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Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (sometimes incorrectly referred to as von Ludendorff) (9 April 1865 – 20 December 1937) was a German general, victor of Liège and of the Battle of Tannenberg. From August 1916, his appointment as Quartermaster general (''Erster Generalquartiermeister'') made him joint head (with Paul von Hindenburg), and chief engineer behind the management of Germany's effort in World War I until his resignation in October 1918. After the war, Ludendorff became a prominent nationalist leader, and a promoter of the stab-in-the-back legend, convinced that the German Army had been betrayed by Marxists and Republicans in the Versailles Treaty. He took part in the unsuccessful coups d’état of Wolfgang Kapp in 1920 and the Beer Hall Putsch of Adolf Hitler in 1923, and in 1925 he ran for president against his former colleague, Paul von Hindenburg, who he claimed had taken credit for Ludendorff's victories against Russia.〔 From 1924 to 1928 he represented the German Völkisch Freedom Party in the German Parliament. Consistently pursuing a purely military line of thought, Ludendorff developed, after the war, the theory of “Total War,” which he published as ''Der Totale Krieg'' (''The Total War'') in 1935, in which he argued that the entire physical and moral forces of the nation should be mobilized, because, according to him, peace was merely an interval between wars. Ludendorff was a recipient of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross and the Pour le Mérite. ==Early years== Ludendorff was born on 9 April 1865 in Kruszewnia near Posen, Province of Posen, Kingdom of Prussia (now Poznań County, Poland), the third of six children of August Wilhelm Ludendorff (Stettin, 13 March 1833 – Berlin, 11 January 1905), descended from Pomeranian merchants, who had achieved the status of ''Junker'', i.e. owner of a Manor, and who held a commission in the reserve Cavalry. Erich's mother, whom he married on 19 May 1860, Klara Jeanette Henriette von Tempelhoff (19 December 1840 – 6 March 1914), was the daughter of the noble but impoverished Friedrich August Napoleon von Tempelhoff (8 April 1804 – 6 September 1868), whose paternal grandfather had been ennobled late in his life, and his wife (15 January 1835) Jeannette Wilhelmine von Dziembowska (18 January 1816 – 2 November 1854), who came from a Germanized Polish landed family on her father Stephan von Dziembowski (1779 - 1859)'s side, and through whose wife Johanna Wilhelmine von Unruh (24 June 1793 - 1862) Erich was a remote descendant of the Counts of Dönhoff, the Dukes of Legnica and Brzeg and the Marquesses and Electors of Brandenburg. He had a stable and comfortable childhood, growing up on a small family farm. He received his early schooling from his maternal aunt and had a flair for mathematics. His acceptance into the Cadet School at Plön was largely due to his proficiency in mathematics and the adherence to the work ethic that he would carry with him throughout his life. Passing his entrance exam with Distinction,〔 he was put in a class two years ahead of his age group, and thereafter was consistently first in his class. Famous World War II General Heinz Guderian attended the same Cadet School, which produced many well-trained German officers. Ludendorff's education continued at the ''Hauptkadettenschule'' at Groß-Lichterfelde near Berlin through 1882.〔 Despite Ludendorff's maternal noble origins he married the daughter of a wealthy factory owner, Margarethe née Schmidt (5 August 1875 – 1936). She divorced to marry him, bringing him three stepsons, but no issue. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Erich Ludendorff」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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