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Jul 12, 2023 · Hitler secured significant power and quickly manipulated the political landscape, yet maintained a respectful public demeanour towards Hindenburg – renaming a city after him, and building a monumental tower in East Prussia honouring Hindenburg’s military achievements.
- Amy Irvine
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Paul von Hindenburg was born to an aristocratic Prussian family in 1847. Following in his father’s footsteps, he became an army officer. Hindenburg fought as a young lieutenant in the Austro-Prussian War in 1866 and in the and Franco-Prussian War in 1870-1871. After serving with distinction in battle, he joined the prestigious German General Staff....
In 1914, Hindenburg was called out of retirement to bolster the German army’s efforts on the eastern front during World War I. With General Erich Ludendorff as his Chief of Staff, Hindenburg reversed what would have been a catastrophic retreat. They instead engineered a defeat of Russian forces at the battle of Tannenberg. The partnership of Hinden...
By the 1930s, the Weimar government was increasingly challenged fromforces on the Right. Hindenburg abandoned some of hismore moderate positionsin order to appease right-wing critics. In the 1932 Reichstagelection, Hitler’s Nazi Party received 37.4% of the vote, the most obtained by any single party. Hitler demanded the Chancellorship as a result. ...
Hindenburg’s legacy has been mythologizedto suggest that he waseither a puppet of Hitler or was supportive of the authoritarian ruler. Historical evidence suggests a more complexportrait of a man whorejected democratic principles and used dictatorial,if legal, powers in an attempt to govern,but also of a man who lacked the strength or conviction to...
President Hindenburg died at the age of 87 on 2 August 1934. Shortly after Hindenburg’s death, Hitler announced that offices of the chancellor and the president were to be combined to create one position, the Führer and chancellor. Hitler announced that he would occupy this new role.
On 30 January 1933, Hindenburg appointed his opponent of the previous year, the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), as Reich chancellor. Carefully incorporated into the public festivals of the new regime, he played a crucial role in the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship.
The Nazi Party and other right wing groups used the widespread “stab-in-the-back” myth to exploit German nationalist feelings and to attack the Weimar Republic. They also used the myth to target socialists, communists, and Jewish people for supposedly undermining the German military.
In 1933, Hindenburg reluctantly appointed Adolf Hitler as German chancellor and approved of the Nazi regime’s suspension of civil liberties. When Hindenburg died in 1934, the office of the president was abolished. Hitler became the undisputed leader of the German state.
in his memoirs: "Von Hindenburg is German to the bones ; he embodies all the good and majestic qualities of the German people and especially the German army." But even von Buelow did not foresee the majestic political rôle which von Hindenburg was to play. In 1918, with the Social Demo-cratic revolution, von Hindenburg persuaded the Kaiser to ...
