Hindenburg takes command of the Eighth Army

On 23 August 1914, at about two in the afternoon, the new commander of the German Eighth Army, General Paul von Hindenburg, arrived at its headquarters in Marienburg. With him came the new chief of staff, General Erich Ludendorff. They replaced General Maximilian von Prittwitz and his chief of staff, Count von Waldersee, who after the Battle of Gumbinnen had wanted to withdraw the army behind the Vistula and abandon East Prussia to the Russians.

Crisis in East Prussia

At the start of the war the Eighth Army covered East Prussia against two Russian armies. Prittwitz’s main forces attacked the First Army of General Paul von Rennenkampf in the east, but at Gumbinnen on 20 August they failed to defeat it. During the battle news arrived that the Second Army of General Alexander Samsonov was approaching from the south, from the Kingdom of Poland, and threatening the German rear. Prittwitz broke off the fighting and reported to the Supreme Army Command that he was unable to hold the country east of the Vistula. The Chief of the General Staff, General Helmuth von Moltke, did not agree. He believed that before abandoning so important a province an attempt had to be made to destroy Samsonov’s army. The dispute between the Supreme Command and the army staff ended in a change of command.

The pensioner from Hanover

Hindenburg, born in 1847 in Posen, was a veteran of the wars against Austria and France. In 1911 he had retired and was living in Hanover. He was 66. As he recalled, at three in the afternoon of 22 August he received an inquiry from the Emperor’s headquarters as to whether he was prepared for immediate employment. He answered briefly: “I am ready.” Further telegrams informed him that he was to leave for the East at once to take command of an army, and that General Ludendorff would be assigned to him.

Ludendorff was then one of the ablest officers of the German General Staff. A few days earlier he had distinguished himself at Liège, where he took command of a brigade and seized the citadel. At nine in the morning of 22 August, at the headquarters of the Second Army between Wavre and Namur, he was handed a letter from Moltke: “You have before you a new and difficult task, perhaps even more difficult than that of storming Liège. […] I know no other man in whom I have such absolute trust. You may yet be able to save the situation in the East.” Ludendorff went by car to Koblenz, where he was received by Emperor Wilhelm II and decorated with the Pour le Mérite for Liège. While still in Koblenz he issued the first orders to the Eighth Army: its units were to halt the retreat, and I Corps, being moved west by rail, was to detrain closer to the front, behind the right wing of XX Corps, which was defending the southern border of Prussia. At nine in the evening he left for the East by special train.

At about four in the morning of 23 August the train stopped at Hanover. Ludendorff reported to Hindenburg on the platform. The two generals were meeting for the first time. The conference on the train lasted little more than half an hour, and the two quickly came to agreement. Then, as Hindenburg noted, they went to bed.

A ready plan

In Marienburg the new commanders found a depressed atmosphere but also a changed situation. The deputy chief of staff, General Grünert, and the operations officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Max Hoffmann, had already abandoned the idea of a retreat behind the Vistula. The plan prepared by Hoffmann provided for leaving a weak screen against Rennenkampf’s army and sending the main forces south, against Samsonov’s army. It matched what Ludendorff had ordered from Koblenz, and Hindenburg and Ludendorff adopted it almost unchanged. Ludendorff and Hoffmann later disputed in their memoirs who deserved the credit. On the same day XX Corps had already clashed with Samsonov’s advancing troops.

The beginning of a legend

Hindenburg later wrote that his partnership with Ludendorff was like “a happy marriage”. A few days later their plan brought Germany a great victory at Tannenberg, which made Hindenburg a national hero. In 1916, together with Ludendorff, he took over the direction of the whole German army, and in 1925 he was elected President of the Reich. As president, in January 1933 he appointed Adolf Hitler Chancellor.