1927 Erich Ludendorff with the Völkisch Front

1927. Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff was a German Army officer, Generalquartiermeister during World War I, victor of Liège, and, with Paul von Hindenburg, one of the victors of the battle of Tannenberg. After the war, he briefly supported Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. He was acquitted of criminal charges for his role in the Nazis' unsuccessful Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. In 1924, he was elected to the Reichstag as a representative of the NSFB (a coalition of the German Völkisch Freedom Party and members of the Nazi Party), serving until 1928. He ran in the 1925 presidential election against former commander Paul von Hindenburg and received just 285,793 votes. After 1928, Ludendorff went into retirement, having fallen out with the Nazi party. He no longer approved of Hitler and began to regard him as just another manipulative politician, and perhaps worse. After learning that Hitler had been appointed chancellor of Germany, an aging Ludendorff reportedly sent a telegram to President von Hindenburg: "By appointing Hitler Chancellor of the Reich, you have handed over our sacred German Fatherland to one of the greatest demagogues of all time. I prophesy to you this evil man will plunge our Reich into the abyss and will inflict immeasurable woe on our nation. Future generations will curse you in your grave for this action."