Max Stapff
(7.9.1870 - 1.11.1938)
place of birth:  Viesebach bei Altenburg


German field officer and Blue Max winner Max Stapff served on several general staffs during the Great War. Stapff began the War on the Eastern Front and participated in the Battle of Tannenberg. He was Chief Operations Officer-Ia (1.GSO) on staff with General von Gallwitz as those troops gradually made their way south, engaging the Russians at Przasnysz, Mlawa, and Nowogeorgiewsk.

After getting as far south as Serbia, Gallwitz' 11th Army was sent to the Western Front in early 1916 and saw action at Verdun. Major Stapff was transferred to serve with General Fritz von Below's 1st Army shortly after the Somme Offensive. Continuing his duties as Chief of Staff in Flanders area for generals Otto von Below and Georg von der Marwitz, receiving both a promotion to lieutenant colonel and the Pour le Merite medal. In early 1918, Stapff returned to the eastern theater and served as 10th Army Chief of Staff with commander Erich von Falkenhayn. As the Russians had already capitulated by then, 10th Army staff and troops were chiefly engaged in administrative tasks and overseeing the peaceful transfer of Russian troops to their homeland. After Armistice, Stapff continued his military service and retired from active duty in September 1921 as a brevetted colonel.