Early Life and Career
Born in Biebrich (now a borough of Wiesbaden, Hesse) in Hessen-Nassau, he was educated in the Prussian military tradition. He served on the Western Front in World War I as a staff officer. After the war he served in various staff and command appointments. In 1931–1932, he led the group of army writers, at the Department of the Army (Truppenamt) which published the German Army Operations Manual entitled Truppenführung. The first section was promulgated in 1933 and the second section in 1934. A modified version is still in use today by the Federal German Army. He was promoted to the rank of Generalleutnant in 1932 and, two years later, he replaced General Wilhelm Adam as chief of the Truppenamt, the camouflaged General Staff (the Treaty of Versailles explicitly forbade the existence of the General Staff).
Read more about this topic: Ludwig Beck
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or career:
“In the early forties and fifties almost everybody “had about enough to live on,” and young ladies dressed well on a hundred dollars a year. The daughters of the richest man in Boston were dressed with scrupulous plainness, and the wife and mother owned one brocade, which did service for several years. Display was considered vulgar. Now, alas! only Queen Victoria dares to go shabby.”
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“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)