Hoffmann, Max
Hoffmann, Max,
1869–1927, German general in World War I. A brilliant strategist, he contributed to the German victory over the Russians at Tannenberg and in 1916 became chief of staff of the eastern armies. As military representative he helped negotiate the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Russia. In his war diary and later books he bitterly criticized the German high command.Hoffmann, Max
Born Jan. 25, 1869, in Homberg; died July 8, 1927, in Bad Reichenhall. German military figure and writer. Major general.
Hoffmann graduated from the Academy of the General Staff (1901) and served in the intelligence directorate of the General Staff. In 1904 and 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War, he was in the German military mission with the Japanese First Army. At the beginning of World War I he was quartermaster-general of the Eighth Army. In the period of the East Prussian operation of 1914 he came out against retreating beyond the Vistula River and significantly aided in organizing the rout of the Russian Second Army. From 1914 to 1916 he was quartermaster-general of the Eastern Front staff, and in August 1916 he became chief of the command staff of the Eastern Front. From December 1917 to February 1918, he was for all practical purposes head of the German delegation to the peace negotiations with Soviet Russia at Brest. He held sharply anti-Soviet views, while also advocating the conclusion of peace with Russia in order to achieve victory in the West. In August 1918 he proposed declaring war on Soviet Russia. In November 1918 he became commander in chief of the Eastern Front. In 1919 he tried to organize German military intervention against Russia. He retired in 1920. It became evident that he was a profascist adventurer. In his works on the history of World War I he criticized the German command for supposedly missing the chance for victory.
WORKS
Tannenberg: Wie es wirklich war. Berlin, 1926.In Russian translation:
Voina upushchennykh vozmozhnostei. Moscow-Leningrad, 1925.
Zapiski i dnevniki: 1914–1918. Leningrad, 1929.