committee agreed, and he rejoined the party on 26 July 1921. Eckart would also advise Hitler about the people who had gathered around him and the Party, such as the virulently antisemitic Julius Streicher , the publisher of the quasi-pornographic Der Stürmer . Hitler was repelled by pornography and disapproved of Streicher's sexual activities; he also

16264-548: The people will raise [Hitler] up as their leader, and give him their allegiance through thick and thin." Eckart died in Berchtesgaden on 26 December 1923 of a heart attack. He was buried in Berchtesgaden's old cemetery, not far from the eventual graves of Nazi Party official Hans Lammers and his wife and daughter. Although Hitler did not mention Eckart in the first volume of Mein Kampf , after Eckart's death he dedicated

16416-419: The play became "a powerful dramatisation of nationalist and antisemitic ideas", in which Gynt represents the superior Germanic hero, struggling against implicitly Jewish "trolls". In Ibsen's original play, Peer Gynt leaves Norway to become the "king of the world", but through his selfish and deceptive actions his body and soul are ruined, and he returns to his native village in shame. Eckart, however, sees Gynt as

16568-545: The play, Eckart wrote "[It is by] German nature, which means, in the broader sense, the capability of self-sacrifice itself, that the world will heal, and find its way back to the pure divine, but only after a bloody war of annihilation against the united army of the 'trolls'; in other words, against the Midgard Serpent encircling the earth, the reptilian incarnation of the lie." Eckart was not always an antisemite . In 1898, for instance, Eckart wrote and had published

16720-513: The precursor of the Nazi Party . Eckart was a key influence on Adolf Hitler in the early years of the Party, the original publisher of the party newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter ("Folkist Observer"), and the lyricist of the first party anthem, " Sturmlied " ("Storming Song"). He was a participant in the failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 and died on 26 December of that year, shortly after his release from Landsberg Prison , of

16872-471: The resignation of their leading public figure and speaker would mean the end of the party, so Eckart –who had lobbied the committee not to lose Hitler – was asked by the Party leadership to talk with Hitler and relay the conditions in which Hitler would agree to return to the Party. Hitler announced he would rejoin on the conditions that the party headquarters would remain in Munich, and that he would replace Anton Drexler as party chairman and become

17024-549: The rest of Italian Army was forced to retreat to the Grappa-Piave defensive line. On 20 November 1917, the British achieved a total surprise by attacking at Cambrai . A short, intense bombardment preceded an attack by tanks, which led the infantry through the German wire. It was Ludendorff's 52nd birthday, but he was too upset to attend the celebratory dinner. The British were not organized to exploit their breakthrough, and German reserves counterattacked, in some places driving

17176-402: The role, Eckart –along with Gottfried Feder – was considered to be the Nazi Party's "philosopher." The more confidence that Hitler felt in himself, to a large extent due to Eckart's mentoring, the less that he needed Eckart as a mentor, which resulted in the relationship cooling off. In November 1922, Eckart and the party's chief fund-raiser outside of Germany, Emil Gansser, made

17328-429: The second Russian army was about to strike their rear, but Hindenburg held firm. The Germans turned on the second invading army in the Battle of the Masurian Lakes ; it fled with heavy losses to escape encirclement. During the rest of 1914, commanding an Army Group, Hindenburg and Ludendorff staved off the projected invasion of German Silesia by dexterously moving their outnumbered forces into Russian Poland , fighting

17480-588: The second half when 55 Germans were lost for every 100 British. By February 1917 the OHL was sure that the new French commander, General Robert Nivelle , would attack, and correctly foresaw that he would try to pinch off the German salient between Arras and Noyon . So the OHL withdrew German forces to the segment of the Hindenburg line across the base of the salient in Operation Alberich , leaving

17632-480: The second volume to him, writing that Eckart was "one of the best, who devoted his life to the awakening of our people, in his writings and his thoughts and finally in his deeds." In private, he would admit Eckart's role as his mentor and teacher, and said of him in 1942: "We have all moved forward since then, that's why we don't see what [Eckart] used to be back then: a polar star. The writings of all others were filled with platitudes, but if he told you off: such wit! I

17784-450: The status of a Junker . Erich's mother, Klara Jeanette Henriette von Tempelhoff (1840–1914), was the daughter of the noble but impoverished Friedrich August Napoleon von Tempelhoff (1804–1868) and his wife Jeannette Wilhelmine von Dziembowska (1816–1854), who came from a Germanized Polish landed family on the side of her father Stephan von Dziembowski (1779–1859). Through Dziembowski's wife Johanna Wilhelmine von Unruh (1793–1862), Erich

17936-538: The table with his fists. Implementation of the Program was assigned to General Groener , a staff officer who had directed the Field Railway Service effectively. His office was in the (civilian) War Ministry, not in the OHL as Ludendorff had wanted. Therefore, he assigned staff officers to most government ministries, so he knew what was going on and could press his demands. War industry's major problem

18088-499: The territory they desired in France and Belgium, so the German government was unable to make a plausible peace proposal. Ludendorff became increasingly cantankerous, railing at his staff without cause, publicly accusing Hindenburg of talking nonsense, and sometimes bursting into tears. Bauer wanted him replaced, but instead a doctor, Oberstabarzt Hochheimer, was brought to OHL. He had worked closely with Ludendorff in Poland during

18240-534: The tradition of Heinrich Heine , Arthur Schopenhauer and Angelus Silesius . He also became fascinated by the Buddhist doctrine of Maya , or illusion. From 1907 Eckart lived with his brother Wilhelm in the Döberitz mansion colony west of the Berlin city limits. In 1913 he married Rose Marx, an affluent widow from Bad Blankenburg , and returned to Munich . In Eckart's five-act version of Ibsen's piece,

18392-407: The two when they clashed, telling Esser that Hitler, whom he esteemed as the DAP's best speaker, was the far superior man. He became Hitler's mentor, exchanging ideas with him and helping to establish theories and beliefs of the Party. He lent Hitler books to read, gave him a trench coat to wear, and made corrections to Hitler's style of speaking and writing. Hitler was to say later "Stylistically I

18544-597: The war was lost they would "become slaves of international capital". The lecturers were to "ensure that a fight is kept up against all agitators, croakers, and weaklings". To bolster the wobbling Austro-Hungarian government, the Germans provided some troops and led a joint attack in Italy in October. They sliced through the Italian lines in the mountains at Caporetto . Two hundred and fifty thousand Italians were captured and

18696-527: The winter of 1915–16 on plans to bring in German colonists. Before the war he had a practice in nervous diseases. Hochheimer "spoke as a friend and he listened as a friend", convincing Ludendorff that he could not work effectively with one hour of sleep a night and that he must relearn how to relax. After a month away from headquarters Ludendorff had recovered from the severest symptoms of battle fatigue. On 29 September 1918, Ludendorff and Hindenburg suddenly told an incredulous Kaiser that they could not guarantee

18848-421: The workers, so he insisted that union representatives be included on industrial dispute boards. He also advocated an excess profits tax. The industrialists were incensed. On 16 August 1917, Ludendorff telegraphed an order reassigning Groener to command the 33rd Infantry Division. Overall, "unable to control labour and unwilling to control industry, the army failed miserably". To the public it seemed that Ludendorff

19000-477: The younger officers came to adore him." His adjutant, Wilhelm Breucker, became a devoted lifelong friend. At the outbreak of war in the summer of 1914 Ludendorff was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff to the German Second Army under General Karl von Bülow . His assignment was largely due to his previous work investigating defenses of Liège , Belgium. At the beginning of the Battle of Liège , Ludendorff

19152-482: Was in Flanders . Again they broke through, advancing 30 km (19 mi), and forcing the British to give back all of the ground that they had won the preceding year after weeks of battle. But the Germans were stopped short of the rail junction that was their goal. Next, to draw French reserves south, they struck along the Chemin des Dames . In their most successful attack yet they advanced 12 km (7.5 mi) on

19304-495: Was Eckart who introduced Alfred Rosenberg to Hitler. Between 1920 and 1923, Eckart and Rosenberg labored tirelessly in the service of Hitler and the party. Through Rosenberg, Hitler was introduced to the writings of Houston Stewart Chamberlain , Rosenberg's inspiration. Both Rosenberg and Eckart were influential with Hitler on the subject of Russia. Eckart saw Russia as Germany's natural ally, writing in 1919 that "German politics hardly has another choice than to enter an alliance with

19456-480: Was Eckart's friend and a funder of the Party, as guarantor. The newspaper was renamed the Völkischer Beobachter and became the party's official organ, with Eckart as its first editor and publisher. He also created the Nazi slogan Deutschland erwache ("Germany awake"), and wrote the lyrics for the anthem based on it, the "Sturm-Lied". In 1921 Eckart promised 1,000 Marks to everyone who could cite one Jewish family whose sons had served longer than three weeks at

19608-525: Was a full colonel. His section was responsible for writing the mass of detailed orders needed to bring the mobilized troops into position to implement the Schlieffen Plan . For this they covertly surveyed frontier fortifications in Russia, France and Belgium. For instance, in 1911 Ludendorff visited the key Belgian fortress city of Liège . Before the war, he was an Oberst in General Staff who studied

19760-435: Was a glutton for work and a man of granite character but who was deliberately friendless and forbidding and therefore remained little known or liked. It is true that as his wife testified, "Anyone who knows Ludendorff knows that he has not a spark of humor...". He was voluble nonetheless, although he shunned small talk. John Lee, states that while Ludendorff was with his Fusiliers, "he became the perfect regimental commander ...

19912-491: Was a mere infant then in terms of style." Hitler later told one of his secretaries that his friendship with Eckart was "one of the best things he experienced in the 1920s" and that he never again had a friend with whom he felt such "a harmony of thinking and feeling." During the Nazi period, several monuments and memorials were created to Eckart. Hitler named the arena near the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, now known as

20064-566: Was a remote descendant of the Counts of Dönhoff , the Dukes of Liegnitz and Brieg and the Margraves and Electors of Brandenburg . Ludendorff had a stable and comfortable childhood, growing up on a small family farm. He received his early schooling from a maternal aunt and had a gift for mathematics, as did his younger brother Hans , who became a distinguished astronomer. Upon passing

20216-710: Was a superior being, a genius who would be the divine German Messiah – the chosen one. The paper did not refer to Hitler as merely the leader of the Nazi Party; instead, he was "Germany's leader". Other newspapers in Bavaria began to call Hitler "the Bavarian Mussolini." This idea of Hitler's specialness began to spread, so that two years later, in November 1922, the Traunsteiner Wochenblatt newspaper would look ahead to when "the masses of

20368-493: Was an observer with the 14th Brigade, which was to infiltrate the city at night and secure the bridges before they could be destroyed. The brigade commander was killed on 5 August, so Ludendorff led the successful assault to occupy the city and its citadel. In the following days, two of the forts guarding the city were taken by desperate frontal infantry attacks, while the remaining forts were smashed by huge Krupp 42-cm and Austro-Hungarian Škoda 30.5-cm howitzers. By 16 August, all

20520-520: Was commissioned as a subaltern into the 57th Infantry Regiment, then at Wesel . Over the next eight years, he was promoted to lieutenant and saw further service in the 2nd Marine Battalion, based at Kiel and Wilhelmshaven , and in the 8th Grenadier Guards at Frankfurt on the Oder . His service reports reveal the highest praise, with frequent commendations. In 1893, he entered the War Academy, where

20672-403: Was distressed by the many intra-party fights that Streicher managed to start. According to Hitler, Eckart told him on multiple occasions "that Streicher was a schoolteacher, and a lunatic to boot, from many points of view. He always added that one could not hope for a triumph of National Socialism without giving one's support to a man like Streicher." For a time, before Alfred Rosenberg took over

20824-501: Was exactly the right man for our young movement." It is probably Nazi legend that Eckart said about Hitler on their first meeting "That's Germany's next great man –one day the whole world will talk about him." He was not a member of the Thule Society. Eckart, who was 21 years older than Hitler, became the father-figure to a group of younger volkisch men, including Hitler and Hermann Esser , and acted as mediator between

20976-515: Was given—against his explicit wishes—a state funeral organized and attended by Hitler. Ludendorff was born on 9 April 1865 in Ludendorff near Posen , in the Province of Posen and Kingdom of Prussia (now Kruszewnia, Poznań County , Poland ), the third of six children of August Wilhelm Ludendorff (1833–1905). His father was descended from Pomeranian merchants who had been raised to

21128-488: Was hidden by his brother and a network of friends until he slipped out of Germany disguised in blue spectacles and a false beard and fake Finnish passport , settling in a Swedish admirer's country home until the Swedish government asked him to leave in February 1919. Within seven months, he wrote two volumes of detailed memoirs. Friends, led by Breucker, provided him with documents and negotiated with publishers. Groener (who

21280-479: Was in Kaunas . The Germans occupied present-day Lithuania, western Latvia, and north eastern Poland, an area almost the size of France. Ludendorff demanded Germanization of the conquered territories and far-ranging annexations, offering land to German settlers; see Drang nach Osten . Far-reaching plans envisioned Courland and Lithuania turned into border states ruled by German military governors answerable only to

21432-634: Was incarcerated in Sachsenhausen concentration camp until 1943, when he was transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp and forced to work at the Gustloff ammunition plant, where on 9 February 1945 he was killed. Erich Ludendorff Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff ( German: [ˈeːʁɪç ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈluːdn̩dɔʁf] ; 9 April 1865 – 20 December 1937) was a Prussian-born German military officer and politician. He achieved fame during World War I for his central role in

21584-425: Was not constitutionally able to run a big business like a daily newspaper. "I would not be able to do it, either," according to Hitler, "I have been fortunate that I got a few people who know how to do it. ... It would be as if I tried to run a farm! I wouldn't be able to do it." Nevertheless, tensions between Hitler and Eckart began to appear. Not only were there personal disagreements about the behavior of each towards

21736-468: Was officially renamed with the added suffix "Dietrich-Eckart-Stadt". In 1934, Adolf Hitler inaugurated a monument in his honour in the city park. It has since been rededicated to Christopher of Bavaria (1416–1448), King of Denmark, who was probably born in the town. In March 1938, when Passau commemorated Eckart's 70th birthday at Oberhaus Castle, the Lord Mayor announced not only the creation of

21888-610: Was promoted to General of the Infantry . Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg warned the War Cabinet: "You don't know Ludendorff, who is only great at a time of success. If things go badly he loses his nerve." Their first concern was the sizable Romanian Army , so troops sent from the Western Front checked Romanian and Russian incursions into Hungary. Then Romania was invaded from the south by German, Austro-Hungarian, Bulgarian, and Ottoman troops commanded by August von Mackensen and from

22040-428: Was published posthumously. Margarete Plewnia considered the dialogue between Eckart and Hitler to be an invention by Eckart himself, but Ernst Nolte , Friedrich Heer and Klaus Scholder think that the book – which was completed and published posthumously by Rosenberg, allegedly using Eckart's notes – reflects Hitler's own words. Thus historian Richard Steigmann-Gall believed that "[the] book still remains

22192-454: Was running the nation as well as the war. According to Ludendorff, "the authorities ... represented me as a dictator". He would not become Chancellor because the demands for running the war were too great. The historian Frank Tipton argues that while not technically a dictator, Ludendorff was "unquestionably the most powerful man in Germany" in 1917–18. The OHL did nothing to mitigate the crisis of growing food shortages in Germany. Despite

22344-475: Was still an infant." Eckart also schooled the provincial Hitler in proper manners, and regarded Hitler as his protégé . Hitler and Eckart had many things in common, including their interest in art and politics, that both thought of themselves primarily as artists, and both were prone to depression. They also shared that their early influences were Jewish, a fact which both preferred not to speak about. Although, unlike Hitler, Eckart did not believe that Jews were

22496-459: Was subversive or materialistic. Joachim C. Fest describes Eckart as a "roughhewn and comical figure, with [a] thick round head, [and a] partiality for good wine and crude talk" with a "bluff and uncomplicated manner". His revolutionary goals were to promote "true socialism" and rid the country of "interest slavery". According to Thomas Weber , Eckart had a "jovial but moody nature", while John Toland describes him as "an original raffish man with

22648-428: Was the epitome of masculinity and non-materialism, while Jews were femininity in its purest form. Eckart took upon himself this philosophy, and considered that the role of genius was to rid the world of the baleful influence of Jews. Many parts of German society held similar views, and were looking for a savior, a "German Messiah", a genius to lead them out of the economic and political morass the country had fallen into as

22800-402: Was the scarcity of skilled workers, therefore 125,000 men were released from the armed forces and trained workers were no longer conscripted. The OHL wanted to enroll most German men and women into national service, but the Reichstag legislated that only males 17–60 were subject to "patriotic service" and refused to bind war workers to their jobs. Groener realized that they needed the support of

22952-415: Was through her that Hitler began to move among the upper class of Berlin. In June 1921, while Hitler and Eckart were on a fundraising trip to Berlin, a mutiny broke out within the Nazi Party in Munich. Members of its executive committee wanted to merge with the rival German Socialist Party (DSP). Hitler returned to Munich on 11 July and angrily tendered his resignation. The committee members realised that

23104-656: Was with the 1st Bayerischen Jägerbattailon . During the First World War he was in combat in Lorraine and Flanders and involved in early 1915 with the German Alpine Corps. On 1 June 1915 Mayr was promoted to Hauptmann (captain). In 1917, he was named on the General Staff of the Alpine Corps. On 13 March 1918 he was appointed commander of the 1st Bavarian Jägerbattailon , with whom he served in

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