General Erich Ludendorff, German First World War general, 1926. After distinguishing himself in German's victories on the Eastern Front in 1914 and 1915, Ludendorff (1865-1937) was appointed Quartermaster-General of the German Army by the new Chief of Staff, Paul von Hindenburg. Ludendorff exploited his position to effectively become the driving force behind Germany's prosecution of the war. After the war ended he was one of the most prominent proponents of the view that Germany had lost because it had been 'stabbed in the back' by its left-wing politicians and in the 1920s entered politics as a prominent member of the Nazi Party, participating in Hitler's Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. He contested the 1925 presidential election but was soundly defeated by his former commander, Hindenburg.
