WI Ludendorff Stops a Bullet?

This is a POD I remember discussing back in my days over on shwi, many moons ago, but still an interesting one:

6 Aug, 1914: The German 14th Brigade might legitimately regard themselves as unlucky. Not only are they currently taking heavy casualties in their efforts to capture the Belgian fortifications around Liege; not only has their commanding officer, Generalmajor Friedrich von Wussow, been killed in action, but so has that dashing General Staff observer, Generalmajor Ludendorff, who had assumed command in the aftermath...

So, Erich Ludendorff is killed in the siege of Liege, 1914. I think it's fair to say that this could have massive consequences for Germany's conduct of the rest of the Great War, maybe not immediately (although if the sieges of Liege and Namur suffer delays compared to OTL, that might do interesting things to the campaigning in France during 1914), as Tannenberg was, if I understand correctly, pretty much already planned out by Hoffmann and others by the time H&L showed up to hog the glory, but certainly by 1916, assuming things adhere closely enough to OTL for Hindenburg eventually to be named Chief of the General Staff.

The really key factor will be whoever gets sent along to East Prussia with Hindenburg ITTL. Does anybody have any ideas on who might be the most likely candidate? Of course, Ludendorff's eventual successor, in OTL 1918, was Wilhelm Groener - if he becomes Hindenburg's right hand man in 1914 that could have a very interesting effect on the outcome of the war, given his willingness in OTL to cooperate with the SPD and the fact that he's generally saner (but maybe not as brilliant?) than Ludendorff in every possible way...

Iirc, in 1914 Groener was the German Army's top railway guy. And he wasn't Prussian either (a Wurttemburger, I think?). Does this rule him out completely as a choice to help command the last-ditch defence of East Prussia from the Slavic Horde? (I seem to remember some suggestion that Hindenburg's extreme Prussian-junker image was one factor in him being picked for the Tannenberg gig. That and the fact that he lived near the main railway line from General Staff HQ to East Prussia...or something like that...)

So, thoughts, anyone?
 
Being from Wurttemburg wouldn't necessarily rule Groener out. Hindenburg was Prussian enough for both of them. But if OHL decide they want a Prussian, they may go for Hans von Seeckt, who became Chief of Staff to Mackensen a few months later. He would be very formidable.
 
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Now, putting Seeckt into Ludendorff's slot would be very interesting too, I think. As you say, a very formidable character, and pragmatic with it. If he ended up effectively running the war effort by 1916, Germany could end up on an ultimately less self-destructive course than OTL (Seeckt would prove very adept at the backstairs horsetrading with civilian politicians once the war started to go badly, I think).

When we discussed this on shwi, all that time ago, I think we went with the idea of Groener, for argument's sake, and it was pointed out that he would almost certainly have had a very different take on a lot of the issues facing Germany compared to Ludendorff. He would probably be less supportive of unrestricted submarine warfare, for one thing; more willing to build alliances with left-wing politicians on the home front; would probably do a better job of managing the war economy in the face of the blockade etc; would be less determined to build a German empire in the East and perhaps more open to the idea of a negotiated peace at an earlier date.

On the basis of that, I sort of considered doing it as a full-length TL, but ended up getting distracted from shwi by RL stuff and other interests, and it never happened. But as I remember, my idea was that by vetoing the unrestricted submarine campaign and willingly ceding ground to shorten the Western Front (perhaps moreso than with the Hindenburg Line in OTL), it gets to the stage by late 1917 where Russia is crumbling, Italy is reeling from Caporetto and Britain and France are continuing to chip away at the Western Front with huge losses and no prospect of America entering the war any time soon. So, a peace is negotiated which pretty much results in the status quo antebellum in the West, while the Germans and co are left to conclude business with the Bolsheviks in the East (which could be protracted and messy for all concerned).

(assuming that the revolution in Russia goes as OTL, but of course Groener might not help Lenin get back there as in OTL - which was a bit of a grey area really in my thinking about the TL - what happens in Russia, exactly?)

Anyway, I think in that TL, the ultimate result might be a right-wing backlash back in Germany from those who think Groener bottled it and threw away ultimate victory in favour of a modest peace deal. So Groener gets sacked by the Kaiser and at some point they end up with a *Nazi government which is organised more along Italian lines, with whoever the strongman is formally being installed as Chancellor with the Kaiser as head of state. And if France and Italy react to "defeat" in the Great War by spawning their own revanchist regimes (I don't know if Britain would, but it would certainly give a boost to any homegrown *fascists, I just don't think they'd get into govt), well, things could get...ugly...
 
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