Hindenburg becomes field marshal

On 27 November 1914 Kaiser Wilhelm II promoted Colonel-General Paul von Hindenburg to the rank of field marshal, the highest in the Prussian Army. Hindenburg was then 67 years old and had been Commander-in-Chief of all German forces on the Eastern Front for less than a month.

Three months of a career

As late as August 1914 Hindenburg was a retired general. Recalled from retirement, he took command of the Eighth Army in East Prussia and, while the Battle of Tannenberg was still under way, received the rank of colonel-general. In the autumn he led the Ninth Army in the offensive on Warsaw, and on 1 November he became Commander-in-Chief in the East, Oberbefehlshaber Ost, Ober Ost for short.

The promotion came during the Battle of Łódź. It did not bring the Germans the great victory they had hoped for, and on 24 November the encircled group of General Reinhard von Scheffer-Boyadel barely broke out of the pocket near Brzeziny. The Russian offensive into Silesia had, however, been halted, and German propaganda presented the fighting in the Kingdom of Poland as another success for the victor of Tannenberg. At roughly the same time his chief of staff, Erich Ludendorff, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general.

Which date

German biographies and lists of promotions give 27 November 1914 as the date of the promotion. The Polish and English Wikipedias, however, link the field marshal’s baton with the assumption of supreme command in the East and give 1 November. This appears to be a simplification that merges into one two events almost four weeks apart.

National hero

The promotion confirmed Hindenburg’s exceptional standing in Germany. After Tannenberg he had become a national hero, and streets, squares and ships were named after him. In August 1916, together with Ludendorff, he took over the direction of the entire German army, and in 1925 he was elected President of the Reich.