Paul von Hindenburg
Paul von Hindenburg
After his education at the Wahlstatt and Berlin cadet schools, he fought at the 1866 Battle of Königgrätz and in the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War. In 1903, he gained promotion to the rank of general.
He retired from the army in 1911, but returned on the outbreak of World War I. He was victorious in the Battle of Tannenberg (1914) and the 1915 Battle of the Masurian Lakes against the Russian army. Much of the credit for these victories belongs to Colonel Max Hoffmann, who recognized the significance of the breakdown in the security of the Russian Army's radio communications. Enough information was sent in clear (because their cryptographic planning did not survive contact with the enemy) that the German Army in the area, under Ludendorff and Hindenburg, knew where the Russians would be and when. In late 1916 he became Chief of the General Staff, although real power was exercised by his deputy, Erich Ludendorff.
After the end of the war, von Hindenburg again retired from the military in 1918, and began to pursue a career in politics. In 1925, he succeeded Friedrich Ebert as President of Germany during the turbulent period of the Weimar Republic. Despite the fact that 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 defeated Hitler for the Presidency, but Hitler staged an electoral comeback, with his Nazi party winning a solid plurality of seats in the Reichstag.
Hindenburg stayed President after appointing Hitler to become Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and remained in office until his death on August 2, 1934 at his home in Neudeck, East Prussia, exactly two months short of his eighty-seventh birthday. One day before his death, Hitler flew to Neudeck and visited him. Hindenburg, old and confused, thought he was meeting the emperor and called Hitler "Majesty". [1]
He would be Germany's last President until 1945, when Karl Dönitz became President, as following Hindenburg's death, Hitler merged the offices of President and Chancellor into the new office of Führer and Chancellor (Führer und Reichskanzler) making him Germany's Head of State and Head of government (see Gleichschaltung).
Hindenburg was buried in the Tannenberg memorial. Since 1945 he has been buried in Marburg an der Lahn.
The zeppelin Hindenburg was named in his honor; see Hindenburg disaster.
| Preceded by: '''Erich von Falkenhayn | Chief of the General Staff 1916-1919 | Followed by: Wilhelm Groener |
| Preceded by: Friedrich Ebert | President of Germany 1925-1934 | Followed by: '''Führer Adolf Hitler |
[1] Ian Kershaw: '\'Hitler. 1889-1936.'' German edition, Munich, 1998, p. 659.Sources