Everything about The Oberste Heeresleitung totally explained
The
Oberste Heeresleitung or
OHL (Supreme Army Command) was
Germany's highest echelon of command of the
German Army (
Heer) in
World War I, while the
Navy was led by the
Seekriegsleitung or
SKL (Naval Warfare Command).
The law made
Emperor Wilhelm II the Supreme Commander of the German Army, but the generals at the OHL made decisions largely on their own. At the end of the war they'd practically superseded the government as the center of political power. Co-ordination was poor at the beginning of the war between the OHL and the SKL: for instance the
Imperial navy didn't know about the
Schlieffen plan, which planned an attack on
France through
Belgium.
At the start of the
First World War, the Chief of the OHL was
Helmuth von Moltke. He then had to resign after the failure of the
Marne offensive. The Prussian War minister
Erich von Falkenhayn was appointed as his successor. He advocated a "war of attrition" (
Abnutzungsschlacht) which showed its limitations at
Verdun.
The third OHL
The
Third supreme command is the name sometimes given to the OHL when led by
Hindenburg and
Ludendorff after August
1916.
In August of
1916,
Erich Ludendorff had been appointed
Generalquartiermeister, deputy chief of the
OHL under
Paul von Hindenburg, with whom he'd worked in the same relative position in
East Prussia, securing notably the victories of
Tannenberg and the
Masurian Lakes.
The pair created what was effectively a military-industrial
dictatorship, which largely relegated
Kaiser Wilhelm II to the periphery.
Ludendorff was the chief manager of the German war effort throughout this time, with Hindenburg his pliant front man.
The third OHL made political and strategic mistakes. While the public wanted peace, the OHL sought victory at all costs, ensuring for instance safe passage for
Lenin and his accomplices from
Switzerland to Russia. It only negotiated the peace of
Brest-Litovsk to be able to win on the Western front.
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