Max Bauer

Colonel Max Hermann Bauer (31 January 1869 – 6 May 1929) was a German artillery expert in the First World War who was also prominent in the army's political meddling. Later he was a military and industrial adviser to the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek.

Bauer was born in Quedlinburg. He began to study medicine in Berlin, but then enlisted as an officer candidate in Foot Artillery Regiment 2 (heavy artillery) in 1888. The following year he attended the Kreigs-Schule in Hanover and then was commissioned. After regimental service, in 1898 he was appointed Adjutant to the Artillerie-Prüfungskommission (Artillery Testing Commission). In 1902 he took command of a battery as a Captain. An observer of the Russo-Japanese war (1904-5), he was impressed by how Japanese 28 cm mortars demolished Russian forts. When he returned in 1905 he joined the fortress section of the General Staff as their artillery expert, which made him conversant with the leaders of German industry, science, and engineering. Unable to obtain authorization to develop a new heavy mortar, he ordered one from Krupp nonetheless. When the War Ministry learned that a prototype was completed they wanted Bauer dismissed, but the firing tests were so impressive that further development was authorized in 1911. Meanwhile, in 1908 he moved into the mobilization section of the Staff directed by Erich Ludendorff — they became staunch friends. Ludendorff regarded him as the “smartest officer in the army”. In the following year Bauer was appointed as a General Staff Officer, remarkable because he had not had the customary specialized schooling. Helped by his contacts in industry, he studied how the German economy would function during a European war.

When the war came Major Bauer was posted to the Operations Section of Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL, Supreme Headquarters) as head of Section II, which was responsible for heavy artillery, mortars, and fortresses. Earlier in 1914, the first of the Krupp 42cm mortars, nicknamed "Big Bertha", and its concrete-piercing shells were ready. They smashed the forts in Belgium and northern France. In 1915 the huge guns forced the surrender of the formidable Russian fortifications in Poland, like Przemyśl, before dealing with the Serbian strongholds at Belgrade. For developing the mortars Bauer was awarded the Pour le Mérite and an honorary doctorate from the University of Berlin. (In 1918 he received the Oak Leaves for his Pour le Mérite. During the war he was awarded 25 German and foreign medals.)

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