Sehr Interessant.

This is coolbert:

From a previous blog entry:

"the stereotypical German Oberst would plot the demise of enemy forces with monocle in place to examine attack charts"

"Artie Johnson of the 1960's television series "Laugh In" created an entire character based upon this stereotype. The German general staff officer bent over his table top map, plotting strategy!"

Here with excellent examples of same:

Hindenburg [L] and Ludendorff [R]

Hindenburg [L] the Kaiser [C] and Ludendorff [R]

And this from The Atlantic Monthly June 1917 - - as written by the great American writer - - H.L. Mencken.

Mencken, while serving as an American war correspondent in German, 1917, penned this article about Ludendorff. A must read!

"In brief, one hears of Ludendorff, Ludendorff, whenever German officers utter more than twenty words about the war; his portrait hangs in every mess room; he is the god of every young lieutenant; his favorable notice is worth more to a division or corps commander than the ordre pour le mérite; he is, as it were, the esoteric Ulysses of the war" - - H.L. Mencken

"Ludendorff"

"Ludendorff has what you may call a capacious mind. He has imagination. He grasps inner significances. He can see around corners. Moreover, he enjoys planning, plotting, figuring things out."

"In the German Army . . . a Generalquartiermeister did not deal with supplies, but with operational command. He was the most senior officer below an Army's Chief of Staff"

[the quartermaster-general in the American experience WOULD BE a man dealing SOLELY with supplies, munitions material, procurement of same, etc. NOT a combat commander.]

"Ludendorff . . . chose the title First Quartermaster-General - in which role he directed the operations of the German Armies and wielded power over German politics and industry"

Ludendorff, in the final two years of the First World War [WW1], exercising power in the manner of the generalissimo. A military man wielding power also of a political nature. Mustering and directing the entire resources of a nation toward victory in war!

I was not aware of Mencken as the war correspondent. The man did have a way with the words in a manner that few do. Is highly quoted, and held in high repute? I can understand why!

"regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the 20th century."

coolbert.