Oberste Heeresleitung

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The Oberste Heeresleitung or OHL (Supreme Army Command) was the highest echelon of command of the German army in World War I, while the Navy was led by the Seekriegsleitung or SKL, (Naval Warfare Command).

The law made Emperor Wilhelm II the Supreme Commander of the German Army, but the generals at the OHL made decisions largely on their own. At the end of the war they had practically superseded the government as the center of political power. Co-ordination was poor at the beginning of the war between the OHL and the SKL: for instance the Imperial navy did not know about the Schlieffen plan, which planned an attack on France through Belgium.

At the start of the First World War, the Chief of the OHL was Helmuth von Moltke. He then had to resign after the failure of the Marne offensive. The Prussian War minister Erich von Falkenhayn was appointed as his successor. He advocated a "war of attrition" (Abnutzungsschlacht) which showed its limitations at Verdun.

[edit] The third OHL

The Third supreme command is the name sometimes given to the OHL when led by Hindenburg and Ludendorff after August 1916. In August of 1916, Erich Ludendorff had been appointed Generalquartiermeister, deputy chief of the OHL under Paul von Hindenburg, with whom he had worked in the same relative position in East Prussia, securing notably the victories of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes. The pair created what was effectively a military-industrial dictatorship, which largely relegated Kaiser Wilhelm II to the periphery. Ludendorff was the chief manager of the German war effort throughout this time, with Hindenburg his pliant front man.

The third OHL made political and strategic mistakes. While the public wanted peace, the OHL sought victory at all costs, ensuring for instance safe passage for Lenin and his accomplices from Switzerland to Russia. It only negotiated the peace of Brest-Litovsk to be able to win on the Western front.