The article is devoted to basic stages of Erich von Falkenhayn’s (1861–1922) biography, who was the head of German armed forces in 1914–1916. Analyzing on the basis of different sources style of making decisions, his relations with competitors from the military elite, finally replaced him on a post of head of OHL, author dismisses some popular historiography’s myths, comes to conclusion about an injustice of in an estimation both most Falkenhayn, and strategy he preferred.