# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/erich-von-falkenhayn
# Generated: 2026-08-31T23:28:30.214Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/erich-von-falkenhayn"
name: "Erich von Falkenhayn"
slug: "erich-von-falkenhayn"
description: "He took command of the German General Staff after the invasion of France stalled in 1914, bet everything on grinding the French to exhaustion at Verdun, and was fired when that strategy bled his own army white instead."
tagline: "Chief of Germany's General Staff during the first two years of the First World War (1861-1922)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-2004-0023%2C_Erich_von_Falkenhayn_(2).jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
category:
  name: "Politicians"
  slug: "politicians"
profileType:
  name: "Politician"
  slug: "politician"
birthDate: "1861-09-11"
deathDate: "1922-04-08"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           56.39
  momentum:             0
  historical:           23.64514666666667
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  60
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
  - name: "Historical Figures"
    slug: "historical-figures"
  - name: "Politician"
    slug: "politician"
  - name: "Politics"
    slug: "politics"
  - name: "19th Century"
    slug: "19th-century"
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    title: "اريش فون فالكنهاين"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Ерих фон Фалкенхайн"
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    title: "Erich von Falkenhayn"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Erich von Falkenhayn"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "إريش فون فالكنهاين"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Erich von Falkenhayn replaced Helmuth von Moltke the Younger in September 1914 after the First Battle of the Marne stopped the German advance into France. As Prussian Minister of War and Chief of the General Staff, he planned to win the war before 1917 but launched an offensive at Verdun that failed to break the French; by August 1916, with the Somme opened, the Brusilov Offensive rolling, and Romania entering the war, he was removed. Falkenhayn believed Germany could not win by decisive battle and would have to settle for compromise peace — a view his rivals, especially the faction behind Hindenburg, attacked as defeatism. He was given field commands in Romania and Syria, where he prevented a planned Ottoman deportation of Jews from Palestine. His reputation as a war leader was contested in Germany during and after the conflict, his troubled relations with Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg undercutting his strategy. He died on 8 April 1922.