Erich Ludendorff

ian cavalry. But Erich Ludendorff was not born to be a general.
In Prussia (the dominant state in the cluster of Germanic states
that would unify into the nation of Germany in 1871) generals
came from the nobility. A person of noble birth was marked
by the designation “von” before his last name. Ludendorff,
born on April 9, 1865, was a commoner, raised in a struggling
family that lived in the province of Posen. To reach the top of
the German armed forces, he would have to work unrelentingly—and
that is what he did.
At the age of twelve Ludendorff entered cadet school at
Holstein. Ludendorff was mocked by his fellow cadets because
his last name lacked the “von” of nobility, and he was driven
to his physical limit by the demanding Prussian officers who
ruled the school. Perhaps because of these difficulties, Ludendorff
became ever more focused and severe, devoting all his
waking hours to making himself the best possible soldier. After
graduating from the Lichterfelde Military Academy in Berlin at
the top of his class, Ludendorff won a commission as a lieutenant
in 1882. Just twelve years later, after passing every test
that was placed before him, Ludendorff was appointed to the
prestigious German general staff, the group of officers who
prepared war plans and strategy for the commanding general
of the army. At the age of twenty-nine, Ludendorff had
become one of Germany’s premier soldiers.
“A Man of Iron Principles”
For the next twenty years, Ludendorff devoted himself
to understanding every area of the German military. In
1908 he was appointed to lead the mobilization and deployment
(gathering and transport of military supplies) division
of the general staff, a position for which he had been trained
by Field Marshal Count Alfred von Schlieffen (1833–1913),
the mastermind of German war plans. Ludendorff longed for
the day when his years of study and preparation would place
him in the position of leadership that he felt he so richly
deserved.
Ludendorff’s years of devotion to the military had
made him an unpleasant man. German officers were known
for their arrogance and their rudeness to their subordinates,
but Ludendorff was more rude and arrogant than most. Robert
B. Asprey, author of The German High Command at War,
98 World War I: Biographies