EARLY YEARS
Max Hermann Bauer was born in Quedlinburg on January 31, 1869. He began to study medicine in Berlin, but then enlisted as an officer candidate in Foot Artillery Regiment 2 (heavy artillery) at the age of nineteen. In 1889, Bauer attended the Kriegs-Schule in Hanover and was later commissioned.
After regimental service, Bauer was appointed Adjutant to the Artillerie-Prüfungskommission (Artillery Testing Commission) in 1898. Four years later, he took command of a battery with the rank of captain. An observer during the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War, Bauer was impressed by how Japanese 28-centimeter mortars demolished Russian forts. When he returned home in 1905, Bauer joined the fortress section of the General Staff as an artillery expert, which gave him the opportunity to speak with the leaders of German industry, science, and engineering.
Unable to obtain authorization to develop a new heavy mortar, Bauer ordered one from Krupp nonetheless. When the War Ministry learned that a prototype was completed, they wanted Bauer dismissed. However, the firing tests were so impressive that further development was authorized in 1911.
In 1908, Bauer moved into the mobilization section of the General Staff directed by Erich Ludendorff… and the two men became staunch friends. Ludendorff regarded Bauer as the “smartest officer in the army”. A year later, Bauer was appointed as a officer of the General Staff. It was remarkable, because he had not had the customary specialized schooling. Helped by his contacts in industry, Bauer studied how the German economy would function during a European war.
FUELING THE WAR MACHINE
When the Great War began in August 1914. Major Bauer was posted to the Operations Section of Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL, Supreme Army Command) as head of Section II, which was responsible for heavy artillery, mortars, and fortresses. Earlier that same year, the first of the Krupp 42-centimeter mortars (nicknamed “Big Bertha”) and their concrete-piercing shells were ready. These large guns smashed fortresses in Belgium and northern France. One year later, the Big Berthas forced the surrender of formidable Russian fortifications in Poland (such as Lemberg and Przemyśl) as well as Serbian strongholds at Belgrade. For developing the mortars, Bauer was awarded the Pour le Mérite and an honorary doctorate from the University of Berlin (he would received the oak leaves for his “Blue Max” in the final year of the war).
Before the outbreak of hostilities, Bauer had worked with the chemist Fritz Haber to transform nitrogen from the air into explosive precursors, which allowed the Germans to make war despite the naval blockade of their country (which prevented the continued imports of nitrates that had come from Chile). With the onset of trench warfare along the Western Front, Haber suggested that they could break the deadlock by releasing a cloud of poisonous chlorine gas, which was heavier than normal air. Bauer provided funds and scientists already in the German Army. The two men along with Duisberg (head of the chemical cartel) and their horses were poisoned at the first field test and invalided for days.
In late April 1915, Bauer was present when chlorine gas was used for the first time at the Second Battle of Ypres, which cleared the Allied defenders out of miles of trenches defending the city. However, he was “heartbroken” because Supreme Commander Erich von Falkenhayn had mounted only a diversionary attack, divulging their top-secret for almost no gain! Bauer continued to support the development of new gases and tactics to use them effectively despite protective masks and Haber’s mobilization of scientists for the war effort.
Section II of OHL Supreme Army Command carefully evaluated the performance of these newer weapons. In 1916, they produced a modified field gun that could be elevated to forty degrees (compared to its former sixteen degrees), and the range was increased forty-three percent to 10,000 meters. In addition, a unit was formed to develop assault tactics using stormtroopers.
The first German tank (introduced in May 1917) was too large and unwieldy. As a result, few of them were produced, and OHL employed captured enemy tanks insteps. Soon, Krupp and Daimler designed a light tank, but its production was not authorized until seeing the value of French light tanks. Consequently, these armored vehicles would not be available until April 1919!
Bauer strongly opposed Falkenhayn’s plan to attack Verdun in early 1916 along a narrow front on the right bank of the Meuse River, because their flank would be vulnerable to French artillery on the left bank. When Operation Gericht was put into action, Bauer’s assessment was spot-on! Before long, the Germans had to attack the left bank of the Meuse as well.
While arranging artillery support before the attack on the decayed French fortress, Bauer stayed at German Fifth Army headquarters where he became a fast friend of its commander, the Crown Prince Wilhelm (the two men kept in touch thereafter). In the first salvo of the attack, a 42-centimeter shell struck Fort Douaumont, the keystone of the whole massive ferroconcrete arch supporting Verdun. However, it did not penetrate the reinforced concrete and sand layers: the Verdun forts were much stouter than anything previously encountered.
In the summer of 1916, Bauer was dismayed by Falkenhayn’s insistence of packing infantry into the foremost trenches along the Somme River front to repel the Allied advance. As a result, German troops were chewed up by the Entente’s artillery preparations! Because of this debacle, Bauer decided that Falkenhayn must be replaced by his friend Erich Ludendorff, who had displayed virtuosity on the Eastern Front.
Supported by junior officers at OHL, Bauer tirelessly lobbied the highest echelons of the German Army and the government against his superior, with criticisms of Falkenhayn… like “…his decisions were half measures and he wavered even over these.” On August 29, 1916, Erich von Falkenhayn was replaced on by Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg as Chief of Staff with First Quartermaster General Ludendorff as his associate. To Bauer… this was his greatest victory!
TOTAL WAR AND POLITICAL AGITATION
The new commanders resolved to wage total war. OHL Supreme Army Command was reorganized… and Bauer’s Section II was responsible for heavy artillery, mortars and fortresses. Bauer set highly optimistic goals for weapon production, tripling machine gun output in what became known as the Hindenburg Program. His industrialist friends welcomed the orders, but they needed more workers.
Skilled men were released from the armed forces… and a bill making most men and women subject to national service was proposed to the Reichstag. The legislation rejected the most extreme measures, like shutting down the universities except for their medical schools. Compelling women to work was unnecessary, because more women were already seeking work than there were jobs available.
Soon, Bauer had a staff officer engaged in propaganda and another stationed in Berlin as a political liaison. Despite their exertions, the army was unable to control labor and unwilling to control industry. To add to the failure, The bill that eventually passed in the Reichstag was almost useless!
Lieutenant General von Höhn’s draft of a manual describing “defense in depth” was rewritten by Bauer and Captain Geyer. The crux was that any attackers who penetrated a lightly manned front line would be destroyed by counterattacks. The idea of “defense in depth” would became German Army doctrine in the Second World War.
With regard to politics, both Bauer and Ludendorff and Bauer saw eye to eye. They believed that “to govern means to dominate.” They also despised Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, who tried to govern by consensus and hoped to negotiate a peace. Both Bauer and Ludendorff lobbied fervently against Bethmann-Hollweg, who was pressured into agreeing to unrestricted submarine warfare (which in turn brought the United States into the war).
On June 10, 1917, Bauer gave Matthias Erzberger (a leading Reichstag deputy) a private, pessimist briefing, including his assessment that the U-boats could not win the war. Instead of backing the struggle with a stiffer spine, Erzberger tabled a resolution for a negotiated peace without annexations. OHL fought back fiercely; the Crown Prince visited Berlin to pressure legislators. Bauer stayed in the capital… in the thick of the fight. With Erzberger’s Peace Resolution came the threat of resignation from both Hindenburg and Ludendorff. The Kaiser told H-L that “there could be no justification for their presence in Berlin.” Soon, H-L retreated back to army HQ to tweak their tactics.
On July 11, 1917, Hindenburg and Ludendorff telegraphed their resignations unless Bethmann-Hollweg was replaced and immediately released the telegrams to the press. Under the immense pressure, Bethmann-Hollweg resigned. Erzberger’s resolution was amended to call for “a peace of equilibrium” and passed by a vote of 212 to 126. Despite the changes, it was ignored by the new Chancellor Georg Michaelis. OHL Supreme Army Command was in the political driver’s seat, and their sole objective was total victory.
Bauer worked with Krupp on the development of anti-aircraft artillery. He also helped with the “Paris guns” that fired shells at a range of sixty to seventy-five miles. However, these new ideas failed to dent French civilian morale.
In the spring of 1918, OHL unleashed a series of massive attacks along the Western Front to bring victory. Each strike began with a multi-million shell artillery bombardment. Bauer assembled the guns that were commanded by Colonel Bruchmüller. For four months, they repeatedly broke through the British and French lines. But soon, the Germans were checked and bloodily repulsed by the French along the Marne River. On July 17, 1918, the right flank of the German salient pointing towards Paris was crushed by a powerful Franco-American attack led by massed tanks. With the loss in the Second Battle of the Marne, Max Bauer realized that the war was lost… and that it should be ended “in decency“.
Bauer and the Crown Prince agreed that Germany needed a dictator, and their choice was Ludendorff. Their misreading of the nation’s political situation was exposed when Ludendorff was dismissed on October 25, 1918. The former First Quartermaster General so despised that, for safety’s sake, he fled the country. Vice-Chancellor Friedrich von Payer (the only member of the administration who was also a member of the Reichstag) excoriated Bauer for his un-military political meddling. The latter took this dressing-down as a tribute to his invaluable work… but Bauer retired from active service six days later on October 31, 1918 (a few months after being promoted to colonel). A close student of the war described Bauer:
“There is a strange mixture of force and weakness, calculation and abandon, intelligence and illogic in this man.”
FINAL YEARS
Max Bauer wrote about his experiences and national policy during the war. In 1920, both Bauer and Ludendorff were among the leaders of the right-wing Kapp Putsch, which seized control of the government. They were forced out by a nationwide general strike. Ludendorff was let off, but Bauer had to flee the country. He worked as a military consultant in the Soviet Union, Spain, and Argentina. In 1925, Bauer returned to Germany, following an amnesty for all those involved in the Putsch.
One year later, Chinese engineer Chu Chia-hua (president of the Sun Yat-Sen University in Canton) contacted Bauer for advice on military and business opportunities in China. In 1927, Bauer visited Chiang Kai-shek, who hired him as a military advisor, wishing to use his contacts to acquire more weapons and industrial assistance from Germany. It was the beginning of Sino-German cooperation… which lasted until 1941.
In 1928, Bauer returned to Germany to make contacts with industry and the army. However, the Treaty of Versailles restricted arms production. In addition, Bauer was persona non grata to the German government, as he had participated in the Kapp Putsch. Nonetheless, Bauer was able (1) to establish a China trade department and (2) to make contact with the secret German military mission in Nanking.
When Bauer returned to China, he advocated formation of a small core army supported by many local militia forces. Chiang did not support these ideas, since the militias would have concentrated military power in local hands. However, Bauer did manage to have the Whampoa Military Academy moved from Canton to Nanking. It became the Central Military Academy, staffed with German military advisors and instructors. Bauer invited twenty German officers to China to work as instructors in military training and intelligence. In an official capacity, Bauer was Chiang’s economic advisor and encouraged him to develop infrastructure.
Max Bauer died in Shanghai on May 6 1929. The cause of death was smallpox, perhaps due to having been intentionally infected by one of his Chinese enemies. To add further proof to that theory, Bauer was the only person infected with the contagious disease in the region where he contracted it!
The former colonel was buried in China with military honors. His ashes were later returned to Germany and buried at Swinemünde on August 5, 1929.
Max Bauer was sixty years old…