Most interesting that Ludendorf helped raise Hitler to prominence, while Hindenburg appointed him Chancellor.
And Hitler's military ambitions were those of his former commanders.
The Painter's rise to power was no accident, was not the "fault" of Versailles punishments, or even the Great Depression.
It came from German national policy, and could only have been prevented by Germany's utter defeat and Unconditional Surrender in the First World War.
Such a defeat for Germany was advocated by many, including our own General Pershing, who warned that anything less would simply result in a rebirth of German imperial ambitions, in another 20 years or so.
But Pershing's views were overruled by the Wilsonian idea of peace without victory.
In effect, Central Virginian, President Wilson originally wanted Germany treated as, in his mind, Confederates should have been treated after the Civil War.
Much of Wilson's idea got forgotten at Versailles, but it was the basis for Germany's request for armistice in November 1918.
And enough was preserved to give Ludendorf and Hindenburg power enough to raise that Austrian Painter to rule over their German empire.
It would have been interesting if Germany was divided after the first world war: with a Prussian northern half and a Bavarian southern half, along with the divisions that existed historically (Austria, Swiss, Danzig) That might have slowed the Nazi takeover of a major industrial power.
Sad thing is the confederates were treated with kindness and subject to good government after the war. Only after they began using terrorism to re institute slavery was a harsher reconstruction invented. Even then, the US federal government after a few elections left them to self government, upon which time Jim Crow laws were passed, and even with Plessy vs. Ferguson, got federal support.