Germany
Erich Ludendorff
1865–1937 First Quartermaster General, 1916–1918
Ludendorff was the real director of the German war effort from August 1916. A brilliant organizer and tactician, a man of enormous energy and little patience, he planned the spring offensives, choosing a tactical breakthrough in the hope that strategy would follow. When it did not, he made a decision that shaped the peace. On 29 September he demanded an armistice, then on 24 October wanted to fight on, and on 26 October the Kaiser dismissed him. He fled to Sweden, returned to Germany in 1919, took part in the Kapp Putsch and the Munich Putsch of 1923, and helped spread the stab-in-the-back legend. He is a key figure in why defeat came as such a shock to the German public.