I've been reading the book "August 1914" by Alexander Solzhenitsyn - Here are a few placemarks and map overlays which track the course of the campaign.

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At the outset of World War I, two Russian armies invaded East Prussia. Using their superbly efficient railway system, the outnumbered Germans concentrated their forces against the Russian Second Army, and in the battle of Tannenberg they surrounded and destroyed its central corps. Solzhenitsyn's novel August 1914 tells the story of Tannenberg from the Russian perspective.

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General von Francois (links) besichtigte nach der Schlacht von Tannenberg von den Russen zur�ckgelassenes Material

Some background from the BBC

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Battle of Tannenberg: 26-30 August 1914

Allied with France and Britain, Grand Duke Nicholas, the Russian commander, agreed to help relieve the French, under attack from Germany, with an offensive in East Prussia. This required mobility and nimbleness; unfortunately the Russians had neither.

Two Russian armies invaded German East Prussia in August 1914. Rennenkampf's First Army was to converge with the Samsonov's Second Army to give a two-to-one numerical superiority over the German 8th Army, which they would attack from the east and south respectively, some 80km (50 miles) apart.

The plan began well at Gumbinnen on 20 August, when Rennenkampf's First Army defeated eight divisions of the German 8th Army on its eastern front. By this time Samsonov's forces had crossed the southern frontier of East Prussia to threaten the German rear, defended by only three divisions.

Faced with imminent attack, Prittwitz, commander of the 8th Army, approved Lieutenant Colonel Hoffman's idea to attack Samsonov's left flank, aided by another three divisions moved by rail from the Gumbinnen front. However, on 23 August Prittwitz was replaced by General von Hindenburg whose chief of staff, Ludendorff, immediately confirmed Hoffmann's plan to strike at Samsonov's left flank.

The Germans then got lucky when they intercepted an uncoded Russian message indicating that Rennenkampf was in no hurry to advance. Developing Hoffman's original plan, Ludendorff concentrated six divisions against Samsonov's left flank and took a calculated risk to withdraw the rest of the German troops from Gumbinnen and move them to face Samsonov's right flank, leaving only a cavalry screen against Rennenkampf. This move was helped by the lack of communication between the two Russian commanders, who disliked each other.

Samsonov's forces were spread out along a 60 mile front and advancing gradually against the Germans when, on 26 August, Ludendorff ordered an attack on Samsonov's left wing near Usdau. There, German artillery forced a Russian retreat, whereupon they were pursued toward Neidenburg, in the rear of the Russian centre.

A Russian counter-attack from Soldau enabled two Russian army corps to escape south east before the German pursuit continued. By nightfall on 29 August the Russian centre, amounting to three army corps, was surrounded by Germans and stuck in a forest with no means of escape. The Russians disintegrated and were taken prisoner by the thousands. Faced with total defeat, Samsonov shot himself. By the end of the month, the Germans had taken 92,000 prisoners and annihilated half of the Russian 2nd Army. Rennenkampf's army had not moved at all during this battle, vindicating Ludendorff's calculated risk.

After being reinforced, the Germans turned on Rennenkampf's slowly advancing Army, attacking it in the first half of September and driving it from East Prussia. It was a crushing defeat for the Russians. In total, they lost around 250,000 men - an entire army - as well as vast amounts of military equipment. The wafer-thin silver lining was that the Russian action had diverted the Germans from their attack on France and allowed the French to counter-attack at the Marne.

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First Tannemberg Memorial



After the war Germany built a memorial to the battle.

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The monument acquired new and greater importance after Hitler came to power in Germany. The Nazis made it a symbol of the glory of the German Armed Forces. Already in August 1933 the monument was visited by Hitler as the Chancellor of the German Reich. His visit was the occasion for a great patriotic gathering. The greatest ceremony in the history of the monument was, however, the funeral of Field Marshal Hindenburg. Although this had not been either Hindenburg or the monument's planners intention. Hitler had decided that the monument should become a mausoleum for Hindenburg and his wife,

To effectuate the change in purpose, Hitler had the grave of the unknown soldiers removed, and the level of plaza lowered by 8 feet with stone steps surrounding it on all sides. A vaulted burial chamber was built in the crypt of one of the towers. The entrance to the crypt were guarded by two 13 foot statues of soldier on guard. Special brass sarcophagi were placed in the burial chamber. Behind the sarcophagi stood two crosses joined at the arms. Inscribed on them were two of the Field Marshal's favorite sayings: "Love is eternal" and "Be faithful till death." On the wall hung a black Prussian eagle. In the tower above the crypt, another chamber housed Hindenburg memorabilia and within it stood a 13 foot-high statue of the Field Marshal in dark green porphyry.

On the 7th of August 1934, the body of the Field Marshal was laid to rest to the sound of church bells and in the presence of high government officials and representatives of foreign nations. Hitler gave the funerary oration ending it with the high flying words "Toter Feldherr, geh' ein in Walhall!" (Supreme leader, enter Walhalla.) The Tannenberg monument itself was elevated to the rank of a "Monument of German Pride", the only such in all of Germany. It became a symbol, a myth, a place of pilgrimage for thousands of Germans. School children were required to visit it and it was the site of the annual reunions of the veterans of WWI.

Then came the Second World War. On January 20th 1945, as the Soviet Armies advanced into East Prussia, the Germans military, fearing profanation by the Russian, evacuated the remains of the Field Marshal and his wife. After a perilous journey these found a lasting resting place, probably in Marbourg Cathedral. A day later, at night, the Germans blew up both the entrance tower and the one that had housed the Hindenburg tomb. The Soviets did not further destroy the monument which stood till 1949 when its building materials began to be utilized in the construction of the Palace of Culture in Warsaw and of the Headquarters building of the Workers (communist) Party there.

Nothing remains of the monument today other than its buried foundations. The area is now an Olsztynek city park.

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First Battle of Tannenberg

Tannenberg was symbolic for Germany as it is near the Battle_of_Grunwald in 1410 which marked the defeat of the Teutonic Knights by the Poles. The Teutonic Knights never recovered from the battle.

Grunwald Memorial in Poland