Rather than the quick victory anticipated by German generals, the fight on the Western Front became a stalemate of trench warfare. But Wilhelm and the military leaders rejected their pleas. ADADIn March 1918, 230,000 German soldiers were killed in a two-week offensive that Hindenburg and Ludendorff had ordered on the Western Front. It contributed to the decision by leaders of the German conservative establishment to invite Hitler into power in January 1933. He learned much of his politics in this atmosphere of bitterness and rage in the postwar German military.

Source: Washington Post November 23, 2020 11:03 UTC