Colonel Max Hermann Bauer (31 January 1869 – 6 May 1929) was a German General Staff officer and artillery expert in the First World War.

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.

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.

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.

When the adversaries deadlocked in their trenches along the Western Front, Haber suggested that they could break through by releasing a cloud of poisonous chlorine gas, which is heavier than air.

[3] Bauer continued to support the development of new gases, tactics to use them effectively despite protective masks, and Haber's mobilization of scientists for the war effort.

While arranging artillery support before the attack he stayed at Fifth Army headquarters where he became a fast friend of its commander, Crown Prince Wilhelm; they kept in touch thereafter.

Later that year Bauer was dismayed by Falkenhayn's insistence along the Somme front on packing infantry into the foremost trenches to repel the attacks, where they were chewed-up by the Entente's artillery preparations.

Supported by junior officers at OHL he tirelessly lobbied the highest echelons of the army and government against his superior, with criticisms of Falkenhayn like "...his decisions were half measures and he wavered even over these.

"[8] Falkenhayn was replaced on 29 August 1916 by Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg as Chief of Staff with First Quartermaster General Ludendorff as his associate.

OHL Supreme Army Command was reorganized, Bauer's Section II was responsible for heavy artillery, mortars and fortresses.

Bauer set highly optimistic goals for weapon production, for instance tripling machine gun output, in what became known as the Hindenburg Program.

On 10 June 1917 Bauer gave Matthias Erzberger, a leading catholic Reichstag deputy, a private, pessimist briefing, including his assessment that the U-boats could not win the war.

Bauer worked with Krupp on the development of antiaircraft artillery and of the Paris guns that fired shells 130 kilometers (81 mi)[14] but failed to dent civilian morale.

Vice-chancellor Friedrich von Payer, the only member of the administration also in the Reichstag, excoriated Bauer for his un-military political meddling.

Bauer took this dressing-down as a tribute to his invaluable work; but he retired from active service on 31 October 1918, a few months after being promoted to Colonel.

A close student of the war described Bauer: "There is a strange mixture of force and weakness, calculation and abandon, intelligence and illogic in this man.

In 1926, Chinese engineer Chu Chia-hua, president of the Sun Yat-Sen University in Canton, contacted Bauer for advice on military and business opportunities in China.

In 1927, Bauer visited Chiang Kai-shek, who hired him as a military adviser, wishing to use his contacts to acquire more weapons and industrial assistance from Germany.

Nonetheless Bauer was able to establish a China trade department and to make contact with the secret German military mission in Nanking.

When Bauer returned to China, he advocated formation of a small core army supported by many local militia forces.