Ludendorff's one romantic gesture

Erich Ludendorff was an important German military figure throughout the first world war. He was a major general when it began, and was immediately made Deputy Chief of Staff to the German Second Army under General Karl von Bulow. In August 1916 he was promoted to Quartermaster General.

I'm boring you with this because I've found a nice brief description of Ludendorff's pre-war life in Max Hastings' new book, CATASTROPHE 1914.

"A man of chilly rationality though highly nervous temperament, in 1904 he indulged the sole romantic gesture of his life by falling in love with a married mother of four children, Frau Margarethe Pernet. They met in the street in a rainstorm, when he gallantly offered her the shelter of his umbrella. She divorced her husband, married Ludendorff, and the two achieved a notably successful partnership."

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