The Germans decided to take all their soldiers and attack the Russian Second Army.

However, the First Army, under the command of General Rennenkampf, decided to pause for a few days. The plan was to encircle and destroy the German Eighth Army. The Second Army was attacking to the south-east while the First Army attacked to the north. It was Colonel Max Hoffman who proposed the risky battle plans that helped the Germans to win the battle.īefore the battle, the Russian Army was invading eastern Germany with some success. The leaders of the German Army were Paul von Hindenburg, Erich Ludendorff, and Max Hoffman. Rennenkampf was largely responsible for the Russian defeat because he did not coordinate his movements with Samsonov, leaving Samsonov to fight the Germans alone. Samsonov killed himself when he realized he had lost the battle. The leaders of the Russian Army were Alexander Samsonov (commander of the Second Army) and Paul von Rennenkampf (commander of the First Army). There were around 166,000 German soldiers and 206,000 Russian soldiers. The Battle of Tannenberg was fought between the German Eighth Army and the Russian Second Army. By naming this victory after the city, they thought that the people would see this as a return of Germany to power. During the Middle Ages the German Teutonic Knights had been defeated at Tannenberg.

The battle actually took place closer to the city of Allenstein than to Tannenberg, but the victorious German command decided to call it the Battle of Tannenberg for propaganda reasons. Why was it called the Battle of Tannenberg? It was a resounding victory for the German army and proved that they could defeat larger armies through superior tactics and training. It took place from August 23 - 30 in 1914. The Battle of Tannenberg was one of the first major battles of World War I.