Alfred Hugenberg

German politician and publisher, born in Hanover, NC Germany. Co-founder of the Alldeutscher Verband, he became president of the Krupp board (1909–18). He was influential through the Hugenberg press and film corporation, and became a member of the Reichstag (1920) and opponent of the Weimar Republic. He took over Ufa in 1927. As president of Deutschnationale Volkspartei (DNVP) he stood for a radical nationalist political policy, helped to promote Hitler's rise to power for personal reasons, joined the Harzburger Front, and supported Hitler's bid for the position of chancellor. He headed the economics and food ministries in Hitler's government and remained as a member of the Reichsrat until 1945, but without much political influence.

Alfred Hugenberg (June 19, 1865 - March 12, 1951) was an influential German businessman and politician.

Born as the son of Karl Hugenberg, a member of the Prussian parliament, he studied Law in Göttingen, Heidelberg, and Berlin, as well as Economics in Strasbourg.

In 1900, Hugenberg married his second-degree cousin, Gertrud Adickens.

After holding various positions in the administration, banking, and steel industry, from 1916 on, Hugenberg began building the later famous Hugenberg-Konzern, a conglomeration of publishing, film, and newspaper companies, including news and advertising agencies.

In 1918, Hugenberg joined the Deutschnationale Volkspartei (DNVP, German National People's Party), which he represented in the National Assembly (that would produce the 1919 constitution of the Weimar Republic) and later in the Reichstag, the Republic's parliament.

Hugenberg moved the party in a much more radical direction than it had taken under its previous leader, Kuno Count Westarp.

In the last years of the Weimar Republic until the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Reichskanzler (Chancellor) in 1933, the DNVP (under the lead of Hugenberg) cooperated with the NSDAP to oppose the cabinet of Heinrich Brüning and, to an extent, the Republic as a whole. However, after the NSDAP became increasingly powerful, Hugenberg instead chose to support Franz von Papen in 1932.

After the war, Hugenberg was detained by the British.

The Hitler Cabinet – 30 January 1933 to 30 April 1945

Adolf Hitler (Chancellor, President, NSDAP) | Konstantin von Neurath (independent → NSDAP) | Joachim von Ribbentrop (NSDAP) | Wilhelm Frick (NSDAP) | Heinrich Himmler (NSDAP) | Kurt Schmitt (NSDAP) | Hermann Göring (NSDAP) | Walther Funk (NSDAP) | Franz Seldte (DVP → NSDAP) | Franz Schlegelberger (NSDAP) | Otto Georg Thierack (NSDAP) | Julius Heinrich Dorpmüller (NSDAP) | Wilhelm Ohnesorge (NSDAP) | Walther Darré (NSDAP) | Herbert Backe (NSDAP) | Joseph Goebbels (NSDAP) | Bernhard Rust (NSDAP) | Fritz Todt (NSDAP) | Albert Speer (NSDAP) | Alfred Rosenberg (NSDAP) | Hanns Kerrl (NSDAP) | Hermann Muhs (NSDAP) | Hans Lammers (NSDAP) | Martin Bormann (NSDAP) | Karl Hermann Frank (NSDAP)

Rudolf Hess (NSDAP) |