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Book Overview
With his victory over the Russian army at the battle of Tannenberg in August 1914, Paul von Hindenburg became a war hero. By 1916 he had parlayed an exaggerated reputation for decisive victory into near dictatorial powers. After Germany s defeat at Verdun and War Minister Erich von Falkenhayn s dismissal in late 1916, Hindenburg, along with his chief of staff Erich Ludendorff, took over strategic direction of the war. The eponymous Hindenburg Program attempted with some success to mobilize Germany s economy for war. He also oversaw many of Germany s most important wartime decisions, including the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, Bethmann Hollweg s dismissal as chancellor, Russia s defeat and negotiation of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and the Ludendorff Offensives of 1918, which sought decisive victory on the Western Front but ended in Germany s catastrophic defeat. After the war, Hindenburg played a crucial role in creating the "Dolchstosslegende" (the myth that the German Army had been stabbed in the back by a Jewish-Bolshevik conspiracy on the homefront), in leading Germany as president of the Weimar Republic, and, most tragically, in acquiescing to Adolf Hitler s rise to power."
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:1574886533
ISBN13:9781574886535
Release Date:January 2005
Publisher:Potomac Books
Length:160 Pages
Weight:0.70 lbs.
Dimensions:0.7" x 5.3" x 8.3"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
An overall short summary of Germany's WWI leader.
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
As the authors point out, it was not the Chancellor or William II that ran Germany late in World War I, but Hinderburg and Ludendorf. These men were responsible for the gamble that payed off in huge losses to the German Army and moral problems both at the front and at home. These guys called the shots, and when Germany could no longer go on, they blamed it on the minorities back home (Jews, Communists, profiteers). Hinderburg was the author of the stab in the back theory. Rather than admit that it was their policies that lost the war, they blamed it on someone else. Hinderburg was later responsible for bringing Hitler to power and he should be blamed for losses in both wars. The authors show Hinderburg in a negative light with all he did. This is a nice short read on a bad military leader. At a little over a hundred pages, it shows Hinderburg's rise and the faults that resulted in millions of deaths.
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