As best I can tell, Ludendorf's moments of doubt in October 1918 corresponded to Hitler's time in the hospital, and lasted only a few days.
But that was just enough to form the civilian government which immediately sued for peace.
By the time Ludendorf's courage returned and he changed his mind, it was too late, the peace-train had left, Ludendorf was sacked and Germany "stabbed in the back" by... well... the Jews!.
Certainly, "most Germans" (90%?) did not want either world war, so they had to be deceived, manipulated, tricked and lead or pushed to their slaughter.
On the other hand, those rings in their nose were pretty powerful motivators: German unity, Versailles injustices, imperial expansion("lebensraum"), fear of communists, intellectuals and, notably, the Jews.
donmeaker: "Strong diplomacy against Hitler might have prevented war."
"Strong diplomacy"..... hmmmmmmmmm...
I'm not certain what, if anything, might have realistically been done once Hitler was in power.
Immediate massive support for "moderate" opposition groups (in churches, the military, in Austria, etc.), maybe, but what was the last year of legitimate elections -- 1934?
Nobody saw then where the world would be in ten years.
"Strong diplomacy" including military force -- in the Rheinland & Czechoslovakia... who knows?
My limited understanding is that the German general staff was ready to kill Hitler if the Rhineland occupation led to war. There was another activity that at that time distracted world attention.
One of my considerations was if FDR had pulled the Marines from the banana republics, and sent them off (with permission of France) to throw Hitler out of the Rhineland. Hitler is assassinated, and Stalin invades Poland from the East. Liberal Germany is part of the western alliance against Stalin...