First World War.com - Who's Who - Paul von Hindenburg

On September 18, 1914, General Paul von Hindenburg was named commander of German armies on the Eastern Front. An excerpt from the article:

"Hindenburg retired from the army 1911. The outbreak of the First World War led to his inevitable recall on 22 August 1914, being sent to the Eastern Front as Commander of East Prussia. The Germans scored a notable victory at Tannenberg in August 1914, where Hindenburg overcame a much larger army, leading to his appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the German armies in the East in September 1914.

Further victory at the Masurian Lakes in 1915 resulted in his being hailed as the saviour of East Prussia, although his Chief of Staff Erich Ludendorff - who held this position with Hindenburg throughout the war, remaining a close ally - is generally credited for achieving these victories.

Hindenburg was consequently promoted to Field Marshal, finally becoming Army Chief of Staff on 29 August 1916, succeeding the man with whom he'd violently disagreed with concerning Eastern policy, Erich Falkenhayn, and whose downfall he had helped to engineer. He immediately appointed Ludendorff his Quartermaster General.

Now in a position of power, Hindenburg, in conjunction with Erich Ludendorff, and with the support of senior officers and prominent industrialists, formed what was known as the 'Third Supreme Council', a military-industrial dictatorship that held virtually total power until 29 September 1918 when, with defeat inevitable, power was returned to the Reichstag."