Germany
In the Imperial German Army, while a Quartiermeister was a non-commissioned officer in charge of supplies, a Generalquartiermeister did not deal with supplies, but with operational command. He was the most senior officer below an Army's Chief of Staff.
For example, during the First World War, Erich Ludendorff was Generalquartiermeister to the German Second Army in August 1914. With his expert knowledge of the plans for the assault on Liege, which he had helped to draw up, he was sent to supervise that assault and took personal charge when the brigade commander was killed.
More famously, when Paul von Hindenburg was appointed Chief of the General Staff at the Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL or "Supreme Army Command") in August 1916, Ludendorff, who had been his Chief of Staff in the East, came with him. Ludendorff declined to be known as "Second Chief of the General Staff" and instead chose the title First Quartermaster-General - in which role he directed the operations of the German Armies and wielded power over German politics and industry.
Read more about this topic: Quartermaster General
Famous quotes containing the word germany:
“The tears I have cried over Germany have dried. I have washed my face.”
—Marlene Dietrich (1904–1992)
“It took six weeks of debate in the Senate to get the Arms Embargo Law repealed—and we face other delays during the present session because most of the Members of the Congress are thinking in terms of next Autumn’s election. However, that is one of the prices that we who live in democracies have to pay. It is, however, worth paying, if all of us can avoid the type of government under which the unfortunate population of Germany and Russia must exist.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, to-day in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be regarded as a bête noire the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!”
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)