1. Colonel Max Hermann Bauer was a German General Staff officer and artillery expert in the First World War.
26 Facts About Max Bauer
1. 2.
Later Bauer was a military and industrial adviser to President Chiang Kai-Shek of Nationalist China.
3.
Max Bauer began to study medicine in Berlin, but then enlisted as an officer candidate in Foot Artillery Regiment 2 in 1888.
4.
For developing the mortars Max Bauer was awarded the Pour le Merite and an honorary doctorate from the University of Berlin.
5.
Max Bauer was present at the first attack, which cleared the defenders out of miles of trenches defending the city of Ypres, but was "heartbroken" because Supreme Commander Erich von Falkenhayn had mounted only a diversionary attack, divulging their top-secret for almost no gain.
6.
Max Bauer continued to support the development of new gases, tactics to use them effectively despite protective masks, and Haber's mobilization of scientists for the war effort.
7.
Max Bauer decided that Falkenhayn must be replaced by his friend Ludendorff, who had displayed virtuosity on the Eastern Front.
8.
Max Bauer set highly optimistic goals for weapon production, for instance tripling machine gun output, in what became known as the Hindenburg Program.
9.
Soon Max Bauer had a staff officer for propaganda and another stationed in Berlin for political liaison.
10.
On 10 June 1917 Max Bauer gave Matthias Erzberger, a leading catholic Reichstag deputy, a private, pessimist briefing, including his assessment that the U-boats could not win the war.
11.
Max Bauer stayed in the capital, in the thick of the fight.
12.
Max Bauer worked with Krupp on the development of antiaircraft artillery and of the Paris guns that fired shells 130 kilometers but failed to dent civilian morale.
13.
Max Bauer assembled the guns that were commanded by Colonel Bruchmuller.
14.
Max Bauer took this dressing-down as a tribute to his invaluable work; but he retired from active service on 31 October 1918, a few months after being promoted to Colonel.
15.
Max Bauer wrote about his experiences and national policy during the war.
16.
Ludendorff was let off but Max Bauer had to flee the country.
17.
Max Bauer worked as a military consultant in the Soviet Union, Spain and Argentina.
18.
Max Bauer returned to Germany in 1925 following an amnesty for all those involved in the Putsch.
19.
In 1927, Max Bauer visited Chiang Kai-shek, who hired him as a military adviser, wishing to use his contacts to acquire more weapons and industrial assistance from Germany.
20.
In 1928, Max Bauer returned to Germany to make contacts with German industries and the army.
21.
Nonetheless Max Bauer was able to establish a China trade department and to make contact with the secret German military mission in Nanking.
22.
When Max Bauer returned to China, he advocated formation of a small core army supported by many local militia forces.
23.
However, Max Bauer did manage to have the Whampoa Military Academy moved from Canton to Nanking, it became the Central Military Academy, and to staff it with German military advisers and instructors.
24.
Max Bauer invited 20 German officers to China to work as instructors in military training and military intelligence.
25.
Max Bauer died in Shanghai, of smallpox, on 6 May 1929, perhaps as a result of having been intentionally infected by one of his Chinese enemies, as he was the only person infected with the contagious disease in the region where he contracted it.
26.
Max Bauer's ashes were later returned to Germany and buried at Swinemunde on 5 August 1929.