German general and president (192534), born in Poznan, WC Poland (formerly Posen, Prussia). He studied at Wahlstatt and Berlin, fought in the FrancoPrussian War (18701), rose to the rank of general (1903), and retired in 1911. Recalled at the outbreak of World War 1, he won victories over the Russians (191415), but was forced to direct the German retreat on the Western Front (to the Hindenburg line). A national hero, he became the second president of the German Republic in 1925. He was re-elected in 1932, and in 1933 appointed Hitler as chancellor.
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg|
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| President of Germany | |
|---|---|
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In office 12 May 1925 – 2 August 1934 |
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| Preceded by | Friedrich Ebert |
| Succeeded by |
Adolf Hitler (Führer and Chancellor) |
| Born |
2 October 1847 Posen, Germany |
| Died |
2 August 1934 Neudeck, Germany |
| Political party | None |
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, known universally as Paul von Hindenburg (2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German Field Marshal and statesman.
German army
Hindenburg was born in Posen, Prussia (since 1919 Poznań, Poland) on Podgorna street, the son of Prussian aristocrat Robert von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, and his wife, Luise Schwickart, the daughter of a medical doctor.
Hindenburg was victorious in the Battle of Tannenberg and the Battle of the Masurian Lakes against the Russian army.
Hindenburg succeeded Erich von Falkenhayn as Chief of the General Staff in 1916, although real power was exercised by his deputy, Erich Ludendorff. Ludendorff had expected Hindenburg to follow him by also resigning, but Hindenburg refused on the grounds that in this hour of crisis, he could not desert the men under his command.
Hindenburg, who was a firm monarchist throughout his life, always regarded this episode of his life with considerable embarrassment, and almost from the moment the Kaiser abdicated, Hindenburg insisted that he had played no role in the abdication and assigned all of the blame to Groener.
Aftermath of the war
At the conclusion of the war Hindenburg retired a second time, and announced his intention to retire from public life.
Hindenburg had not wanted to appear before the commission, and had been subpoenaed. Ludendorff, who had fallen out with Hindenburg over the decision to continue seeking the armistice in October 1918, was concerned that Hindenburg might reveal that it was he who had advised seeking an armistice in September 1918. Ludendorff wrote a letter to Hindenburg, informing him that he was writing his memoirs and threatened to expose that Hindenburg did not deserve the credit that he had received for his victories. Ludendorff's letter went on to suggest that how Hindenburg testified would determine how favorably Ludendorff would present Hindenburg in his memoirs.
When Hindenburg did appear before the commission, he refused to answer any questions about the responsibility for the German defeat, and instead read out a prepared statement that had been reviewed in advance by Ludendorff's lawyer. Hindenburg testified that the German Army had been on the verge of winning the war in the fall of 1918, and that the defeat had been precipitated by a Dolchstoß ("stab in the back") by disloyal elements on the home front and by unpatriotic politicians.
Hindenburg's testimony was the first use of the Dolchstoßlegende.
Afterwards, Hindenburg had his memoirs entitled Mein Leben (My Life) ghost-written in 1919-20. A widower, Hindenburg was very close to his only son, Major Oskar von Hindenburg and his granddaughters.
Presidency
In 1925, Hindenburg had no interest in running for public office.
Since Karl Jarres, the joint candidate of the two conservative parties, the German People's Party and German National People's Party was regarded as too dull, it seemed likely that Marx was going to win the presidency. One of the leaders of German National People's Party, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, visited Hindenburg and told him that only his candidacy could stop Marx.
Hindenburg initially demurred, but under strong pressure from Tirpitz applied over several meetings, he ultimately broke down and agreed to run.
Largely because of his status as Germany's greatest war hero, Hindenburg won the election. Also assisting Hindenburg's election victory were the decision of the Bavarian People's Party to abandon its support of Marx and to throw its support behind Hindenburg, and the refusal of the Communist Party of Germany to withdraw its candidate for the Presidency, Ernst Thälmann from the race.
In 1927, a group of Junkers started a fundraising campaign to present Hindenburg with the birthday gift of the estate of Neudeck.
Although Hindenburg very much appreciated the gift of Neudeck, which became his favorite place to rest and relax, Hindenburg despised all businessmen as vulgar upstarts who had in his opinion unjustly usurped the social prestige that rightfully belonged to the Junkers. Somewhat controversially, Hindenburg had Neudeck registered in the name of Oskar von Hindenburg as a way of ensuring his son would avoid the inheritance taxes when he died. It has been falsely suggested that knowledge of this irregularity led to Adolf Hitler blackmailing Hindenburg into appointing him Chancellor in January 1933.
For the first five years after taking office, Hindenburg fulfilled his duties of office with considerable dignity and decorum. For the most part, Hindenburg refused to allow himself to be drawn into the maelstrom of German politics in the period 1925-1930, and sought to play the role of a republican equivalent of a constitutional monarch.
Indeed, Hindenburg was often referred to as the Ersatzkaiser (Substitute Emperor).
What Hindenburg was not loyal to was the democratic spirit of the Constitution, which he allowed himself to be persuaded was a document lacking value.
However, Hindenburg had little interest in playing politics.
In 1928, with the formation of a "Grand Coalition" government headed by the Social Democrat, Hermann Müller, Hindenburg insisted on Groener as Defense Minister.
In private, Hindenburg often complained that he missed the quiet of his retirement and bemoaned that he had allowed himself to be pressured into running for President.
On the other hand, the Kamarilla (camarilla) that Hindenburg had surrounded himself with had other plans for him.
The most important members of this group included the field marshal's son, Major Oskar von Hindenburg, Otto Meissner the influential chief of the Presidential Chancellery, Groener and Kurt von Schleicher, an ambitious political general and protégé of Groener.
The most powerful member of the camarilla was Oskar von Hindenburg, who moved into the Presidential Palace with his father and served as his aide-de-camp. By all accounts an unintelligent man who sought to shamelessly exploit his father's name, the younger von Hindenburg was Field Marshal Hindenburg’s closest associate, and largely controlled politicians' access to the President.
Since Schleicher was a close friend of Oskar von Hindenburg, he came in his turn to enjoy privileged access to the President.
Presidential governments were governments in which the Chancellor owed his office to the confidence solely of the President rather than the Reichstag.
Schleicher’s idea was to have Hindenburg appoint a man of Schleicher’s choosing as Chancellor, have him rule via Article 48 and to have Hindenburg threaten to use Article 25 should the Reichstag vote to annul any laws passed under Article 48.
Schleicher’s intention was to gradually undermine democracy legally via "Presidential government" and ultimately create an authoritarian government.
Hindenburg was not enthusiastic about these plans, but was pressured into going along with them by his son along with Meissner, Groener and Schleicher.
The first attempt to establish a "presidential government" had occurred in 1926-1927, but had foundered owing to the unwillingness of any of the leading German politicians to go along with the scheme.
After a series of secret meetings attended by Meissner, Schleicher, and Heinrich Brüning, the parliamentary leader of the Catholic Center Party, Schleicher and Meissner were able to persuade Brüning to go along with the plan for "presidential government".
The end result of these intrigues by Schleicher was the fall of Müller’s government in March 1930 and Brüning being named Chancellor by Hindenburg. When the budget was defeated in July 1930, Brüning had Hindenburg sign the budget into law via Article 48. When the Reichstag voted to cancel the budget, Brüning had Hindenburg dissolve Reichstag only two years into its mandate, and had the budget passed again by Article 48.
After the 1930 elections, Brüning continued to govern largely through Article 48;
Hindenburg for his part grew increasingly annoyed at Brüning, complaining that he was growing tired of using Article 48 all the time to pass bills.
In October 1931, Hindenburg and Hitler had their first meeting. In private, Hindenburg disparagingly referred to Hitler as "that Austrian corporal", "the Bohemian corporal" and sometimes just simply as "the corporal".
Hitler in turn, often described Hindenburg as "that old fool" and "the old reactionary". Right up until January 1933, Hindenburg often stated that he would never appoint Hitler as Chancellor under any circumstances. On 26 January 1933, Hindenburg told a group of his friends: "Gentlemen, I hope you will not hold me capable of appointing this Austrian corporal to be Reich Chancellor".
January 1932-January 1933: A Year of Decisions
Although Hindenburg was now lapsing in and out of senility, he was persuaded to run for re-election in 1932, as the only candidate who could defeat Adolf Hitler. Hindenburg had wanted to leave office in 1932, but was urged by the Kamarilla to run again in order to keep Hitler out of office.
Hindenburg reluctantly agreed to stay in office, but wanted to avoid an election.
Brüning met with Hitler in January 1932 to ask if he would agree to the President's demand to forgo the election.
Brüning rejected Hitler's demands as totally outrageous and unreasonable. Schleicher convinced Hindenburg that the reason why Hitler had rejected Brüning's offer was because Brüning had deliberately sabotaged the talks to force the elderly president into a grueling re-election battle.
During the election campaign of 1932, Brüning had campaigned hard for Hindenburg's re-election. As Hindenburg was in bad health and a poor speaker anyhow, the task of travelling the country and delivering speeches for Hindenburg had fallen upon Brüning.
In the first round of the election held in March 1932, Hindenburg emerged as the frontrunner, but failed to gain a majority. In the runoff election of April 1932, Hindenburg defeated Hitler for the Presidency.
After the presidential elections had ended, Schleicher held a series of secret meetings with Hitler in May 1932, and thought that he had obtained a "gentleman's agreement" in which Hitler had agreed to support the new "presidential government" that Schleicher was building. At the same time, Schleicher, with Hindenburg's complicit consent, had set about undermining Brüning's government.
The first blow occurred in May 1932, when Schleicher had Hindenburg sack Groener as Defense Minister in a way that was designed to humiliate both Groener and Brüning. On 31 May 1932, Hindenburg sacked Brüning as Chancellor and replaced him with the man that Schleicher had suggested, Franz von Papen.
"The Government of Barons" as Papen's government was known, openly had as its objective the destruction of German democracy.
Unlike Brüning, Papen ingratiated himself to Hindenburg and his son through the use of the most oleaginous flattery. Much to Schleicher's annoyance, von Papen quickly replaced him as Hindenburg's favorite advisor.
In accordance with Schleicher's "gentleman's agreement", Hindenburg dissolved the Reichstag and set new elections for July 1932.
Following the Nazi electoral triumph in the Reichstag elections held on 31 July 1932, there were widespread expectations that Hitler would soon be appointed Chancellor. In a meeting between Hindenburg and Hitler held on 13 August 1932, in Berlin, Hindenburg firmly rejected Hitler's demands for the Chancellorship. According to the minutes:
"Herr Hitler declared that, for reasons which he had explained in detail to the Reich President that morning, his taking any part in cooperation with the existing government was out of the question.
Herr Hitler repeated that any other solution was unacceptable to him.
Hitler: "I have now no alternative".
After refusing Hitler’s demands for the Chancellorship, Hindenburg had a press release issued of his meeting with Hitler that implied that Hitler had demanded absolute power and had his knuckles rapped by the President for making such a demand.
However, given Hitler’s determination to take power legally, Hindenburg’s refusal to appoint Chancellor was an impassable quandary for Hitler.
When the Reichstag convened in September 1932, its first and only act was to pass a massive vote of no-confidence in von Papen’s government. In response, von Papen had Hindenburg dissolve the Reichstag for elections in November 1932. After the November elections, there ensued another round of fruitless talks between Hindenburg, von Papen, von Schleicher on the one hand and Hitler and the other Nazi leaders on the other.
The President and the Chancellor wanted Nazi support for the "Government of the President's Friends";
Hitler for his part, remained adamant that Hindenburg give him the Chancellorship and nothing else. To break the political stalemate, von Papen proposed that Hindenburg declare martial law and do away with democracy via a presidential putsch.
Papen won over the younger Hindenburg with this idea and the two persuaded Hindenburg for once to forgo his oath to the Constitution and go along with this plan. The opinion of most leans towards latter, for in January 1933, Schleicher would tell Hindenburg that new war games had shown the Reichswehr would crush both the SA and Red Front Fighters and defend the eastern borders from a Polish invasion. Hindenburg was most upset at losing his favorite Chancellor, and suspecting that the war games were faked to force Papen out, came to bear a grudge against Schleicher.
Papen for his part, was determined to get back into office and on 4 January 1933, Papen met with Hitler to discuss how they could bring down Schleicher’s government, though the talks were inconclusive largely because Papen and Hitler each coveted the Chancellorship for himself.
However, Papen and Hitler agreed to keep talking. Papen then persuaded Meissner and the younger Hindenburg of the merits of his plan, and the three then spent the second half of January pressuring Hindenburg into naming Hitler as Chancellor. Hindenburg was most loath to consider Hitler as Chancellor and preferred that Papen hold that office instead.
However, the pressure from Meissner, Papen and the younger Hindenburg was relentless and by end of January, the President had decided to appoint Hitler Chancellor. On the morning of 30 January 1933, Hindenburg swore Hitler in as Chancellor at the Presidential Palace.
The Machtergreifung
Hindenburg played a supporting but key role in the Nazi Machtergreifung (Seizure of Power) in 1933.
This had the effect of assuring Hindenburg that the room for radical moves on the part of the Nazis was limited. Moreover, Hindenburg's favorite politician, Franz von Papen, was the Vice-Chancellor and the Reich Commissioner for Prussia.
Hitler's first act as Chancellor was to ask Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag so that the Nazis and D.N.V.P.
At the opening of the new Reichstag on 21 March 1933, at the Kroll Opera House, the Nazis staged an elaborate ceremony, in which Hindenburg played the leading part, that was meant to mark the continuity between the Prussian-German tradition and the new Nazi state.
Though Hindenburg was in increasingly bad health, the Nazis made sure that whenever Hindenburg did appear in public it was in Hitler’s company.
In private, Hitler continued to detest Hindenburg, and expressed the hope that "the old reactionary" would die as soon as possible, so that Hitler could merge the offices of Chancellor and President into one.
Hitler was always very conscious of the fact that the President was the Supreme Commander-In-Chief of the German armed forces, and that given that Hindenburg was a revered figure in the German Army, that if the President decided to sack Hitler as Chancellor, there was little doubt that the Reichswehr would side with Hindenburg. Thus, as long as Hindenburg lived, Hitler was always very careful to avoid offending him.
The only time Hindenburg ever objected to a Nazi bill occurred in early April 1933.
Hindenburg refused to sign this bill into law until it had been amended to exclude all Jewish veterans of World War One, Jewish civil servants who served in the civil service during the war and those Jewish civil servants whose fathers were veterans.
Hindenburg remained in office until his death at the age of 86 from lung cancer at his home in Neudeck, East Prussia on 2 August 1934 (exactly two months short of his 87th birthday).
One day before Hindenburg's death, Hitler flew to Neudeck and visited him. Hindenburg, old and senile, thought he was meeting Kaiser Wilhelm II, and called Hitler "Your Majesty".
He would be Germany's last president until 1945, when Karl Dönitz became president, as following Hindenburg's death, Hitler declared the office of President to be permanently vacant, effectively merging it with the office of Chancellor under the title of Leader and Chancellor (Führer und Reichskanzler), making himself Germany's Head of State and Head of government, thereby completing the progress of Gleichschaltung.
Weimar's Constitution implied that in case of a president's death or inability to hold office, the chancellor would replace him until new presidential elections could be held.
Instead, Hitler had a plebiscite held on 19 August 1934, in which the German people were asked if they approved of Hitler merging the two offices.
Hindenburg himself was said to be a monarchist who favored a restoration of the German monarchy.
It has been alleged that Hindenburg’s will asked for Hitler to restore the monarchy.
It has been argued that the political testament of Hindenburg’s will that was made public in 1934, in which Hindenburg expresses the greatest thanks for Hitler was forged by Oskar von Hindenburg as a way of ingratiating himself with Hitler.
Burial
Hindenburg was buried in the Tannenberg memorial near Tannenberg, East Prussia (today: Stębark, Poland) against the wishes he had expressed during his life.
Evaluation
Although he was widely esteemed in his time, his biographers John Wheeler-Bennett and Andreas Dorpalen have argued that beneath Hindenburg's façade of strength and power was a weak-willed and not particularly intelligent man who, while well-meaning, was highly dependent upon the advice of others to make decisions.
In Wheeler-Bennett's phrase, Hindenburg was the "Wooden Titan";
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