Von Hindenburg, General and Man

I

ON the night of August 29, 1914, a German writer strolled into the office of a newspaper of Hamburg to learn the news from the front. The day’s bulletin of the General Staff had just arrived, with the following passage: —

‘Our troops in Prussia under the command of Colonel-General von Hindenburg have defeated, after three days’ fighting in the region of Gilgenburg and Ortelsburg, the Russian Narew Army, consisting of five army corps and three cavalry divisions, and are now pursuing it across the frontier.’

The editor tousles his hair upon reading this, reaches for the army list to see who Hindenburg is, finds that he has been a commanding general, but is now retired and living at Hanover. Then he addresses his visitor: ‘Tell me, how does this man from Hanover come to be in command of the Eastern Army? What has happened? Hangs his silk hat on a peg, seizes the baton of a commanding general, and beats the Russians in a trice.—Now tell me, to whom shall I telegraph to find out something about this man?’

The incident is typical, for it was no more true of Byron himself than of Hindenburg that he awoke one morning and found himself famous. He was known very favorably indeed in the higher army circles, and civilians in towns where he had held appointments remembered him as an agreeable gentleman with a high reputation for military capacity. But the great masses of the people, like that Hamburg editor, were asking, Who is Hindenburg? The writer’s own experience illustrates the suddenness with which the name broke upon the German people: although he had lived for more than twenty years in Germany and had been a diligent reader of the newspapers during all that time, he was not able to recall, when he read the war bulletin of August 29, that he had ever heard of Hindenburg.

And how did ‘this man from Hanover’ come to be in command? He himself gives this answer: 'A few weeks ago I was living on my pension at Hanover. Of course, I had tendered my services immediately after the war broke out; but since then I had heard nothing. The uncertainty of waiting seemed endless, and after a few weeks I had given up all hope of being reinstated in the army. Then suddenly came a dispatch informing me that His Majesty had given me the command of the Eastern Army. I had time only to get together the most necessary articles of clothing and have my old uniform put in condition for service.’

Late that night — it was August 22 — an extra train came through with his chief of staff and bore him to the east. He arrived at the front on the following afternoon. As he knew the military features of the East Prussian country thoroughly, he was not long in fixing his plan of battle. Only three days later the battle of Tannenberg began. (So the Germans call it, not because the village of that name figured in any marked way in the fighting, but for the sentimental reason that it was the scene of another battle of Tannenberg five hundred years ago, in which the old Teutonic Knights were crushingly defeated by the Poles.)

During the next few days after the publication of that bulletin the victory took on unheard-of proportions. Never had so many prisoners been taken in an open battle. It eclipsed Sedan in that respect, and the battle-ground was four-fold greater than that one. According to the first reports the prosoners numbered 30,000, but the number rose steadily for several days and finally exceeded 90,000. The victory was so immense that the German official reports were received with incredulity abroad. The editor of a New York newspaper treated them as examples of ‘German romancing'; and when a few days later Hindenburg defeated and drove across the frontier another great Russian army, taking 30,000 prisoners, that editor regarded the report of this battle as merely a correction of the previous reports, as an admission that the figures of prisoners taken had been padded. 'First it was 30,000, then 60,000, later it jumped to 90,000, only to be finally put back to 30,000.'

But Hindenburg continued to strain the faith of foreign editors. In the series of battles fought during the Polish campaign he captured 130,000, and in the so-called ‘ Winter’s battle’the name

given to the nine days' fighting in February in East Prussia and across the Russian frontier-he eclipsed his own achievement at Tannenberg by taking 104,000 prisoners. Within a half year after he assumed command of the Eastern Army he had taken about 500,000 prisoners, and the killed and wounded certainly exceeded that number. Hindenburg is quoted as saying that in the battle of Tannenberg alone at least 80,000 Russians were killed or drowned in the Masurian lakes and marshes.

This is a record of losses without parallel in the annals of warfare. In any previous war they would have meant irreparable defeat for the country that suffered them, a complete breakdown of its military position. That they have not meant this in the present case must be attributed to the unparalleled numbers that Russia has brought into the field, to the vastness of the theatre of war, and to the difficulties of moving troops in midwinter. But the results as they stand are certainly great enough to insure Hindenburg a permanent place among the world’s great military commanders. It is therefore only natural that foreign countries have taken up the question raised in Germany last August: Who is Hindenburg? The writer has been asked to give an answer to that question.

II

The field marshal’s full name is Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg. He is thus twice a nobleman, — and thereby hangs a tale. The Beneckendorffs, while belonging to the lower aristocracy, are among the most ancient of Prussian families, the name occurring for the first time in documentary form more than six hundred years ago. The field marshal really holds a better title to it than to that of Von Hindenburg, which is of much more recent origin. He came by the second name in this way: his great-grandfather, a Von Beneckendorff, received in 1789 the legal right to add it to his own name, in order to comply with the wish of a greatuncle. This latter was a Von Hindenburg, the last of the name, who, in bequeathing his landed estates to his young kinsman, asked that he add the Hindenburg name to his own. In the lapse of time the Hindenburg half has become much more prominent than the older Beneckendorff half. The field marshal now signs himself simply Von Hindenburg, — probably an expression of his love of simplicity, his dislike of highsounding pretentions.

And Hindenburg is also a soldier pure and simple. He has devoted his whole life to the military profession, and he loves and believes in it with all his heart. He comes too of a family of soldiers and grew up in a distinctly military atmosphere. His father had thirty years of service to his credit as an officer when he retired; and many others of his line were officers. His mother was the daughter of an army surgeon. Even his first nurse had held a sutler’s post in the army, and it was her habit to cut short his infant wailings with the stern command, ‘Silence in the company!’ And the little boy had a military bent from the start. The field marshal has recently narrated that he still remembers how, when he was four years old, an aged gardener on the family estate, who had been a drummerboy under Frederick the Great and had taken part in Napoleon’s disastrous retreat from Russia, used to delight him with his tales of war. Somewhat later the child was ever appealing to his grandmother to ‘ tell me something about the war’ — referring to the Napoleonic wars; and it was his habit, after having been stowed away for the night, to creep to the foot of the bed in order to hear better what his father was reading aloud to his mother. In those days too it was his joy to trot along by the side of his father’s company while the men were drilling, drinking delight of battle by anticipation.

After a few years in a private school at Glogau, where the family was then living, he was sent away to a cadet school, as the lowest military schools are called in Germany. This was located at Wahlstatt in Silesia, where Blücher had his headquarters during the battle of the Katzbach — for all Germans one of the most cherished memories of the struggle against Napoleon. Hindenburg has recently recalled the fact that his windows at the school looked out over this field of battle. From those years at Wahlstatt we have another fact curiously illustrating the military leanings of the boy’s mind. Writing to his parents, he sketches the following plan for decorating a shelf in his wardrobe: ‘At the rear a big Prussian eagle on the wall; in the centre, on an elevation, “ Old Fritz” and his generals; at the foot of the elevation a number of Black Hussars; in front a chain with cannon posted behind it; more in the foreground two watchman’s booths, with two grenadiers of the time of Frederick the Great.’ But close upon the description of this military shrine he sets down among his Christmas wishes a name that shows his kinship in spirit with American boys — Cooper’s Pathfinder.

A few years later we find him trying to prevail upon a younger brother to adopt the soldier’s career, 'which would make us all very happy.’ When the Danish War broke out in 1864, he was a pupil at the chief Cadet House in Berlin, but not yet quite old enough to go into the war. It was with an evident feeling of envy that he reported to his parents the achievements of the older cadets, who had received commissions and had been sent to the front. His turn came two years later, with the outbreak of the war with Austria. Then eighteen and a half years old, he received a lieutenant’s commission and at once joined the army. His mental state at that time is reflected in the following words written to his parents: ' I rejoice in this bright-colored future; for the soldier war is the normal state of things; and, moreover, I am in the hands of God. If I fall it is the most honorable and beautiful death.’ The ardent young fellow thought it was 'high time that the Hindenburgs smelt powder again; unfortunately they havebeen singularly neglected in that respect.’

And he got what he was thirsting for. After the battle of Königgrätz (Sadowa) he wrote to his parents thus: ‘I gratified my longings on the battlefield, smelt powder, heard whistling around me projectiles of all kinds,shells, shrapnel, canister, rifle-bullets; I was slightly wounded, thus becoming an interesting person; and I captured five cannon.’ He goes on to tell that a bullet penetrated the eagle of his helmet, grazing his head and leaving him prostrate on the ground, while his faithful men gathered around him, thinking him dead. That helmet still adorns the walls of the field marshal’s workroom, after having been preserved by his parents for years as a sacred relic, with an appropriate Bible verse attached to the eagle.

Hindenburg’s next military experience was in the Franco-Prussian War. He took part in some of its bloodiest battles. In the fighting about Metz he was in the famous storming of St. Privat, where two German battalions were reduced to one fifth of their strength, and nearly three fourths of the officers were killed. After this terrible affair he wrote thus to his parents: ‘God’s mercy visibly shielded me. ... I did not once dismount from my horse, and I only got a mitrailleuse bullet through the leg of my boot. ... I do not myself understand how I could keep so cool throughout the whole action. I often looked at my watch and jotted down in my notebook at once all the phases of the fighting.’ He also fought at Sedan and was before Paris throughout the siege.

Two years later we find him at the War Academy in Berlin, where German officers are fitted for higher military careers. His going there, however, appears not to have been due to his own initiative; like many others who had enjoyed the active life of campaigning in France, he apparently had no great desire to return to books and a desk. His brother, who has written a brief sketch of the field marshal’s life, reports that he went under the persuasion of his parents, especially his mother. She had a deep influence upon his character, was ever spurring him on to the rigid performance of duty and holding up to him a high ideal of patriotism. His interest in his calling, however, had evidently not flagged, as is evident from a glimpse that we get of him as a student of the War Academy, supplied by General von Pochhammer, who was then professor of field fortifications there. At first, says Pochhammer, he was ‘driven almost to desperation’ by the fact that Lieutenant von Hindenburg, occupying a front seat, would spread out a General Staff map on his desk and begin studying it as soon as the lecture failed to interest him, — a thing that was quite contrary to the regulations. He would draw circles and make liberal use of his pencil, evidently directing the movement of troops and measuring artillery effects. The professor thereupon resolved to win attention by improving his lectures, by discarding his notes, and speaking directly to the big lieutenant. Apparently he succeeded, for later, when a military problem was to be solved, he appointed Hindenburg to the imaginary post of staff-officer to Oudinot. A quiet earnestness was regarded by the professor as the leading feature of Hindenburg’s character as a student.

During the forty years that followed the Franco-Prussian War, Hindenburg was working out, quietly and with great diligence, his military education, rising from one post of responsibility to another in the army, and broadening his grasp of military problems. In 1881-83 we find him at Königsberg as staff-officer to a division. At that time he began his military studies of the Masurian Lake region, and he drew the plans for army manœuvres in the very country where he had later to do battle with shot and shell. His appointments took him to widely separated parts of the Empire, and carried him through the most varied ranges of military work, — gave him, in short, the best opportunities to prepare himself for the work that he is now doing. Besides being a staff officer in all the various capacities, he rose through all the various grades of troop commander, and finally reached the rank of commanding general in 1903, — the summit of a German general’s hopes in times of peace. In 1911, being then sixty-four years old but still in full strength and vigor, he resigned, because, as his brother assures us, 'he had always believed that a commanding general should lay down his commission in good time, so as to make room for the younger men.’

Not the least important of Hindenburg’s appointments remains to be mentioned. In 1886 he was assigned to a post in the General Staff and was at the same time a professor in the War Academy. Here he lectured for some seven years on applied tactics. During the latter part of this time he was also chief of the infantry department in the Prussian Ministry of War. Thus his experience covered, not only the practical work of commanding troops, but also the training of the younger officers, the administering of the affairs of the army, and the working out of theoretical problems at the General Staff. It is a highly interesting fact — probably more than a mere coincidence—that in his lectures he gave much attention to the Masurian Lake region, where three of his greatest battles were fought. He worked out a theoretical battle in that country and made it the basis of lectures to his students. One of these officers has recently told us about that particular work. It included a cavalry attack, and upon one occasion the young officers were looking in vain on their maps to find feasible roads around the dangerous lakes for that attack. Thereupon Hindenburg spoke up: ‘I would ride with the whole bunch [the German is Schlamm, which is quite colloquial in this sense] right between the lakes; the devil himself would not look for us to come out from among those lakes.’

General von Pochhammer gives a characteristic illustration of how Hindenburg took his duties as commanding general. It is the custom of the army officers to hold conferences on winter evenings to listen to a military paper by one of their number. According to Pochhammer these conferences usually seem rather perfunctory; at the conclusion of the paper ‘the commander thanks the speaker, and then they all go to the table.’ Not so under Hindenburg: ‘He appeared as often as possible, and as soon as the lieutenant had concluded he would ask first the captain, then the major, the colonel, and finally the generals of brigades and divisions to express their views; and he never failed to give his own opinion at the end.’ He also tells us that Hindenburg’s criticisms of the army manœuvres — always given to the officers immediately after the conclusion of these exercises — were widely known and discussed in military circles.

Wherever we get a view of Hindenburg’s inner life during his active military career it is that of a man absorbed in his profession, taking a serious view of his work, and ever occupied with the possible tasks that the future might bring. ‘ When we had free evenings at the Hindenburg house’ — so writes a woman friend of the family, who saw much of Hindenburg when he commanded a regiment in a country town — ‘he would often sit pondering over maps spread out before him on a table, marking movements of troops, directing armies, fighting imaginary battles. . . . He often said it was the dream of his life to lead an army corps against an enemy.' When his only son was an infant, the proud father once tossed him up and addressed him thus: ‘Boy, I am already rejoicing at the thought of seeing you with me around the bivouac fires in a war with Russia.' Later on, it was his habit to keep this boy’s mind occupied with military thoughts, to accustom him to military language. In taking walks across country with his three children he would keep the boy playing at soldier, addressing him as ‘Herr Lieutenant,’and ordering him to carry out evolutions with imaginary troops. His sister reports other walks on the old family estate at an earlier period, when the ardent young officer was there on furlough; he would at times halt the family party on the ridge of some eminence and unfold bis plans for a battle there.

III

When Hindenburg was sent to East Prussia in August his mission was to defend it from two invading armies. It cannot be said that he adopted any novel principles in discharging his difficult task. He followed the well-established rule of German strategists that attack is the best defense. He knew that he was opposing an enemy who has traditionally shown a preference for defensive fighting, and that he could trust the Russian generals to take no bold aggressive steps. When Hindenburg arrived in East Prussia on August 23. two Russian armies had crossed the frontier, moving in the direction of Königsberg, evidently intending to effect a junction there and capture this stronghold. The Wilna army had crossed the frontier in the region of Eydtkuhnen, which lies on the main line of railway from Berlin to Petrograd; it had little difficulty, as it advanced westward, in shoving the small German Landsturm troops along before it. But, arrived at a line some thirty miles east of Konigsberg, General Rennenkampf, its commander, grew cautious, intrenched himself, and awaited developments. The second or Narew army, under General Samsonoff, had advanced from the south by way of Mlawa and Soldau, and had occupied Allenstein; but he too grew apprehensive lest he were pushing ahead too vigorously, retired his lines somewhat toward the south, and had taken up positions among the western Masurian Lakes.

Hindenburg decided to attack this army at once by a double flanking movement. While there was nothing novel in this strategy, it was a daring venture against an enemy outnumbering the German forces, as Hindenburg himself has assured us, by three to one. Another striking display of boldness and the readiness to take big risks is seen in the fact that he drew away most of the troops that had been holding Rennenkampf in check, and brought them by forced marches to take part in the fighting. This left Rennenkampf in striking distance of the German columns moving to the east of Allenstein to turn Samsonoff’s right wing, hold the northerly defiles between the lakes, and thus prevent him from saving himself by effecting a junction with Rennenkampf. Thus the German main attack from the south was able to crush in the Russian lines among the lakes, making it impossible for Samsonoff to deploy his troops effectively. The columns making this movement were also exposed to the danger of attack from fresh Russian troops from across the frontier; and they had, in fact, to beat off such an attack before completing the destruction of Samsonoff’s army.

As soon as it had been disposed of, and before the immense booty had been fully garnered, Hindenburg began at once to move, upon Rennenkampf, following the best German strategy of unrelentingly pushing an advantage once gained. As it was not possible in this case to repeat an enveloping movement, Hindenburg directed a part of his forces against the Russian left and attacked it vigorously. The main blow, however, was to be dealt elsewhere, and this direct attack was only designed to veil it. While the fighting was in progress another large force was swinging completely around the southern end of the lakes for the purpose of gaining access to the Russian rear to the east of Angerburg. The ruse was successful, but Rennenkampf soon saw his danger, began a hurried retreat across the frontier, and succeeded in getting away with much less damage than Samsonoff had suffered. The flanking movement in this battle too was attended with grave risks, and the German forces making it had also to repel a strong counter-attack from a fresh Russian corps that moved up from the south.

It was not a part of Hindenburg’s strategy to push far into Russia then and there; his forces were more needed elsewhere. The Austrians had proved unable to hold their ground against the overwhelmingly superior numbers that the Russians threw against them in Galicia. Lemberg had fallen, Przemysl was invested, and the Russians were steadily pushing westward against Cracow. It became necessary to inaugurate a counter-movement to relieve this pressure. Hindenburg therefore transported the greater part of his forces by rail to the southwestern corner of Silesia; and already by September 28 he had moved eastward into Russian Poland, supported by new Austrian forces that had been assembled at Cracow. His purpose was to cross the Vistula, cut the Russian lines of communication, and capture Warsaw. At the same time the Austrian armies in Galicia were to assume the offensive, drive the Russians before them, and try to effect a junction with Hindenburg. These large plans, however, were based upon an underestimate of the Russian strength. Just as Russia’s mobilization was far advanced before the war began, whereas the German military authorities had assumed that the invasion of East Prussia could not develop serious proportions till at least a month later than it actually did, so now the Teutonic leaders again failed to take an adequate measure of her enormous armies in the field. The Austrians recovered a part of Galicia and raised the siege of Przemysl, indeed, but with that their offensive was exhausted. They failed by far to join hands with Hindenburg, and he was left alone to make the attack upon Warsaw. Even so he almost succeeded in capturing the city; just when success seemed to be in sight, however, the Russians, who had assembled a strong army at NovoGeorgiewisk farther down the river, crossed the stream and moved upon his left wing. He was finally opposed here by forces which, according to a semiofficial German statement, outnumbered his own army nearly four-fold.

At the same time the enemy had greatly strengthened his forces farther up stream in the vicinity of Ivangorod, had crossed the river, and was threatening Hindenburg’s right, the Austrian and German troops left to guard the river front having proved inadequate to that task.

It now became necessary for Hindenburg to order his first retreat. But how far should he retire? In answering that question he was evidently influenced more by strategical considerations. Even at the moment when he decided to retire before the Russians he was already planning to take up the offensive at another point; and in order to make this new movement most effective it was necessary to entice the Russians far to the west. He decided to fall back almost to the frontier, believing that his enemy, misled by the flattering urgency of the English and French press for a grand movement against Berlin, would follow him as far as he chose to retreat. He did not err in that calculation; and while the Russians were slowly plodding across a country where Hindenburg had thoroughly destroyed all the railways and bridges, he was assembling an army on the Polish frontier to the south of the Vistula. Before they had fully taken up their new positions Hindenburg made an unexpected thrust into their right flank, defeating an army corps at Wloclawek, November 14, and two others at Kutno on the following day. This movement soon developed into a promising new offensive. Lodz and Lowicz were occupied after tremendous fighting; and the Russian armies that had toilsomely pursued Hindenburg across southern Poland were now compelled to withdraw far to the east. The Polish campaign, however, ended rather indecisively in the winter’s deadlock along the line of the Bzura, Rawka, and Nida rivers.

But stationary fighting from trenches is not in accord with Hindenburg’s military principles and predilections. When in the Ministry of War he issued tactical instructions to troop commanders, which contained a warning against relying unduly upon field fortifications. At Tannenberg he had discarded the field-works in which he found the troops entrenched when he took command, and the result justified his tactics. He now continued indeed to pound away at the Russian lines on the Bzura, as if still trying to force his way to Warsaw; but while doing so he was preparing another surprise,—transporting his troops back into East Prussia, where the Russians had returned and had again taken up strong positions on a north-and-south line a little to the east of the Masurian Lakes. This movement was further veiled by reinforcing the Austrians in the Carpathian Mountains and starting a vigorous offensive action there. The season also favored the surprise, for who would have expected Hindenburg to gather a great army in midwinter in the rigorous climate of East Prussia and offer battle under conditions like those that made Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow one of the greatest military disasters of history?

The plan of this ‘Winter’s battle’ resembled that of Tannenberg in embracing a double flanking movement, but on a much larger scale. When the two flanking columns began to move — the one around the southern Masurian Lakes, the other from a point about twenty-five miles to the northeast of Insterburg-they were nearly one hundred miles apart; and they converged toward a junction some fifty miles behind the Russian centre. The success of this joint action depended upon swiftness of execution. Speed was very difficult, however, in the face of furious snowstorms and drifts that blocked the roads, with the temperature so low that the soldiers’ hands would freeze to the metal parts of their rifles. Artillery and ammunition wagons had to be placed upon sled-runners; and deep ravines had to be crossed, where it was necessary to let the cannon down on one side and draw them up on the other with ropes. Under these frightful conditions the troops advanced and fought for nine days, often continuing their marches till late into the night. Success crowned their exertions; in respect to the number of prisoners taken the ‘Winter’s battle’ stands without a rival in history.

From the foregoing paragraphs the leading features of Hindenburg’s strategy and tactics can be deduced. It is his aim to keep ever on the offensive. Grant himself did not strike the enemy with greater vehemence and persistence than Hindenburg; and, like Grant again, the German field marshal has the habit of shifting the blow to another point once he becomes convinced that the obstacles in his immediate front are too great. But Hindenburg is favored by railways as Grant was not. Never before have railways played so important a part; and Hindenburg has probably employed them more extensively and with better effect than any other commander. He is ever searching out the weakest spot in the enemy’s lines; and the railways enable him effectively to follow Napoleon’s strategy of massing superior forces at such points and bursting suddenly upon the unsuspecting enemy. In planning his battles he shows a marked preference for flanking movements, and both boldness and skill in carrying them out. He takes care not to be outflanked while himself trying to reach around the enemy’s wings. By an unrelenting pursuit he seeks to win the greatest possible advantage from his victories; he is not satisfied with merely defeating the enemy, but strives to crush him completely.

From what has already been said it is evident that Hindenburg makes enormous demands upon his troops. Probably no other general ever required from his men harder marching and fighting at critical junctures. It is related of one regiment at Tannenberg that it marched one hundred and twenty-two miles in five days, and then went immediately into the fighting line; and Hindenburg himself has said that some of his troops marched ninety miles in four days during the battle of the Masurian Lakes. But his soldiers have unlimited confidence in him and are willing to endure hardships for the sake of the victory that they always confidently expect. For he inspires them with the belief—as a group of them said after the battle of Tannenberg — that ‘ one German is equal to five or six Russians.’ The feeling in the ranks was well hit off by a wounded soldier in the following words: ‘ We had to march and march, and we cursed and thundered; but when we reached our goal and everything passed off all right, we thanked God and Hindenburg.’ This confidence, shared alike by officers and men, is based upon the knowledge that the field marshal is himself one of the hardest workers among them. He is usually at work till beyond midnight, and when important actions are in progress he not infrequently stays up all night. He has learned during the war to snatch a few hours of sleep at irregular intervals during the day. His hardy constitution — he has never been sick for one day — enables him to do this without impairing his health.

IV

Thus far we have seen Hindenburg only as a military man. Is he anything more than that? Has he wider interests than those of the professional soldier? The impression in Germany itself is that he has made himself a great general by strictly confining his intellectual interests to his military profession. Even his brother admits a ‘one-sidedness which is his strength,’ though he assures us that the field marshal takes a lively interest in all questions, including art; and that, in his early years, he made water-colors that gave promise of a successful career as an artist. Of books that have exerted an important influence upon his character we hear nothing in the various sketches of his life. On the walls of his little home at Hanover hang reproductions of the Sistine Madonna and an antique head of Juno, as foils to portraits of the old Emperor William, Fredrick III as crown prince, Bismarck, Moltke, and the present Emperor. Other pictures — paintings, copperplate engravings, lithographs — give a flavor of olden times to the small rooms. The furniture is also of antique patterns, and not a few heirlooms bespeak his love for his line.

This last remark suggests one striking feature of his character. Born of an old noble family that has given many of its members to the public service, military and civil, he takes a reasonable pride in his lineage, yet without arrogating to himself any selfish advantage from it. Throughout his mililary career it has been his rule to treat officers and men without consideration of birth or family. He always cultivated kindly relations with the civilian element of the towns in which he held appointments, showing himself to be no worshiper of the mere uniform, and to be free from caste spirit. His family love is a part of his religion, and we find both sentiments mingled at times. In the letter to his parents written after the battle of Königgrätz, already quoted, he expresses his feelings when going into his first action thus: 'A brief prayer, a thought of the dear ones at home and the old name, and then forward.’ The old home, by the way, does not belong to him, but to a near relative; yet he is still deeply attached to it. His parents and others of his line are buried there. One of these, his brother Otto, — the same whom he advised to adopt the military profession,— died some six years ago as a retired general. On the first day of the battle of Tannenberg Hindenburg found time to have this brother’s body exhumed owing to the nearness of the Russian frontier, and because 'the grave might be desecrated.’

And he is a deeply religious man. Not Cromwell or Stonewall Jackson himself was more firmly convinced of being an instrument in the hands of God than is Hindenburg; and the optimistic fatalism begotten of this faith — just as with those two great commanders — must be reckoned as an important element in his military success. Quotations from his letters in previous paragraphs have shown the reader Hindenburg’s simple and unaffected manner of expressing his religious sentiments. Such expressions are by no means rare in his letters and army orders; but he never tires us with them, never multiplies them till they begin to seem unreal. There is never a formal confession of faith, — only a word, and then to other matters. His creed is of a more orthodox type than that which has become prevalent in Germany; and we do not hear that he has ever been visited by any of the doubts of this doubting generation. His religion, so far as we know it, is of the oldest, simplest kind. When great crowds gathered in an eastern town to give him an ovation after the battle of Tannenberg he merely halted his automobile for a moment, arose, pointed upward, and said, 'Thank Him up there’; and he rapidly rode away. In a general order issued after the battle of the Masurian Lakes this passage occurs: ‘Give God the glory. He will also continue to be with us.’ The religious note is equally clear in another general order of December 30. This latter may be quoted in full here in order to show, not only his religious tendencies, but his simple, matter-of-fact style of addressing his soldiers under circumstances which would have given some other great generals occasion for much high-flown sentiment and vainglorious bluster. The order is as follows:-

‘SOLDIERS OF THE EASTERN ARMY!

‘It is my heart’s desire to express to you my warmest thanks and my fullest recognition of what you have accomplished before the enemy during the year now closing. What privations you have borne, what forced marches you have made, what you have achieved in protracted and difficult fighting, will ever be accounted as among the greatest deeds in the military annals of all times. The days of Tannenberg, the Masurian Lakes, Opakow, Ivangorod, Warsaw, Wloclawek, Kutno, Lodz, Lowicz, the Bzura, the Rawka, and the Pilica, can never be forgotten.

'With thanks to God who gave us power to accomplish such things, and with a firm reliance upon his further help, let us begin the new year. In accordance with our oaths as soldiers we will continue to do our duty till our beloved Fatherland is assured of an honorable peace.

‘ And now let us go forward in 1915, just as in 1914.

‘Long live His Majesty, our most gracious commander-in-chief! Hurrah!’

Although Hindenburg has always kept strictly aloof from politics, home and foreign, he has on several occasions expressed himself briefly in regard to the political aspects of the present war. He has asserted his abiding faith in the justice of Germany’s cause, believing that she is fighting only because war was forced upon her by Russia; and he holds that Russia was abetted by England to the extent that the war would not have broken out but for England’s promise to help Russia. He has also expressed his unshaken faith that Germany and her ally will win. He believes in particular that Russia will soon be eliminated as an aggressive factor in the general situation.

Simplicity and directness in all that he does, fidelity to duty, devotion to monarch and country, respect for his fellow men, love for profession and family, unflagging industry, great persistence in carrying out his plans — such are the leading outlines of his character. He inspires confidence from his subordinates by reason of his moral qualities, as well as his military ability; they know that he is a safe man, that, though ever ready to undertake daring deeds, he possesses a sane judgment of what is possible. He takes big risks and obtains corresponding results, but there is nothing flighty about the man. He is willing to assume responsibilities and has independence of judgment. He consults much with his subordinates, indeed, in order to get possession of the facts upon which to base his decisions; but the decisions themselves are always his own. And he is not likely to be influenced by personal or any other considerations than the objective requirements in the given case. He does not court popularity, and he does not like to be lionized. ‘It is a matter of indifference to me,’ he has recently said, ‘what kind of conception people form of me, if I can but be of some service to my king and country.’

Professor Vogel, the portrait painter, who spent nearly two months at Hindenburg’s headquarters making studies for a portrait, has given us a firsthand description of the field marshal in his daily life, with interesting observations on his character. He says he had to rise every morning at 6 or 6.30 o’clock; that Hindenburg tolerates no loafers around him, and is himself incredibly busy. He was found to have a keen knowledge of men; he was cautious in his speech, but at the same time frank and open. He showed no harsh or coarse sides. ‘His whole being beams with calmness, goodness, light. He is worshiped by all his men; and this is due not only to the fact that he is the great Hindenburg who won phenomenal victories, but much rather to the fact that he is a good and amiable man. Although he is loaded down with work and responsibilities, I have never seen him impatient or nervous. He finds time for everything, appears promptly at meals, his private correspondence is quickly disposed of, he sits for his portrait, and he finds time to do an endless number of things.'

Vogel observed that Hindenburg made few calls upon the many servants placed at his disposal at headquarters, that the meals were of almost puritanical simplicity, consisting nearly always of one meat course cooked along with vegetables, and ending with a cheap grade of cheese. There was hardly any variation to this at any time; even when princely personages were guests at headquarters the only usual exception was a glass of champagne. Hindenburg found time to give the painter a daily sitting for seven weeks. Another visitor at headquarters noted that the field marshal’s door was marked only by the word ‘Chief,’ written with chalk.

In personal appearance Hindenburg satisfies the common ideal of what a great general should be. He is six feet tall, has a commanding figure, and carries himself with ease and dignity. He has a deep chest, and broad shoulders, and the neck is rather short and thick. The chin and lower jaws are massive, giving the face a squarish appearance. The mouth, with the corners of the lips drawn sharply down, expresses firmness; and this effect is heightened by the moustache, which is allowed to grow out on the cheek beyond the corners of the lips. The blue eyes are deep-set, frank, and penetrating, and have a tendency to close when talking or smiling. The forehead is fairly high and somewhat flat. It is still surmounted by a good shock of hair, which is nearly white and is kept close-cropped. Standing erect it completes the expression of energy and strength borne by his countenance.

The field marshal is a man of few words, but he impresses the listener with the conviction that what he says is well worth giving heed to. He seems to be thinking while he talks, and the deliberate flow of his words leaves the impression that his mind moves slowly. The voice is a deep, rich bass. Among his comrades he is regarded as a companionable man, but he seems to have kept more to his family, when off duty, than is commonly the case with officers. He has never even learned to play cards; his sister found it impossible to teach him ‘ sixty-six,’the simplest of German card games. Avoiding cards, he has also never gambled, thus escaping the temptations that have proved the undoing of many a young German officer. We hear of no diversions except hunting, for which he has a great liking. The walls of his cottage at Hanover are decorated with the antlers of stags slain by his rifle.

When Hindenburg retired to that cottage only four years ago he thought that his career was ended, and he began to write his reminiscences. They were intended only for his children, as he did not think that his life would interest a wider public. The war rudely interrupted his work. Probably he will resume his writing after it is over. Then all the world will be eager to read Hindenburg’s own narrative of the part he is now playing in the Great War.