Tannenberg, Battle of

Tannenberg, Battle of (World War I) (23–31 Aug. 1914) According to the Schlieffen Plan, Germans were concentrating their military efforts on the Western Front. When the 1st and 2nd Russian Armies, under Generals Rennenkampf and Samsonov respectively, attacked sooner than expected in the east, the inferior German forces initially had to withdraw. According to a plan drawn up by Colonel Max Hoffmann and executed by Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff, the Germans first encircled the 2nd Army near Tannenberg, aided by the interception of wireless signals and trusting that Rennenkampf would do little to relieve his arch-rival Samsonov. A few days later, the German army also fought successfully against the 1st Army near the Masurian lakes. Despite their numerical inferiority, the Germans had relatively few casualties and took 137,000 prisoners of war. The battle ended the threat of a Russian invasion, but at a time when German advances to the west were disappointing, its psychological effects were even more important. It transformed Ludendorff and especially Hindenburg into mythical figures, and their position was so strong that they became virtual dictators of Germany 1916–18. Especially in the late stages of World War II, the image of Tannenberg was often invoked in Nazi propaganda to encourage a belief in ultimate victory even if the enemy was already on German soil.