Paul von Hindenburg – Biography of Paul von Hindenburg

Paul von Hindenburg He was a high-ranking German military man during the First World War and the second President of the Weimar Republic (1925 – 1934).

Paul von Hindenburg He was born on October 2, 1847, in Posen, Prussia (now Poznan, Poland) into an aristocratic German family of landowners. During his honorable but mediocre military career, he served in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, retiring in 1911.

However, in 1914 he was called to serve on the General Staff alongside Erich Ludendorff, a talented military strategist. The success of Ludendorff’s invasion of Russia made Hindenburg into a national hero, who was appointed a field marshal and commander of all German ground forces. Hindenburg he oversaw the mobilization of the entire German state for war, and became very popular throughout the country, while Kaiser Wilhelm II was sidelined.

After the defeat of Germany in 1918, Hindenburg he retired, but in 1925, largely because of his war hero status, he was elected president of Germany. In 1930, when the economic depression deepened and another government fell, he appointed a cabinet to be accountable only to himself, and in July he appointed Heinrich Brüning Chancellor, authorizing him to dissolve the Reichstag.

The new elections saw the emergence of the National Socialists as the second most important party and with a wide parliamentary margin; Brüning ruled almost exclusively by decree. His deflationary policies exacerbated economic difficulties and unrest, fueled by the Nazis. Hindenburg he was reelected president in 1932, mainly with the support of those who saw him as a protection against Nazi illegality and brutality. However, his own circle thought of the Nazis as a useful – albeit unpleasant – group, worth being complacent to.

Two successive governments failed to win Nazi support, as Adolf Hitler insisted on becoming chancellor of any government in which his party participated. Despite considerable pressure, Hindenburg he refused to name it. However, in November 1932 an agreement was reached between Hitler and Franz von Papen – a former chancellor – to form a government with Hitler as chancellor, but with non-Nazis in most other positions.

Once in office, Hitler quickly achieved almost unlimited political power through terror and manipulation. Publicly Hitler continued to be respectful towards Hindenburg, who remained in office until his death, on August 2, 1934. With the death of the President of the Republic, the last obstacle for the Führer to assume full possession of power disappeared.