Will Brownell

General Erich Ludendorff was one of the most important military individuals of the last century, yet today, he is one of the least known. One of the top two German generals of World War I, Ludendorff dominated not only his superior-General Paul von Hindenburg-but also Germany's head of state, Kaiser Wilhelm II. For years, Ludendorff was the military dictator of Germany. He not only commanded all aspects of World War I, he refused every opportunity to make peace; he antagonised the Americans until they declared war; he sent Lenin into Russia to forge a revolution to shut down the Russian front; and pushed for total military victory in 1918 in a rabid slaughter known as "The Ludendorff Offensive." Shortly after Germany lost the War in 1918, Ludendorff created the murderous legend that Germany had lost the war only because Jews had conspired on the home front. He soon forged an alliance with Hitler, endorsed the Nazis, and wrote maniacally about how Germans needed a new world war to redeem the Fatherland. This savage man had staggering designs to build a gigantic state that would dwarf even the British Empire. Quite simply, Ludendorff wanted the world and was instrumental in both world wars and the Russian Revolution, changing the 20th century beyond recognition.