The First Nazi: Erich Ludendorff, The Man Who Made Hitler Possible
Language: English
Pages: 356
ISBN: 1619026090
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
“A brilliant tactician and an abysmally poor politician and strategist, Ludendorff summed up the strengths and weaknesses of the German General Staff. His is a fascinating story of talent, discipline, obsession, and denial.”—Professor Isabel Virginia Hull, PhD, Cornell University
One of the most important military individuals of the last century, yet one of the least known, Ludendorff not only dictated all aspects of World War I, he refused all opportunities to make peace; he antagonized the Americans until they declared war; he sent Lenin into Russia to forge a revolution in order to shut down the Russian front; and in 1918 he pushed for total military victory, in a slaughter known as “The Ludendorff Offensive.”
Ludendorff created the legend that Germany had lost the war only because Jews had conspired on the home front. He forged an alliance with Hitler, endorsed the Nazis, and wrote maniacally about how Germans needed a new world war, to redeem the Fatherland. He aimed to build a gigantic state to dwarf even the British Empire. Simply stated, he wanted the world.
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In the field ate fake bread filled with sawdust and leaves. When politicians criticized him for eating better than his men, he challenged the critics: He would eat the same food as the men in the trenches, if the critics in Berlin did the same. At this the critics went silent. General Ludendorff did not understand the food shortage. Somehow he managed to convince himself that the starvation was caused not by his confiscating the chemicals needed for fertilizer but rather by greedy housewives.
Ways, it was his finest moment. It took hours to convince them. But he explained it again and again. This robber peace would require huge forces to implement it. And even then, those German forces would encounter major passive resistance. The agreement, Lenin knew, could not be carried out. It was not as awful as it appeared. And for these reasons, he insisted, the Russians would sign. Eventually he battered his ministers into submission. His cabinet signed the document. A few abstained but no.
Lonely vacuum of this time, Ludendorff now worked to leave his mark and to prepare everyone for what he called “the next war,” a war where Jews would be destroyed and where Germans would then achieve absolute victory. CHAPTER 10 Ludendorff Moves to Murder the Jews and Fight a New War OUR STORY SHOULD be over. After the damage Ludendorff did to the world during his war, he did not deserve another chapter in this life. But certain sectors of Germany seemed to need Ludendorff. Germany was a.
One wonders whether without him there would have been a Second World War. World War II was “the unnecessary war,” as Churchill called it, a war that did not need to happen. Without Ludendorff’s myths, which made Hitler’s beliefs plausible, the Nazis might never have been able to come to power. Most analyses of World War II tend to begin with Hitler. And most people assume that Nazism began with that man. But it was Ludendorff who unleashed the social, military, and political forces that were key.
Internationalist. When the Communist elites were scrambling for privilege and luxuries, Radek was the only one idealistic enough to ask for no favors. Indeed, the ugly beard he wore was a necessity because he never asked for extra firewood or coal to heat his chilly apartment. Radek should be remembered for his flashes of genius. It was he who dominated the writing of the journal The Torch, which was distributed in multiple languages to the German troops occupying Russia—and this work.