About Max Hoffmann
Carl Adolf Maximilian Hoffmann was a German military officer and strategist. As a staff officer at the beginning of World War I, he was Deputy Chief of Staff of the 8th Army, soon promoted Chief of Staff. Hoffmann, along with Erich Ludendorff, masterminded the devastating defeat of the Russian armies at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes. He then held the position of Chief of Staff of the Eastern Front. At the end of 1917, he negotiated with Russia to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The German Empire entered World War I on 1 August 1914; Hoffmann became the first general staff officer of the German Eighth Army with the responsibility of defending Germany's eastern border from Russian attack.
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