Max Hoffmann: The Eastern Warrior, the Russophile, and the Genius Behind H-L
EARLY YEARS
Carl Adolf Maximilian Hoffmann was born on January 25, 1869 in Homberg (Efze) in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. He was the son of a district court judge.
From 1879 to 1887, young Hoffmann studied at the Gymnasium in Nordhausen. After graduation, Hoffmann volunteered for the 72nd Infantry Regiment. One of his comrades affectionately recalled:
“He was almost the worst athlete, horseman and swordsman of them all …he exceeded them in his terrifying appetite.”
As an ensign, Hoffmann studied at the Royal War College in Neisse from October 1887 to August 1888. He graduated with an Imperial commendation and was commissioned as a second lieutenant.
From 1895 to 1898 (now serving as a first lieutenant) Hoffmann attended the Prussian War Academy and was later sent to Russia to learn their language. He was on the General Staff from 1899 to 1901 in the First Department (Russia and the Nordic States).
In 1901, Hoffmann was promoted to captain and assigned as a staff officer to V Army Corps. Two years later, he moved to command a company in the 33rd Fusilier Regiment.
The General Staff then sent Hoffmann to Manchuria in 1904 as an observer with the Imperial Japanese Army in their war with Tsarist Russia. During this time, he was remembered for breaching protocol in the presence of other foreign observers when a Japanese general refused to allow him on to a hill to watch a battle, which led Hoffmann to respond that the general was “a yellow-skin” and that he was “uncivilized if you don’t let me go over that hill.”
He returned to the General Staff twenty months later, before being assigned as the first staff officer of the First Division, stationed in Königsberg, East Prussia. In 1911, Hoffmann became an instructor at the War Academy for two years, before moving to the 112th Infantry Regiment, where he had a field and later a staff position (he was promoted to lieutenant colonel).
1914: THE EASTERN FRONT OPENS
At the outbreak of World War I, Max Hoffmann became the first general staff officer of the German Eighth Army. Transferred from Alsace, he had the wisdom and about the Russians, and the lieutenant colonel was responsible for defending the eastern frontier from a Cossack strike. The bulk of the German Army (following the Schlieffen Plan) was attempting to gain decisive victory in the West by knocking France out of the war.
Russian mobilization, however, had begun secretly before the declaration of war on August 1, 1914. Thus, the Russian First Army invaded East Prussia only two weeks later, much earlier than anticipated!
After checking the slowly advancing Cossacks at the frontier village of Stallupönen, the German Eighth Army attacked them again in the Battle of Gumbinnen on August 20, 1914. To the surprise of many (including Hoffmann), it was a defeat for the Teutonic forces.
Then, it was discovered that the Russian Second Army (marching from Warsaw) was advancing northwest on the German rear! Not wanting to be cut off from home, the alarmed German Eighth Army commander, Maximilian von Prittwitz, proposed to retreat west over the Vistula River, thus abandoning East Prussia to the invaders. He soon reconsidered… and instead, decided to move the bulk of his forces to block the Russian Second Army from reaching the Vistula.
However, Prittwitz, along with his chief of staff (Count von Waldersee, the nephew to Schlieffen’s predecessor), had already been relieved in favor of Paul von Hindenburg and the hero of Liege, Erich Ludendorff. Hoffmann knew Ludendorff very well, because they had been neighbors in the same building in Berlin for several years.
The two Russian armies were too far apart to readily aid one another, and the Germans could gauge their lack of coordination from intercepted radio messages. When both Hindenburg and Ludendorff stepped off of their special train, they announced that the German Eighth Army would be put into position to encircle and annihilate the Russian Second Army (led by Alexei Samsonov). They succeeded and won the Battle of Tannenberg in late August 1914 (it saved the rest of Imperial Germany from invasion).
Hoffmann saw the propaganda value of casting the German victory as long-awaited revenge for the Polish victory over the Teutonic Knights in 1410. He suggested the engagement be named Tannenberg, though it actually took place much closer to Allenstein. Ludendorff also claimed credit for Tannenberg, though it was Hindenburg (having lost an ancestor in the 1410 fight) who requested the name to the Kaiser.
With Russian Second Army annihilated, the German Eighth Army turned eastward and defeated the Russian First Army (led by Pavel Rennenkampf, a Baltic German) at the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes in early September 1914. The victory cleared East Prussia from the Cossack menace… albeit temporarily!
The trio of Hindenburg, Ludendorff and Hoffmann then moved south and led a newly-formed German Ninth Army in blocking a Russian attempt to invade German Silesia, continuing the campaign after being given command of all German forces on the Eastern Front (they were designated as Ober Ost). In the Battle of Łódź (November 11 to December 6, 1914), they ended the immediate threat by outflanking the enemy and capturing Russian Poland’s second city. Hoffmann believed that if given the reinforcements they requested for the battle, they might have knocked Tsarist Russia out of the war! But Erich von Falkenhayn (Chief of the General Staff of the German Army) claimed the Kaiser was focused on the outcome of First Ypres in the West. During the winter lull, Ober Ost struggled unsuccessfully to shift major operations eastward for the coming year, claiming that they could knock the Russians out of the war by encircling their armies in the Polish salient.
1915: SUCCESS IN THE EAST
Ober Ost began the year with a surprise attack out of East Prussia in a heavy snowstorm on February 7th. The Russian Tenth Army (led by Thadeus von Sivers, another Baltic German) was destroyed in the Augustów Forest, and the Teutons were again victorious in the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes. East Prussia was completely liberated, and the Germans obtained a foothold in Russia’s Baltic provinces. Hoffmann believed that if they were allowed to continue the incursion northeast, they might have inflicted a major (perhaps mortal) defeat on the Russian Army. Instead, Ober Ost was ordered by Falkenhayn to stop in favor of a major thrust in Russian Poland.
At the beginning of May, a massive assault was launched in the Gorlice-Tarnów sector, just southeast of Krakow. The intent was to (1) dislodge the Russians from the Carpathian Mountains and (2( save Austria-Hungary from ruin.
The Russian lines were surprised and shattered in the four-hour bombardment, and there was little response from their guns. Tarnów, the hub of Russian defenses short of Gorlice, fell to the Germans the next day. The Russian Third Army (led by Radko Dimitriev) was nearly destroyed as an effective fighting force, with 147,000 Cossacks taken prisoner. In two weeks, the Teutonic armies advanced nearly one hundred miles!
As the joint Austro-German forces continued to batter the Russians step by step out of Galicia (Austro-Hungarian Poland), Ober Ost was ordered to mount similar head-on, costly attacks to the north in Russian Poland. On June 3, 1915, the fortress of Przemyśl was yielded to the Teutons by the Grand Duke Nicholas.
That same day, Hoffmann, Hindenburg, Ludendorff, Falkenhayn, Conrad von Hötzendorf (Chief of the General Staff of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces), and Kaiser Wilhelm II met at Pless (in German Silesia) to discuss strategy. Falkenhayn expressed concern over Gallipoli and the Dardanelles in Ottoman Turkey; Conrad wanted to shake divisions out of Galicia and send them to the Isonzo Front, as Italy had just entered the war on the side of the Entente. But the Kaiser ordered that the offensive in the East should continue.
Later that same month, the fortresses of Lemberg and Rava Russkaya fell without a struggle, and German troops crossed the Dniester River after weeks of strong enemy resistance. Despite inadequate supply backup, the Teutonic advance was progressing…
As July opened, the grand war council met again at Posen. Again, the Kaiser said the offensive should be continued. It was time for Ober Ost to make gains in the north.
But the Grand Duke Nicholas, fearing encirclement, backed out of the Polish salient. In doing so, he lost half a million men to the Germans. The key city of Warsaw was evacuated on August 5th, and the entire salient was overrun by the middle of the month. Nova-Georgievsk and Brest-Litovsk became German possessions by September.
Ludendorff got his plan back on the rails, and Ober Ost was permitted to continue its thrust through the Baltic provinces. Grodno and Vilna fell in mid-September, but operations were soon suspended. The troops had outrun their supplies, but they won much of the ground!
The Eastern Front finally subsided with the onset of winter. It ran from Riga on the Baltic Sea to Czernowitz on the Rumanian border. Galicia, Poland, and vast areas of farmland were now under Teutonic control.
Ober Ost HQ was in the Lithuanian city of Kovno. Hoffmann saw to the construction of a strong defensive line on the new front and visited all of their units:
“I have crawled through all the trenches… The mud is terrible.”
Tsarist Russia lost one million prisoners, with another million killed in action! The Grand Duke Nicholas was removed and replaced as commander of the under-supplied Russian Army by the Tsar himself! General Mikhail Alekseyev was put in command of the forces manning the winter line, for it was he who saved the retreating Russian armies. But despite the survival of the military, the nation began experiencing terrible social and political turbulence.
1916: THE BRUSILOV OFFENSIVE
During the winter (as Ludendorff was setting up an administration for the occupied region), the Russians were finally able to arm their troops adequately. In the spring of 1916, masses of Russian troops attacked Ober Ost’s entrenchments. The German lines held, except for one segment that was vacated and then recaptured in April. A month later, the Russians were being pressured by their Italian allies to launch a full scale attack to stem the Austrian tide at Asiago in the Trentino.
But to exploit a successful defense, Ober Ost pleaded for reinforcements (1) to enable them to capture the fortress of Riga, and (2) to roll up the Russian armies in the north. But Falkenhayn remained focused on Operation Gericht and his fruitless attacks on Verdun.
The Russians in the southwest sector of the Eastern Front were now led by General Alexei Brusilov. He was planning an offensive over a 300-mile front without the use of reinforcements. Four field armies (the 8th, 11th, 7th, and 9th) extended from the Pripet Marshes in the north to the Rumanian frontier in the south. The opposing forces were primarily Austrian, and they had inferior numbers of men. Attacking on such a wide front would deprive the Austrian armies of mass reserves at a critical point. Brusilov’s men could dig in close to the enemy lines as they advanced. They would be eliminating the large buffer known as “no man’s land”, thus reducing the body count.
On June 4, 1916, the Cossacks unleashed a massive bombardment that preceded the advance. The last great gasp of the Imperial Russian Army was underway, as the Eighth Army (under Alexei Kaledin) overwhelmed the Austrian Fourth Army (under Archduke Josef Ferdinand). Kaledin drove forty miles west; the communication centers of Luck and Kovel were taken in the first week of battle.
Further south, the Austrian Seventh Army was split in two, losing 100,000 soldiers in the process. Large numbers of prisoners were taken, and all the Teutonic forces were in full retreat!
On June 17th, the town of Czernowitz fell to the Russians; soon, they reached the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. But as the month came to an end, Brusilov’s push died out from sheer exhaustion of both men and supplies. The respite saved the Dual Monarchy, and Hindenburg rushed fifteen German and eight Austrian divisions to plug the holes. Sadly, they were not enough!
To Max Hoffmann, the Austrian front was “like a mouth full of sensitive teeth.” In July, Hindenburg’s command was extended further south. In doing so, Ober Ost moved its headquarters south to Brest-Litovsk. When the Russians renewed their attacks in the north, the German reserves in the East were but only a single cavalry brigade! In addition to plugging the holes on the extended front, the staff was hastily organizing training for the newly-acquired Austro-Hungarian forces that were still being pushed back by the Russians!
In late July 1916, Brusilov renewed the advance, but was halted again by shortages. He restarted it yet again on August 7th, and this time, progress was made. Despite the arrival of more German troops in the south, the whole of Bukovina was lost to Mother Russia. But by the end of September, the offensive died out yet again due to the exhaustion of supplies, manpower, and other reserves. On October 10, 1916, the Brusilov Offensive officially came to an end just short of Lemberg and Przemyśl in Galicia.
The numbers from the fight were absolutely appalling! The Teutons lost 600,000 men, with 400,000 Austrians passing into captivity. The dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary ceased to be an effective fighting force!
Even though Brusilov’s push was the greatest victory witnessed on any front since First Marne two years earlier, one million of Tsarist Russia’s best and most loyal soldiers were lost! It was an exorbitant price for such a triumph, as Brusilov lost the support from his fellow army group commanders AND the Russian High Command. In the immediate aftermath of the fight, tensions increased from within and weakened the Tsar’s realm. The demoralized army remnants were now ripe for revolution!
PRAISE.. AND CHANGE
There was concern on the side of the Central Powers when Rumania entered the conflict on the side of the Entente in late August 1916. Falkenhayn resigned as chief-of-staff, and both Hindenburg and Ludendorff became supreme commanders. Field Marshal Prince Leopold of Bavaria (whom Hoffmann regarded as “a clever soldier and a distinguished superior officer”) took command of three army groups that included German and Austro-Hungarian troops. Hoffmann was elated to become his chief of staff… along with a promotion to major general one year later:
“I shall actually become an Excellenz!”
He was supported by a highly-competent staff. Eventually, these men commanded all of the forces of the Central Powers on the Eastern Front: German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Bulgarian. Since he was no longer able to visit the front in person, Hoffmann was assigned a General Staff officer (Major Wachenfeld) for this purpose. On October 7, 1916, Hoffmann received futher acolytes; he was decorated with the coveted Pour le Mérite.
After the Brusilov Offensive ended, the Russians shifted their attacks to the south to support the Rumanians. By the end of 1916, the latter was beaten decisively by the Central Powers coalition. But by this time, there was a significant changing of the guard in Vienna.
On November 21, 1916, Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria (at the age of eighty-six) died in the sixty-eighth year of his reign. Upon his death bed, he noted:
“I took over the throne under the most difficult conditions, and I am leaving it under even worse ones…”
Franz Josef’s successor was his grand nephew Karl Franz Josef (a.k.a. Charles I). Only twenty-nine years old, Charles had been a cavalry officer, and he appointed himself commander-in-chief of the army. He also replaced Conrad as chief-of-staff with “a more conciliatory personage” in the name of Artur Arz von Strassenburg. Hoffmann had a two-hour conversation with the new emperor, in which Charles “gave his opinion on military matters by which he displayed his great want of understanding in all he said.”
The truth of the matter was that Emperor Charles wanted to break the German hold over his own army and sue for peace to preserve his empire. His wife, Empress Zita, was French by birth and had no love for Germans. Even the new Austrian Foreign Minister, Count Ottokar Czernin, suspected Erich Ludendorff of ambitions to take over Germany as dictator. But the young Habsburg monarch was desperately seeking an agreement with the Allies to ensure his own future.
In March 1917, Charles messaged his brother-in-law, a Belgian Army officer by the name of Prince Sixtus of Bourbon. He wanted Sixtus to conduct secret discussions with the British and French ministries. Charles went so far as to offer the Allies German territory in achieving peace and preserving the Dual Monarchy! But as the Allies talked over the possibilities, the Germans got wind of the plot! The result was further strain and animosity between the Teutonic powers.
THE FIRST RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
When 1917 dawned, Tsar Nicholas II stood in the field with his crumbling armies… not commanding them, but rather playing soldier with his lack of military aptitude. He was weak and spiritually wayward. As the war blacked, the Tsar’s empire went virtually unruled!
The German-born Tsarina, Alexandra Feodorovna, dominated her husband and gloated in his subservience! Many of her demands on him were destructive of the Tsar’s position, his hold on the Russian people, and the confidence of the royal court. The masses turned on Nicholas, because as their privations grew worse, he took no notice! Even the Russian Army felt defeat was due to a feeble and corrupt ministry chosen by the Tsar.
Meanwhile, in the industrial areas, the Bolsheviks suddenly found that they had allies on all sides in the cause of ridding Mother Russia of the Tsar. Those parties included the State Duma, the United Nobility, and the Council of the Empire. But Nicholas himself made no effort to restore the trust and enthusiasm of ANY of these groups. In fact, his only support came from creatures of the court (like Rasputin) and the government, including ministers who maintained a secret liaison with Germany (including Interior Minister Alexei Protopopov and Foreign Minister Boris Stürmer).
When the Brusilov Offensive proceeded successfully, it gave polish to the Tsar’s smudged image. But when the successes burned out, bitterness against Nicholas intensified, and his camp went silent.
Revolt seemed more and more imminent. The Russian Army wanted bread and peace. It seemed that as a result of the beatings suffered throughout the last two years, most of the army’s survivors were willing only to defend their positions. The Bolsheviks also had needs; they wanted land!
On March 8, 1917 (February 23rd according to the Julian calendar), large-scale street riots broke out in Petrograd. It was International Women’s Day, and the female populace was crying for bread. For one week, anarchy reigned in the capital, and its impact spread to other Russian cities.
Tsar Nicholas II was shocked and stunned. He and the Stavka were at army headquarters in Mogilev when the Petrograd riots broke out. Nicholas promptly boarded the royal train en route to the Russian capital. But on March 14th, a group of revolutionaries had blocked the railway at Malaya Vishera, forcing the Tsar to divert to Pskov.
When Nicholas arrived, he discovered that Imperial Russian Army Chief Nikolai Russki, General Alexei Brusilov, General Mikhail Alekseyev, Chairman of the State Duma Mikhail Rodzianko, War Minister Alexei Guchkov and deputy Vasily Shulgin all suggested that the Tsar must abdicate the throne. The Tsarevich was considered as a possible successor, but he suffered from hemophilia. This left the Tsar’s brother (the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich) as the only choice. On March 15th, Nicholas wrote his renunciation and named his brother as successor.
The next day, Guchkov returned to the Duma with the wriiten decree, which had constituted a new Provisional Government (comprised of ten liberals and one social revolutionary). Prince Georgi Lvov became Prime Minister, Pavel Milyukov became Foreign Minister, and Alexander Kerensky (the line socialist) was made Minister of Justice.
The majority of the Duma stood for a constitutional government, but the Council for Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies (also known as the Petrograd Soviet) demanded a republic. The latter was a rival body that was formed four days earlier.
Kerensky promised the Soviet that the Provisional Government will pave the way for a republic. His oratory won them over. The delegates voted one thousand to only fifteen in favor of the new Provisional Government. But there was one condition: the Grand Duke was asked to renounce the regency. Realizing that he would have little support as ruler, Michael refused the crown. As a result, the 304-year-old Romanov Dynasty died.
For the next eight months, the Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional Government worked as a tandem. It was only a matter of time before one body would wield power over Russia.
SPREADING THE POISON
That same day in Zurich, Switzerland, a Russian revolutionary by the name of Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov (also known as Nikolai Lenin) was living in exile. He believed the supreme objective of the Great War was to rid the globe of capitalism. When he got news of the Tsar’s abdication, Lenin decided that the Provisional Government must be overthrown. So he contacted his Bolshevik comrades (who comprised a small minority of delegates in the Petrograd Soviet) and the German government for safe passage from Zurich to the Russian capital.
It was believed that the best way for Germany to knock Russia out of the war was to send Lenin to Petrograd and spread poison against the Provisional Government. Ludendorff quickly agreed, and plans were set into motion.
Aboard a “sealed train”, Lenin and thirty-two of his followers reached Petrograd (via Germany and Finland) in mid-April 1917. President Nikolai Chkheidze of the Petrograd Soviet greeted Lenin, who declared counterrevolution to an enthusiastic crowd. It soon became apparent that the Provisional Government was not quitting the war, which was unwelcomed news to a nation weary of the conflict!
In May 1917, the Petrograd Soviet held a vote of no confidence in the Provisional Government. Out of a total of 2,500 votes, the measure fell short by only thirty-five! By mid-month, three chief ministers had resigned from the government. Kerensky became Minister of War and Marine, but three members of the Soviet took cabinet posts.
On the first of July 1917, the Kerensky Offensive was launched in Galicia. It was an attempt by Kerensky to reinvigorate public support for the war by sending his motley army in a last-ditch effort. It was damned by the Bolsheviks!
Max Hoffmann had anticipated the attack, and he was eager to stage a countermove.
At first, the tired Austrians fell back twenty miles from Stanislau. But just as the Russians were near the goal (the oil fields around Drohobycz), they simply quit. Morale was low, and the army was rapidly disintegrating. Officers gave orders, but the troops would advance no further…
After a seven-hour bombardment on July 19th, Prince Leopold and Hoffmann were watching from a tower, as the Germans counterattacked the flank west of Brody and sliced through to the Russian rear. The Cossacks retreated ten miles on the first day! After only a few days, Kerensky’s men were driven out of Galicia. Over the next two weeks, thousands of war-weary Russian soldiers threw down their arms and fled homeward. Further pursuit had to be delayed while railroads were being repaired.
The failed offensive discredited Kerensky; he was finished as a popular idol. Elements in the Petrograd garrison (prodded by the Bolsheviks) has proclaimed a revolt against the Provisional Government, which was quickly put down after a three-day stand. Lenin himself fled to hiding in Finland.
For his successful pushback against Kerensky, Max Hoffmann was rewarded with the Oak Leaves for his Pour le Mérite on July 25, 1917.
As September dawned, the German Eighth Army (led by Oskar von Hutier) attacked the Riga fortresses by throwing pontoon bridges across the Dvina River. Thanks to new infiltration tactics, the Germans seized Riga, but most of the defenders (Lavr Kornilov’s Russian Twelfth Army) had slipped out.
After the fight, Kornilov decided to march on Petrograd and overthrow Kerensky, which was unsuccessful. For his own future protection, Kerensky made peace with the Bolshevik leaders. Those imprisoned were released, and Lenin returned to Petrograd.
THE RISE OF THE BOLSHEVIKS
By mid-September 1917, the Provisional Government again fell apart. Kerensky took over as chairman of a directorate of only five. But as October dawned, both the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets passed under control of Bolshevik majorities.
One month later, the pieces had fallen into place for the Bolsheviks to take control of Russia. Lenin prodded his comrades, saying it was now or never. When regiments stationed in Petrograd recognizing the Soviet as their government, Lenin ordered revolt. In two days of practically bloodless charading, the Bolsheviks seized power on November 7, 1917 (October 25th according to the Julian calendar).
On the night of November 8th, Lenin appeared before the Soviet Congress, calling for immediate negotiations looking to a “just and democratic peace” with no annexations or indemnities. The vote was unanimous in support!
Alexander Kerensky left the capital looking for troops to put down the rebellion. He never again returned to Petrograd…
BREST-LITOVSK
On November 16th, the Foreign Commissar of the new Bolshevik government (Leon Trotsky) appealed to the German High Command for negotiations toward a settlement. He also told the Allied ambassadors that Russia did not want a separate peace, and the West would be to blame if peace could not be sought out together.
Five days later, the new commander-in-chief of the Russian Army (the Commissar for War) Nikolai Krylenko published an order to all forces that fraternization with the enemy Teutons should be initiated. He also stated that commanders should address proposals to the headquarters opposite, seeking an end to military operations .
On November 26th, Krylenko telephoned Ludendorff… who in turn sought the help of his Russian expert, Major General Max Hoffmann. The Quartermaster asked Hoffmann if it was possible to negotiate with the Bolsheviks. Hoffmann said yes… and that the best way to negotiate was by force. In time, this approach would be a major blunder. It was later believed that Lenin might have been toppled by refusing to negotiate. Nevertheless, the fighting ceased, and both sides would stand fast in the positions they held.
On the second of December 1917, the Bolshevik Armistice Delegation passed through the front lines at Dvinsk (the Germans called it Dunaburg). From there, they continued on to Hoffmann’s HQ at Brest-Litovsk.
The Bolshevik delegation (led by Adolf Joffe) represented all strata of Russian society, except for the aristocracy. They included:
– an illiterate, uncivilized peasant picked up on the road named Roman Stashkov.
– Admiral Vasili Altvater (the only Russian military figure, merely a technical adviser)
– a worker
– various Bolshevik revolutionaries, including Anastasia Bizenko, who was exiled to Siberia for twelve years for assassinating the military governor of Saratov during the 1905 revolution.
Leading the Teutonic delegation was Max Hoffmann. His team included the new German Foreign Secretary Baron Richard von Kühlmann, the Austrian Foreign Minister Count Ottokar Czernin, Ottoman Grand Vizier Talaat Pasha, Turkish Foreign Minister Nassimy Bey, Bulgarian Minister of Justice Popoff, and (later) Bulgarian Prime Minister Vasil Radoslavov.
During the negotiations, Hoffmann’s fluent Russian was an asset. Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Czernin found that:
“The General [Hoffmann] combined expert knowledge and energy with a good deal of calm and ability, but also not a little of Prussian brutality….”
The Bolsheviks stood by “peace with no annexations or indemnities “, and they prepared to fight for the domain that Tsar Nicholas II has known it.
Sadly, the Bolshevik philosophy was not consistent with the German Quartermaster General’s appetites. Ludendorff wanted Poland as a buffer zone to the East, with the rest of it possibly going to Austria. Kurland and Lithuania would be transformed into German Grand Duchies and lieges for the Kaiser.
Kuhlmann wanted a peace of conciliation, which put him at odds with the German High Command. But Count Czernin wanted peace on almost ANY terms. His people were fighting hunger and starvation.
A tentative agreement (according to the German proposals) was reached on December 12th, and an one-month armistice was signed three days later. Then, Hoffmann foolishly agreed to the setting up of fraternization centers between the lines, which allowed the Bolsheviks to propagandize German troops! It was another error that had dire consequences for Germany’s future.
The sessions then broke off to give the delegates time to report to their home governments. On December 19th, the Crown Council met at Bad Kreuznach. Those present included Kaiser Wilhelm II, Hindenburg, Ludendorff, Kuhlmann, and the aged Chancellor Count Georg von Hertling.
Ludendorff and Kuhlmann debates on the final terms of the agreement. The Quartermaster wanted Poland and the Baltic’s; the Foreign Secretary simply wanted conciliation. The Kaiser fluttered back and forth between the two men, unable to make up his mind! Then Hindenburg quipped that he wanted the Baltics to base the left wing of his army for the next war!
In the end, no decisions were made. Kuhlmann headed back to Brest-Litovsk uninstructed, but wiser. He knew that his point of conciliation could not be won with Ludendorff…
The delegations returned to Brest-Litovsk on December 22nd. Joffe and his fellow Bolsheviks were elated that the Germans were acting so agreeably. But Kuhlmann and Hoffmann were apprehensive about the approaching storm when Ludendorff’s strict terms were laid bare.
By Christmas, the two sides appeared to be in full agreement. Joffe had stated principles to govern the peace, including self-determination, no indemnities, and no forcible appropriation of territory. Both Kuhlmann and Czernin had no objections; in spirit, they were reconciled to such a settlement.
Joffe was jubilant, and he informed Lenin that the game was won. The Soviets insisted on full publicity for the proceedings. The story, however, reached Germany and its leaders!
Ludendorff angrily fired off a message to Hoffmann. He accused the major general of “betraying” the decisions made at Bad Kreuznach. It was far from the truth, as Hoffmann was not present or had no knowledge of the meeting where no decisions of any kind were made!
After a briefing with Kuhlmann, Hoffmann explained the Bolshevik delegation was misinterpretating Germany’s use of the term “no annexations “. According to Hoffmann, it could not preclude Poland and the Baltic states joining the German Empire of their own free will.
Joffe was outraged and threatened to dissolve the conference! Count Czernin then told his German partners that if the conference did indeed break up, Austria would be prepared to independently negotiate with the Bolsheviks. Hoffmann responded by threatening to recall the twenty-five German divisions stiffening the Austrian front if such talks commenced!
During the holiday interlude, the Kaiser agreed with Kuhlmann that the softer approach would be best. But the German High Command sent a defiant letter (in effect, an ultimatum) which directed the Kaiser to either fall in line with Ludendorff… or else! It bordered on treason, but the Kaiser buckled to the demand. It also confirmed Count Czernin’s assertion that the Quartermaster General was the true German ruler!
As 1918 opened, the two sides returned to Brest-Litovsk on January 14th, but with a twist. Leon Trotsky replaced Adolf Joffe as head of the Bolshevik delegation. His presence alone “stopped his comrades from eating with the enemy”.
In addition, a delegation of young Ukrainians wanted independence from Bolshevik Russia, but under the protection of the German Empire. The Teutonic powers concluded an agreement with the Ukraine on February 9, 1918. Both Germany and Austria-Hungary hoped that the Ukraine’s vast granary would feed their starving peoples.
But at Brest-Litovsk, even Trotsky’s rhetoric could not sway the opposition. The German High Command remained intransigent. It gave Hoffmann the authority to end the negotiations, resume the war with Russia, and demand an unconditional surrender.
Trotsky himself saw that there was no budging the major general. Even though Hoffmann did not write any clause in the agreement, Trotsky “did not doubt for a single minute that … General Hoffmann was the only element of serious reality in these negotiations.”
In light of the stalemate, Trotsky made his own play. On February 10th, he announced that Russia would not stay in the war, nor would she make peace with Germany. However, the Russian armies would be demobilized. With his declaration, the Bolsheviks walked out… leaving the delegates of the Central Powers rather perplexed.
Three days later, Ludendorff ordered Hoffmann to resume the war. The armistice was to be denounced on February 17th, and the German Eighth Army would immediately strike eastward. Trotsky felt Germany could not make war on a land that declared itself at peace. It was naive thinking!
On February 16th, both Lenin and Trotsky were served noticed by Hoffmann from Brest-Litovsk that the war would with the denunciation of the armistice the next day. Lenin urges Trotsky to sign a treaty of peace in order to “save the revolution “.
At dawn on February 18th, the German Army in the East began its long thrust toward the Ural Mountains. Most of the movement was by boxcar, and there was no armed resistance. The gray columns and materiel drove north and eastward to tie down new lands for the Crown and garner the riches of the Ukraine.To fool the world and enthrall upper-class Russians, Hoffmann’s superior (Field Marshal Prince Leopold of Bavaria) proclaimed that the objective was to purge Europe of Bolshevism.
Hoffmann received word from Lenin and Trotsky in Petrograd that Russia would sign immediately on Germany’s terms. But he ignored the message and continued the advance. In five days, three thousand guns, an army of prisoners, enough rolling stock to double mobility, and a northeast penetration of two hundred miles were achieved by Hoffmann’s soldiers. By February 21st, German troops had landed in Finland and suppressed the Red Guards at Helsinki.
In Petrograd, some of the old Bolsheviks turned on Lenin, shouting that it was time to fight. But there was simply no way to resist. On February 26, 1918, the Bolshevik acceptance of the peace terms were announced to the Reichstag. The news was greeted in Berlin with wild excitement, but Hoffmann’s armies would not stop until the peace was signed.
CONQUEST… AND CONFLICT
The delegation were back yet again at Brest-Litovsk as the month of February came to an end. On March 3, 1918, the treaty was finally signed.
Under the terms of the agreement, Russia yielded to the Teutons 34% of her population, 32% of her farmland, 50% of her industrial holdings, and 90% of her coal mines. Poland, the Baltic states, Finland, White Russia, the Caucasus, and the Ukraine passed into German hands. In one stroke of the pen, Russia lost all the conquests the tsars had made over the last two hundred years!
German troops marched into the Ukraine to prop up the beleaguered independent government. They also went further east into the Don Basin to obtain the coal in order to ship the grain they seized.
Hoffmann anticipated that the Crimea would become the German Riviera. However, the supreme commanders set up new administrations for the Ukraine and the Baltic States, strikingly diminishing Prince Leopold’s and Hoffmann’s territorial sway (they were left only with Ober Ost).
But with the occupation of these newly-acquired lands, reality began to set in. The Germans had to deal with overstretched lines of communication. Even worse, the victims living in these lands started to fight back after the initial shock wore off. Parties of Red Guards (fighting as guerillas) and the Czech Legion engaged German patrols; they blew up bridges and sabotaged military stores. The lure of the rich Ukrainian harvest proved to be nothing but a mirage, and the attempt to establish Ukrainian independence under German tutelage also failed.
Troop hardship steady increased, as the operations seemed to be failing in its objectives. The higher the frustration, the more Ludendorff extended. Expeditions were sent to Finland and Baku to put down Bolshevik uprisings.
Yet the Quartermaster General withheld his men from taking the one positive step that might have lent substance to the grand design: to march on Petrograd and Moscow, and overthrow the Bolsheviks. Hoffmann argued this point unsuccessfully… that to counter the Bolsheviks, the Germans should denounce the Brest-Litovsk agreement and forcibly establish a new government in Russia.
As a result of this failure, one million German soldiers wasted away on the distant steppes of Russia in the spring and summer of 1918. These men were lost divisions that could have been used elsewhere. The trouble was that these occupation troops were thoroughly subverted with Communist propaganda… so much so that Ludendorff refused to bring them to the West.
After the fighting in the East had ended, Hoffmann was given command of a brigade along the Polish border. The leader of the new, small German Army was Hans von Seeckt, who had quarreled with Hoffmann during the war.
DENOUEMENT AND DEATH
In March 1920, Max Hoffmann retired from the military. He settled back in Berlin where he reconciled with Paul von Hindenburg at a personal meeting. Hoffmann, along with the industrialist Arnold Rechberg, campaigned and tried persistently to persuade the Western powers to join together and overthrow the Soviet Union. He also published his wartime memoirs and evaluations, his views on Russia, and his version of Tannenberg. A few years after the war, when touring the field at Tannenberg, Hoffmann told a group of army cadets:
“See—this is where Hindenburg slept before the battle, this is where Hindenburg slept after the battle… and between you and me, this is where Hindenburg slept during the battle.”
Max Hoffmann died at the spa at Bad Reichenhall in Bavaria on July 8, 1927 at the age of fifty-eight.
He was rated by some historians as perhaps “the most brilliant staff officer of his generation”. In fact, he Hoffmann is used as a model at the United States Army Command and General Staff College.