Tannenberg

Tannenberg; looking back, this town and battle symbolise an atypicalepisode in the First World War: the war of movement. In reality thewar quickly turned into a trench war, such as we knew it in the West.With the battle at Tannenberg and the ones that followed, which all hada quite positive outcome for Germany, Ludendorff had left his mark. is untimately brought the duo Von Hindenburg - Ludendorff to theabsolute military top of Germany. As from 1917 they, together with theemperor, dictated the course of the war. Ludendorff left such a heavy markon everything that people also referred to it as 'Ludendor 's dictatorship'.Not only did he interfere in military matters, but also in politics, the wareconomy, propaganda, and he played a decisive role in major war decisionsin other areas, such as diplomacy and the submarine war. In the end thewar became identified with Ludendorff , who had to step aside when theunavoidable defeat came in 1918. is was a bitter disappointment for Ludendorff . He never got over it andit was the beginning of his alienation from imperial Germany, in which hehad grown up, and the start of his political career, which was soon to bemarked by the 'Dolchstosslegende'. His role in the early Hitler movementand his participation in the Hitler-Putsch in 1923 have coloured the viewon Ludendorff 's character. Because of this we have lost touch with the curioushistory of Tannenberg and the battles that followed until the winterof 1915, which were of great historical signi cance. ese battles weren'tdecisive. they didn't bring victory to Germany. e victory at Tannebergdid, however, save East Prussia from a Russian invasion in 1914. When atthe end of the Second World War the Russian Army approached the battlememorial, German engineers blew it up.With this short monograph the author has tried to reproduce the historyof the battle at Tannenberg. Almost 70 years after Ludendorff passedaway and almost 90 years after the battle, it will help us to remember thedifficult genesis of Europe as we know it now.