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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. After the war he became a leader of reactionary political movements, for a while joining the Nazi Party and subsequently taking an independent ...

Erich Ludendorff. General Erich Ludendorff (1865-1937) was a top German military commander in the latter stages of World War I. Educated in the cadet corps, Ludendorff was named chief of staff to ...

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.

Ludendorff at 17. (Image source: WikiMedia Commons) He was the son of an aristocrat. Born on April 9, 1865 in Posen, Prussia (modern-day Poznan, Poland), Erich’s family was part of the noble Junker class of pre-1914 Germany.

Erich Ludendorff, (born April 9, 1865, Kruszewnia, near Poznań, Prussian Poland—died Dec. 20, 1937, Munich, Ger.), German general. In 1908 he joined the German army general staff and worked under Helmuth von Moltke in revising the Schlieffen Plan. In World War I he was appointed chief of staff to Paul von Hindenburg, and the two won a ...