Immediately prior to World War I, Lossow was a lieutenant colonel and a general staff officer without a specific assignment.

"[1] He remained in the Ottoman Empire for the rest of the war, becoming in April 1916 the "German Military Plenipotentiary at the Imperial Embassy in Constantinople."

In 1919, Lossow, now a major general (Generalmajor), was part of the transitional force which would become the Reichswehr, the 100,000-man army permitted for Germany under the Treaty of Versailles.

[5] On 8 November 1923, Hitler and the SA stormed a public meeting of 3,000 people which had been organized by Kahr in the Bürgerbräukeller, a large beer hall in Munich.

Hitler interrupted Kahr's speech and announced that the national revolution had begun, declaring the formation of a new government with Ludendorff.

[8] They went to the barracks of the local infantry regiment, where General Jakob Ritter von Danner, Munich garrison commandant and technically Lossow's deputy, met them.

The triumvirate agreed, fearing the consequences of their initial cooperation with the putschists, and acted to put down the putsch attempt.