FALKENHAYN, ERICH VON Prussian general, was born on Nov. 11, 1861 at Burg Belchau (Thorn). He took part in the China expedition of 190o and remained in China with a brigade of occupation until 1903. In 1907 he was appointed chief of staff of the XVI., and in 1912 of the IV. Army Corps. In 1911 he was appointed commander of the 4th Guards (infantry) regiment. In 1913 he was made general, and from July 7, 1913 to Jan. 20, 1915 was Prussian war minister. He succeeded General von Moltke on Nov. 3, 1914 as chief of the general staff of the army. Although Falkenhayn did not accept the principle that a decision could be obtained in the East, the abandonment of the plan for a break-through on the Albert-Arras front, and the increasing evidence of shortage of material and weakening efficiency on the Russian side made him regard a very heavy blow on the Russian front as necessary and desirable. Eight divisions were brought from the Western front, and Mackensen was made chief of this army (XI.), which succeeded in breaking through the Russian lines (Gorlice–Tarnow) on May 2-3, 1915 (see WORLD WAR). Falkenhayn later helped to plan the summer offensive of 1915 against Russia. At the end of 1915 he became convinced of the necessity of opening a road to Turkey for the transit of munitions and expert personnel, and organized the opera tions by which, with the co-operation of the Bulgarian army, Serbia was over-run in the winter of 1915-16. At the end of Dec. 1915, Falkenhayn sent the Kaiser a memorandum setting forth his rea sons for advocating an attack on Verdun (see VERDUN, BATTLES oF), and he was severely blamed when the attack eventually failed.
In July 1916, Falkenhayn, submitting to public opinion, pro posed that Field-Marshal von Hindenburg should be made supreme commander from Pripet to the Dniester, and a few days later he offered him the command of the whole eastern front from the Baltic to the Carpathians. The desire for the creation of a general supreme command was rapidly growing even in Austria, and on Sept. 16, 1916 the Oberste Kriegsleitung was signed by German and Austrian plenipotentiaries ; under this agreement the German Kaiser became responsible for the higher leading of opera tions in general. It was signed on the part of the Germans by von Hindenburg, who had succeeded Falkenhayn as new chief of the General Staff on Aug. 29, 1916, the immediate cause of Falken hayn's dismissal being the Rumanian declaration of war (Aug. 27, 1916). Falkenhayn was then assigned the leadership of the IX. Army against Rumania and commanded in the fighting at Her mannstadt and on the Targu Jin (see RUMANIA: Defence) . In 1917 he took command of the so-called Asiatic Corps, for opera tions in the Caucasus, and in 1918 and 1919 was at the head of the X. Army in Lithuania.
He wrote an interesting account of the German conduct of the war during its first two years, entitled Die oberste Heeresleitung in ihren wichtigsten Entschliessungen 1914-16 (1919), and Der Feldzug der IX. Armee gegen die Rumdnen and Russen 1916-17 (2 vols. I921). He died on April 8, 1922, at the castle of Lindstet, near Wildpark.
See A. Alberte, General Falkenhayn, die Beziehungen zwischen den Generalstabschefs des Dreibunds (1924) .