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Erich Ludendorff, (born April 9, 1865, Kruszewnia, near Poznań, Prussian Poland—died Dec. 20, 1937, Munich, Ger.), Prussian general who was mainly responsible for Germany’s military policy and strategy in the latter years of World War I.

Erich Ludendorff was born in 1865 in East Prussia (now part of Poland) into a formerly aristocratic family who had fallen onto hard times. He joined the German army and rose rapidly through the ranks to prestigious posts in the War Academy and German General Staff. In demeanor, he was aggressive and outspoken.

Ludendorff insisted he had been betrayed, and for the next 20 years he led a bizarre life, becoming a leader of reactionary political movements and taking part in the Kapp Putsch (1920) and Beer Hall Putsch (1923). He served in Parliament as a National Socialist (1924–28) and developed a belief that “supernational powers”—Jewry, Christianity, Freemasonry—had deprived him and Germany of victory in World War I.

Ludendorff was born on April 9, 1865, in the town of Kruszewnia, near Posen, Prussia. Like most of the border towns split between Polish and German ethnicity, Kruszewnia was a hotbed of Prusso-German nationalism. His parents were middle-class but strongly nationalist.

Ludendorff, Erich (1865–1937) German general. He played a major part in revising the Schlieffen Plan before World War I. In 1914, Ludendorff masterminded the victory over the Russians at Tannenberg. In 1916, Ludendorff and Hindenburg gained supreme control of Germany's war effort. In the 1920s he was a member of the Nazi Party.

Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff. The German general Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (1865-1937), a brilliant strategist and successful field commander, directed Germany's total war effort during the last 2 years of World War I. He later promoted the rise of Hitler. Erich Ludendorff was born on April 9, 1865, in Kruszewnia in the chiefly Polish-populated Prussian province of Posen. He was the son of an impoverished former cavalry officer.

Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (sometimes given as von Ludendorff) (April 9, 1865 – December 20, 1937) was a German Army officer, Generalquartiermeister during World War I, victor of Liège, and, with Paul von Hindenburg, one of the victors of the battle of Tannenberg. After the war, he briefly supported Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

In March 1920 a coup d’etat was attempted by Gen. Walther von Lüttwitz, who commanded the troops in the Berlin area, and Wolfgang Kapp, an East Prussian official. With the help of the Ehrhardt Brigade, one of the Freikorps formations, Lüttwitz and Kapp assumed power in Berlin.