Erich Ludendorff

Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff was a German general, the victor of the Battle of Lige and the Battle of Tannenberg. From August 1916, his appointment as Quartermaster general made him the leader of the German war efforts during World War I until his resignation in October 1918, just before the end of hostilities.

Ludendorff was born onApril 1865 in Kruszewnia near Posen, Province of Posen, Kingdom of Prussia , the third of six children of August Wilhelm Ludendorff . His father was descended from Pomeranian merchants who had achieved the status of Junker, i.e. owner of a manor, and he held a commission in the reserve cavalry. Erichs mother, Klara Jeanette Henriette von Tempelhoff , was the daughter of the noble but impoverished Friedrich August Napoleon von Tempelhoff and his wife Jeannette Wilhelmine von Dziembowska , who came from a Germanized Polish landed family on the side of her father Stephan von Dziembowski . Through Dziembowskis wife Johanna Wilhelmine von Unruh , Erich was a remote descendant of the Counts of Dnhoff, the Dukes of Legnica and Brzeg and the Marquesses and Electors of Brandenburg. Erich occasionally signed his surname as von Ludendorff, although he was not a noble. He had a stable and comfortable childhood, growing up on a small family farm. He received his early scho

Source: Wikipedia