Paul von Hindenburg
One reason why it’s remarkably difficult to judge Hindenburg for the consequences of his actions in the First World War is because there are just so many of them. An immensely experienced soldier, Hindenburg had already fought in two conflicts prior to the First World War’s outbreak: the Austro-Prussian and the Franco-German wars. Hindenburg officially retired in 1911, but that was never going to stop the Kaiser from recalling one of his most experienced generals. So from the first to the final shot of the First World War, Hindenburg was at the fore exerting command over German forces.
Hindenburg managed to cultivate a popular persona throughout the war: one that was much needed but lacking in the German Army. Strong, steady and stalwart, he embodied a type of mature Teutonic virility that—for the first time in history—was conspicuously absent among the Imperial Family. The victory that enabled him to do this was that won at Tannenberg, Poland, in late August 1914. It was a remarkable battle by the war’s standards—one of the only engagements in which an enemy was encircled. Militarily it dealt a crushing blow to the Russians—with 50,000 killed or wounded and 92,000 taken prisoner. Strategically, however, it meant that with the Russians crippled for the foreseeable future Germany no longer had to press for a quick victory in the West.
Now the Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern German Armies, Hindenburg led (and his Chief of Staff Erich Ludendorff masterminded) his forces to another decisive victory at the Masurian Lakes in 1915. Then, with an ill-timed revolution dragging Russia out of the war in 1917, Hindenburg redeployed to the Western Front. There he consolidated the German “Hindenburg Line” and, along with Ludendorff prepared for the final, decisive offensive for the spring of 1918. The Ludendorff Offensive, as it was known, did in fact prove decisive. Unfortunately for Hindenburg, in the wake of its failure, it was decisive for the wrong side.
During the years 1915 and 1916, while Hindenburg’s achievements were reinforcing his titanic reputation, the traditional power base was crumbling. The Kaiser and his closest confidants, the Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg and Chief of Staff Erik von Falkenhyn, were rapidly losing status. To bolster the crumbling German state, Hindenburg and his partner Ludendorff began to lend support to a number of causes; some successful, others disastrous. By the end of 1916, the two were effectively running the country in a de facto military dictatorship, having marginalized the hapless Kaiser Wilhelm and sidelined the German Parliament (“Reichstag“).
Hindenburg’s political prestige meant he remained in public life long after the end of the war. Instrumental in pressing the Kaiser for peace on 29 September 1918 and signing the armistice, he twice went on to become President of the Weimar Republic. In old age and poor health, Hindenburg was eventually outmaneuvered by an up-and-coming national socialist who was appointed chancellor in 1933 and—after Hindenburg’s death in 1934—would make himself head of state: Adolf Hitler.