The theme of stab-in-the-back was articulated in 1919 most prominently by General Erich Ludendorff, one of the two top German commanders.

The official birth of the term " stab-in-the-back " itself possibly can be dated to the autumn of 1919, when Ludendorff was dining with the head of the British Military Mission in Berlin, British general Sir Neill Malcolm.

Malcolm asked Ludendorff why it was that he thought Germany lost the war.

This plan was detailed by German Field Marshall Erich Ludendorff, who wrote, " German prestige demands that we should hold a strong protecting hand, not only over German citizens, but over all Germans.

In 1918 Wilhelmshöhe became the seat of the German Army High Command ( OHL ): it was there that the military commanders Hindenburg and Ludendorff prepared the German capitulation.

The Beer Hall Putsch ( also known as the Munich Putsch or ) was a failed attempt at revolution that occurred between the evening of 8 November and the early afternoon of 9 November 1923, when Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff, and other heads of the Kampfbund unsuccessfully tried to seize power in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.

" He went on to state the Bavarian government was deposed and declared the formation of a new government with Ludendorff.

Heinz Pernet, Johann Aigner and Scheubner-Richter were dispatched to pick up Ludendorff, whose personal prestige was being harnessed to give the Nazis credibility.

" However, it should be noted that when a consignment of papers relating to Landsberg prison, including the visitor book, were later sold at auction it was noted that Ludendorff had visited Hitler a number of times.

Due to his story that he was there by accident, which he had also used in the Kapp Putsch along with his war service and connections, Ludendorff was acquitted.

To his left, in civilian clothes, a green felt hat, and a loose loden coat, was Ludendorff.

Ludendorff sent the official dispatch from Tannenberg, and the battle was named Battle of Tannenberg at the direct request of Hindenburg.

Hindenburg and Ludendorff were both hailed as heroes, although Hoffmann was generally ignored by the press.

On 29 August the German Chief of the General Staff, Erich Falkenhayn, was replaced by General Paul von Hindenburg, with General Erich Ludendorff as his deputy, but in effect the operational commander.

Falkenhayn was sacked and replaced by Hindenburg and Ludendorff in September 1916.

As early as April 1915, the Polish Border Strip plan against Poland, which was first suggested by General Erich Ludendorff in 1914, was approved as a German war aim by the Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg.

The German historian Andreas Hillgruber argued that the foreign policy of General Ludendorff, with its demand for lebensraum to be seized for Germany in Eastern Europe during World War I, was the prototype for German policy in World War II.

When in April 1925 Hitler and Ludendorff disapproved of the proposals under which Röhm was prepared to integrate the 30, 000-strong Frontbann into the SA, on 1 May 1925 Röhm resigned from all political movements and military brigades and sought seclusion from public life.

His parent's original home was close to where the German general Erich Ludendorff was born.

The defeated German leader, General Ludendorff, described it in the following words: " August 8th was the black day of the German Army in the history of the war ".

" Hitler asserted the technique was used by Jews to unfairly blame Germany's loss in World War I on German Army officer Erich Ludendorff.

It proposed both Generalfeldmarschall Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff as ' people's emperors ' of a military state whose legitimacy was based upon war and war aims instead of parliamentary government of the empire.

As the victor of Liège, Ludendorff was awarded Germany's highest military decoration for gallantry, the Pour le Mérite, presented by emperor Wilhelm II himself on 22 August.

* Erich Ludendorff, German general of World War I ; awarded the Pour le Mérite in August 1914, one of the earliest World War I awards, for the siege of Liege, Belgium ; received the oak leaves in February 1915.

Ludendorff replied with his list of excuses, including that the home front failed the army.

In the 1924 national election, the Munich cultural journal Süddeutsche Monatshefte published a series of articles blaming the SPD and trade unions for Germany's defeat in World War I, which came out during the trial of Adolf Hitler and Ludendorff for high treason following the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923.

The Nazis, led by Hitler and the German war hero Erich Ludendorff, attempted a " March on Berlin " modeled upon the March on Rome, which resulted in the failed Beer Hall Putsch in Munich in November 1923.

Hermann Ehrhardt, founder and leader of Marinebrigade Ehrhardt, and his deputy Commander Eberhard Kautter, leaders of the Viking League, refused to help Hitler and Erich Ludendorff in their Beer Hall Putsch and conspired against them.

* 1945 – The Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany, collapses, ten days after its capture.

* 1918 – Erich Ludendorff, quartermaster-general of the Imperial German Army, is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.

German General Erich Ludendorff later calls this the " black day of the German Army.

** Erich Ludendorff, German general ( d. 1937 )

* December 20 – Erich Ludendorff, German general ( b. 1865 )

As Germany's Chief of the General Staff from 1916, he and his deputy, Erich Ludendorff, rose in the German public's esteem until Hindenburg came to eclipse the Kaiser himself.

On 25 June Ludendorff suggested to Rupprecht that Group Ypres should withdraw to the Wilhelm ( third ) Line, leaving only outposts in the Albrecht ( second ) Line.

Ludendorff ordered a strengthening of forward garrisons by the ground-holding divisions.

Hindenburg's deputy, Chief Quartermaster-General Erich Ludendorff, soon acquired almost dictatorial power in Germany.

On 18 November 1914 he claimed a diplomatic solution, but Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff disagreed.

On 2 October 1916, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff ordered all German armies in the west to form a battalion of stormtroops.

Through his courage and personal example he earned the respect of the troops and the senior Bulgarian and German commanders, even that of the Generalquartiermeister of the German Army Erich Ludendorff, who preferred dealing personally with Boris and described him as excellently trained, a thoroughly soldierly person and mature beyond his years.

Hitler enlisted the help of World War I General Ludendorff in an attempt to gain the support of Kahr and his triumvirate.