Paul von Hindenburg

Early life and education

Hindenburg was born in Posen, in what was then the Kingdom of Prussia and is now Poznań in western Poland. He was the son of Prussian junker Hans Robert Ludwig von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (1816–1902) and his wife Luise Schwickart (1825–1893), the daughter of physician Karl Ludwig Schwickart and wife Julie Moennich. His paternal grandparents were Otto Ludwig Fady von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (1778–1855), through whom he was remotely descended from the illegitimate daughter of Count Heinrich VI of Waldeck, and his wife Eleonore von Brederfady (d. 1863). Hindenburg's younger brothers and sister were Otto (b. 1849), Ida (b. 1851) and Bernhard (b. 1859). His family were all Lutheran Protestants in the Evangelical Church of Prussia.

At age 11, Paul entered the Cadet Corps School at Wahlstatt (now Legnickie Pole, Poland). At 16, he was transferred to the School in Berlin, and, at 18, he served as a page to the widow of King Frederick William IV of Prussia. Graduates entering the army were presented to King William I, who asked for their father's name and rank. He became a second lieutenant in the Third Regiment of Foot Guards.

In the Prussian Army

Action in two wars

When the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 broke out, Hindenburg wrote to his parents: "I rejoice in this bright-coloured future. For the soldier, war is the normal state of things [...] If I fall, it is the most honorable and beautiful death". During the decisive Battle of Königgrätz, he was knocked unconscious when a bullet pierced his helmet and creased his skull. Upon regaining consciousness, he wrapped his head in a towel, resumed command of his detachment, and was later decorated. He was a battalion adjutant when the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) broke out. After weeks of marching, the Guards attacked the village of Saint Privat (near Metz). Climbing a gentle slope, they came under heavy fire from the superior French rifles. After four hours, the Prussian artillery came up to blast the French lines while the infantry, filled with the "holy lust of battle", swept through the French lines. His regiment suffered 1096 casualties, and he became a regimental adjutant. The Guards were spectators at the Battle of Sedan and for the following months sat in the siege lines surrounding Paris. He was his regiment's elected representative at the Palace of Versailles when the German Empire was proclaimed on 18 January 1871; at 1.98 m (6 feet 6 inches) tall with a muscular frame and striking blue eyes, he was an impressive figure. After the French surrender, he watched from afar the suppression of the Paris Commune.

General Staff

In 1873, he passed the entrance examination for admission to the Kriegsakademie in Berlin. After three years of study, his grades were high enough for an appointment with the General Staff. He was promoted to captain in 1878 and assigned to the staff of the II Corps. He married Gertrud von Sperling (1860–1921), daughter of General Oskar von Sperling, in 1879. The couple would have two daughters, Irmengard Pauline (1880) and Annemaria (1891), and one son, Oskar (1883). Next, he commanded an infantry company, in which his men were ethnic Poles.

He was transferred in 1885 to the General Staff and was promoted to major. His section was led by Count Alfred von Schlieffen, a student of encirclement battles like Cannae, whose Schlieffen Plan proposed to pocket the French Army. For five years, Hindenburg also taught tactics at the Kriegsakademie. At the maneuvers of 1885, he met the future Kaiser Wilhelm II; they met again at the next year's war game in which Hindenburg commanded the "Russian army". He learned the topography of the lakes and sand barrens of East Prussia during the annual Great General Staff's ride in 1888. The following year, he moved to the War Ministry to write the field service regulations on field-engineering and on the use of heavy artillery in field engagements; both were used during the First World War. He became a lieutenant colonel in 1891 and, two years later, was promoted to colonel, commanding an infantry regiment. He became chief of staff of the VIII Corps in 1896.

Field commands and retirement

Hindenburg became a major general (equivalent to a British and US brigadier general) in 1897, and in 1900, he was promoted to lieutenant general (equivalent to major general) and received command of the 28th Infantry Division. Five years later, he was made commander of the IV Corps based in Magdeburg as a General of the Infantry (lieutenant-general; the German equivalent to four-star rank was Colonel-General). The annual maneuvers taught him how to maneuver a large force; in 1908, he defeated a corps commanded by the Kaiser. Schlieffen recommended him as Chief of the General Staff in 1909, but he lost out to Helmuth von Moltke. He retired in 1911 "to make way for younger men". He had been in the army for 46 years, including 14 years in General Staff positions.

World War I

1914

When WWI broke out, Hindenburg was living in retirement in Hannover. On 22 August, due to the purge of German command following Russian success in East Prussia, he was selected by the War Cabinet and the German Supreme Army Command (Oberste Heeresleitung, OHL) to assume command of the German Eighth Army in East Prussia, with General Erich Ludendorff as his chief of staff. After the Eighth Army had been defeated by the Russian 1st Army at Gumbinnen, it had found itself in danger of encirclement as the Russian 2nd Army under General Alexander Samsonov advanced from the south towards the Vistula River. Momentarily panicked, Eighth Army commander Maximilian von Prittwitz notified OHL of his intent to withdraw his forces into Western Prussia. The Chief of the German General Staff, Generaloberst Helmuth von Moltke, responded by relieving Prittwitz and replacing him with Hindenburg.

Upon arriving at Marienburg on 23 August, Hindenburg and Ludendorff were met by members of the 8th Army's staff led by Lieutenant Colonel Max Hoffmann. Hoffman informed them of his plans to shift part of the 8th Army south to attack the exposed left flank of the advancing Russian Second Army. Agreeing with Hoffman's strategy, Hindenburg authorised Ludendorff to transfer most of the 8th Army south while leaving only two cavalry brigades to face the Russian First Army in the north. In Hindenburg's words, the line of soldiers defending Germany's border was "thin, but not weak", because the men were defending their homes. If pushed too hard by the Second Army, he believed they would cede ground only gradually as German reinforcements continued to mass on the invading Russians' flanks before ultimately encircling and annihilating them.

On the night of 25 August, Hindenburg told his staff, "Gentlemen, our preparations are so well in hand that we can sleep soundly tonight". On the day of the battle, Hindenburg reportedly watched from a hilltop as his forces' weak center gradually gave ground until the sudden roar of German guns to his right heralded the surprise attack on the Russians' flanks. Ultimately, the Battle of Tannenberg resulted in the destruction of the Russian 2nd Army, with 92,000 Russians captured together with four hundred guns, while German casualties numbered only 14,000. According to British field marshal Edmund Ironside, it was the "greatest defeat suffered by any of the combatants during the war". Recognising the victory's propaganda value, Hindenburg suggested naming the battle "Tannenberg" as a way of "avenging" the defeat inflicted on the Order of the Teutonic Knights by the Polish and Lithuanian knights in 1410, even though it was fought nowhere near the field of Tannenberg.

1915

After the Russians launched an offensive from Galicia toward Hungary, Hindenburg mounted an unsuccessful attack in Poland with his Ninth Army as well as an offensive by the newly formed Tenth Army which made only local gains. Following these setbacks, he set up temporary headquarters at Insterburg, and made plans to eliminate the Russians' remaining toehold in East Prussia by ensnaring them in a pincer movement between the Tenth Army in the north and Eighth Army in the south. On February 7, Hindenburg's forces launched the attack, encircling an entire corps and capturing more than 100,000 men in the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes.

Shortly thereafter, Hindenburg and Ludendorff played a key role in the Central Powers' Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive. As Field Marshal August von Mackensen broke through Russian lines between Gorlice and Tarnów, Hindenburg's Ninth and Tenth Army launched diversionary attacks that threatened Riga in the north. In one of the war's most successful cavalry actions, three cavalry divisions swept east into Courland, the barren, sandy region near the Baltic coast. The cavalry's gains were held by Hindenburg's new Nieman army, named after the river.

In June, the Supreme Army Command ordered Hindenburg to launch a Bug-Narew Offensive in Poland toward the Narew River north of Warsaw. Hindenburg created Army Group Gallwitz, named after its commander. Max von Gallwitz was one of many able commanders selected by Hindenburg, who stayed at the new army's headquarters to be available if needed. (When Berlin approved the new army group, it became Twelfth Army.) The army group broke through the Russian lines after a brief, but intense, bombardment directed by Lieutenant Colonel Georg Bruchmüller, an artillery genius recalled from medical retirement. One-third of the opposing Russian First Army were casualties in the first five hours. Thereafter, the Russians withdrew across the Narew River.

On 1 June, Hindenburg's Nieman and Tenth Armies spearheaded attacks into the Latvian Courland in an attempt to pocket the defenders. Ultimately, this plan was foiled by the prudent commander of the Fifth Russian Army who defied orders by withdrawing into defensible positions shielding Riga.

Despite the setback in Latvia, Hindenburg and Ludendorff continued to rack up victories on the Eastern Front. In August, the Germans stormed the Novogeorgievsk fortress. Numerous Russian sources call the fall of Novogeorgievsk the most shameful page in the history of the Russian Imperial army. The German Tenth Army besieged Kovno, a Lithuanian city on the Nieman River, defended by a circle of forts. It fell on 17 August, along with 1,300 guns and almost 1 million shells. On 5 August, his forces were consolidated into Army Group Hindenburg, which took the city of Grodno after bitter street fighting but could not trap the retreating defenders because the rail lines lacked the capacity to bring up the needed men. They occupied Vilnius on 18 September, then halted on ground favorable for a defensive line. On 6 August, German troops under Hindenburg used chlorine gas against Russian troops defending Osowiec Fortress. The Russians demolished much of Osowiec and withdrew on 18 August.

1916

In the spring of 1916, the Central Powers experienced a military catastrophe in the East that left Germany bearing much of the war effort until the end of hostilities. On 4 June, the Russian Army began a massive offensive along 480 km (300 mi) of the southwestern front in present-day western Ukraine. In the ensuing onslaught, four armies commanded by General Aleksei Brusilov overwhelmed entrenchments that the Austro-Hungarians long regarded as impregnable.

Under Hindenburg's command, Ober Ost desperately shored up weak points with soldiers stripped from less threatened positions. Ludendorff was so distraught on the phone to OHL that General Wilhelm Groener (who directed the army's railroads and had been a competitor with Ludendorff on the General Staff) was sent to evaluate his nerves, which were judged satisfactory. For a week the Russians kept attacking: they lost 80,000 men; the defenders 16,000. On 16 July, the Russians attacked the German lines west of Riga but were ultimately thwarted. When looking back on the Russian offensive, Hindenburg admitted that another attack of such scale and ferocity would have left his forces "faced with the menace of a complete collapse."

After having their strength decimated by the Russians in the Brusilov Offensive, the Austro-Hungarian forces submitted their Eastern Front forces to Hindenburg's command on 27 July (except for Archduke Karl's Army Group in southeast Galicia, in which General Hans von Seeckt was chief of staff). General von Eichhorn took over Army Group Hindenburg, while Hindenburg and Ludendorff, on a staff train equipped with the most advanced communication apparatus, visited their new forces. At threatened points, they formed mixed German and Austro-Hungarian units while other Austro-Hungarian formations were bolstered by a sprinkling of German officers. Officers were exchanged between the German and Austro-Hungarian armies for training. Their front was almost 1,000 km (620 mi) and their only reserves were a cavalry brigade plus some artillery and machine gunners.

In the west, the Germans were hemorrhaging in the battles of Verdun and the Somme. Influential Army officers, lobbied against the leadership of the Army Chief of Staff, General Erich von Falkenhayn, in favor of Hindenburg. The tipping point came when Falkenhayn ordered a spoiling attack by Bulgaria on Entente lines in Macedonia that failed with heavy losses. Thus emboldened, Romania declared war on Austro-Hungary on 27 August, adding 650,000 trained enemies who invaded Hungarian Transylvania. This outcome contrasted sharply with Falkenhayn's assurances to Kaiser Wilhelm II and his ministers that Romania would remain neutral. Consequently, the Kaiser began deliberating over who should assume leadership of the Supreme Army Command in Falkenhayn's place.

1917

By the second quarter of 1917, Hindenburg and Ludendorff were able to assemble 680,000 more men in 53 new divisions and provide them with an adequate supply of new light machine guns. Field guns were increased from 5,300 to 6,700 and heavies from 3,700 to 4,340. They tried to foster fighting spirit by "patriotic instruction" with lectures and films to "ensure that a fight is kept up against all agitators, croakers and weaklings". Meanwhile, to mitigate the risk of being attacked before their buildup was complete, Germany's new military leadership waged unrestricted submarine warfare on allied shipping, which they claimed would defeat the British in six months. Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg and his allies expressed opposition to this policy, not wanting to bring the United States and other neutrals into the war. After securing the Dutch and Danish borders, Hindenburg announced that unrestricted submarine warfare was imperative and Ludendorff added his voice. On 9 January, the chancellor was forced to bow to their decisions.

On the Western Front, Hindenburg and the Third OHL deduced that the German Army's huge salient between the valley of the Somme and Laon obviously was vulnerable to a pincer attack, which indeed the French were planning. The new Hindenburg line ran across its base. Subsequently, on 16 March, Hindenburg authorized Operation Alberich whereby German forces were ordered to move out all able-bodied inhabitants and portable possessions to this line. In 39 days, the Germans withdrew from a 1000 mi2 (2,590 km2) area, more ground than they had lost to all Allied offensives since 1914. The cautiously following Allies also had to cope with booby traps, some exploding a month later. The new German front called the Hindenburg line was 42 km (26 mi) shorter freeing up 14 German divisions.

On 9 April, the British attacked at Arras and overtook two German lines while occupying part of a third as the Canadians swept the Germans completely off the Vimy Ridge. When the excitable Ludendorff became distraught over such developments, Hindenburg reportedly calmed his First Quartermaster-General by "pressing his hand" and assuring him, "We have lived through more critical times than today together." Ultimately, the British tried to exploit their opening with a futile cavalry charge but did not press further. In the battle's aftermath, the Third OHL discovered one reason behind the British attack's success was that the Sixth Army commander, Ludwig von Falkenhausen, had failed to properly apply their instructions for a defense in depth by keeping reserve troops too far back from the front lines. As a result of this failure, Falkenhausen and several staff officers were stripped of their command.

1918

In January, more than half a million workers went on strike; among their demands was a peace without annexations. The strike collapsed when its leaders were arrested, the labor press was suppressed, strikers in the reserve were called to active duty, and seven great industrial concern taken under military control, which put their workers under martial law. On 16 January, Hindenburg demanded the replacement of Count von Valentini, the chief of the Civil Cabinet. The Kaiser bridled, responding "I do not need your parental advice", but nonetheless fired his old friend. The Germans were unable to tender a plausible peace offer because OHL insisted on controlling Belgium and retaining the French coalfields. All of the Central Powers' cities were on the brink of starvation and their armies were on short rations. Hindenburg realized that "empty stomachs prejudiced all higher impulses and tended to make men indifferent." He blamed his allies' hunger on poor organization and transportation, not realizing that the Germans would have enough to eat if they collected their harvest efficiently and rationed its distribution effectively.

German troops were in Finland, the Baltics, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, much of Romania, the Crimea, and in a salient east of Ukraine extending east almost to the Volga and south into Georgia and Armenia. Hundreds of thousands of men were needed to hold and police these conquests. More Germans were in Macedonia and in Palestine, where the British were driving north; Falkenhayn was replaced by Otto Liman von Sanders, who had led the defense of Gallipoli. All Hindenburg required was that these fronts stand firm while the Germans won in the west, where now they outnumbered their opponents. He firmly believed that his opponents could be crushed by battlefield defeats regardless of their far superior resources.

Offensive tactics were tailored to the defense. Their opponents were adopting a defense in depth. He would attack the British because they were less skillful than the French. The crucial blow would be in Flanders, along the River Lys, where the line was held by the Portuguese Army. However, winter mud prevented action there until April. Consequently, their first attack, named Michael, was on the southern part of the British line, at a projecting British salient near Saint-Quentin. Schwerpunkte would hit on either side of the salient's apex to pocket its defenders, the V Corps, as an overwhelming display of German power.

Additional troops and skilled commanders, like General Oskar von Hutier, were shifted from the east. Army Group Gallwitz was formed in the west on 1 February. One quarter of the western divisions were designated for attack; to counter the elastic defense, during the winter, each of them attended a four-week course on infiltration tactics. Storm troops would slip through weak points in the front line and slice through the battle zone, bypassing strong points that would be mopped up by the mortars, flamethrowers, and manhandled field guns of the next wave. As always, surprise was essential, so the artillery was slipped into attack positions at night, relying on camouflage for concealment; the British aerial photographers were allowed free rein before D-day. There would be no preliminary registration fire; the gunners were trained for map firing in schools established by Bruchmüller. In the short, intense bombardment, each gun fired in a precise sequence, shifting back and forth between different targets, using many gas shells to keep defenders immersed in a toxic cloud. On D-day, the air force would establish air supremacy and strafe enemy strong points, and also update commanders on how far the attackers had penetrated. Signal lamps were used for messaging on the ground. Headquarters moved close to the front and, as soon as possible, would advance to pre-selected positions in newly occupied ground. OHL moved to Spa, Belgium while Hindenburg and Ludendorff were closer to the attack at Avesnes, France, which re-awakened his memories of occupied France 41 years before.

Military reputation

"Victory comes from movement" was Schlieffen's principle for war. Hindenburg expounded on Schlieffen's ideas as an instructor and later applied them during World War I. By employing such tactics, retreats and mobile defenses commanded by Hindenburg proved effective, and his Schwerpunkt attacks broke through the trench barrier on the Western Front. However, they failed to produce decisive victories because penetrating forces proved too slow to capitalize on their breakthroughs.

Hindenburg has undergone a historical re-evaluation: his teaching of tactics and years on the General Staff have been less emphasised while he is remembered as a commander in Ludendorff's shadow. Winston Churchill in 1923, depicted Hindenburg as a figurehead awed by the mystique of the General Staff, concluding that "Ludendorff throughout appears as the uncontested master." Parkinson stated that he is a "beloved figurehead", while to Stallings he is "an old military booby". These judgements stem from Ludendorff, who was famous during the war and immediately thereafter wrote his comprehensive memoir with himself center stage. Hindenburg's less detailed memoir never disputed his colleague's claims, military decisions were made collectively not individually, and it is less useful to historians because it was written for general readers. Ludendorff continued emphasising his preeminence in print, which Hindenburg never disputed publicly.

Others did, though: the OHL officers who testified before the Reichstag committee investigating the collapse of 1918 agreed that Hindenburg was always in command. He managed by setting objectives and appointing capable people to do their jobs, for instance, "giving full scope to the intellectual powers" of General Ludendorff. These subordinates often felt he did little, even though he was setting the overall course. According to Admiral von Müller, Ludendorff may have overrated himself, considering his repeated showings that he lacked the resilience essential to command. Postwar, he displayed poor judgment and an attraction to unusual ideas, contrasting with his superior officer's adaptation to changing times.

Hindenburg's record as a commander starting in the field at Tannenberg, then leading four national armies, culminating with breaking the trench deadlock in the west, and then holding a defeated army together, is unmatched by other soldiers in World War I. However, military skill is only one component of the record: "[...] in general, the maladroit politics of Hindenburg and Ludendorff led directly to the collapse of 1918 [...]"

In the Republic

Germany had not been allowed to take part in the negotiations that produced the Treaty of Versailles and received the terms as an accomplished fact on 7 May 1919. When in June the Weimar National Assembly, Germany's interim parliament, had still not accepted the treaty without demanding alterations, the Allies issued an ultimatum which included the threat of an invasion. Through General Groener, President Ebert asked Hindenburg whether the army was prepared to defend against an Allied invasion, which Ebert thought would be all but certain if the treaty were voted down. He promised to urge rejection of the treaty if there was even the slightest chance that the army could hold out. Under some prodding from Groener, Hindenburg concluded that the army could not resume the war under any circumstances, concluding with the statement, "[...] as a soldier, I cannot help feeling that it would be better to perish honorably than accept a disgraceful peace". On 23 June, with just 19 minutes to spare, Ebert informed French Premier Georges Clemenceau that Germany would ratify the treaty. It was signed on 28 June 1919.

Second retirement

Back in Hanover, as a field marshal, he was provided with a staff that helped with his still extensive correspondence. He made a few formal public appearances, but the streets around his house were often crowded with admirers when he took his afternoon walk. During the war, he had left the newspaper reporters to Ludendorff; in retirement, he was available. He hunted locally and elsewhere, including an annual chamois hunt in Bavaria. The yearly Tannenberg memorial celebration kept him in the public eye.

A Berlin publisher urged him to produce his memoirs, which could educate and inspire by emphasizing his ethical and spiritual values. His story and ideas could be put on paper by a team of anonymous collaborators and the book would be translated immediately for the worldwide market. Aus meinem Leben ("From My Life") was a huge bestseller, presenting to the world his carefully crafted image as a staunch, steadfast, uncomplicated soldier. Major themes were the need for Germany to maintain a strong military as the school teaching young German men moral values and the need to restore the monarchy, because only under the leadership of the House of Hohenzollern could Germany become great again, with "the conviction that the subordination of the individual to the good of the community was not only a necessity, but a positive blessing [...]". The Kaiser was treated throughout with great respect. Hindenburg concealed his cultural interests and assured his readers: "It was against my inclination to take any interest in current politics." (This was in spite of what his intimates knew of his "deep knowledge of Prussian political life".) Aus meinem Leben was dismissed by many military historians and critics as a boring apologia that skipped over the controversial issues, but it painted for the German public precisely the image he sought.

In 1919, Hindenburg was subpoenaed to appear before the parliamentary commission investigating the responsibility for the outbreak of war in 1914 and for the defeat in 1918. He was wary, as he had written: "The only existing idol of the nation, undeservedly my humble self, runs the risk of being torn from its pedestal once it becomes the target of criticism." Ludendorff was also summoned. They had been strangers since Ludendorff's dismissal, but they prepared and arrived together on 18 November 1919. Hindenburg refused to take the oath until Ludendorff was permitted to read a statement that they were under no obligation to testify since their answers might expose them to criminal prosecution, but they were waiving their right of refusal. On the stand, Hindenburg read through a prepared statement, ignoring the chairman's repeated demands that he answer questions. He testified that the German Army had been on the verge of winning the war in the autumn of 1918 and that the defeat had been precipitated by a stab in the back from disloyal elements on the home front and unpatriotic politicians, quoting a dinner conversation that Ludendorff had had with Sir Neill Malcolm. When his reading was finished, Hindenburg walked out of the hearings despite being threatened with contempt, sure that they would not dare charge a war hero. His testimony gave additional weight to the stab-in-the-back myth, which was being adopted by nationalist and conservative politicians who sought to blame the socialist founders of the Weimar Republic for losing the war. Reviews in the German press that seriously misrepresented General Frederick Maurice's 1919 book about the last months of the war had been used by Ludendorff to convince Hindenburg that it was true. A 1929 film glorifying his life as a dedicated patriot solidified his image.

Presidency (1925-1934)

1925 Presidential election

President Ebert died on 28 February 1925. In the first round of the election to replace him, none of the candidates attained the required majority. For the second round, the Social Democrats, Catholic Centre Party and other democratic parties united to support the Centre's Wilhelm Marx. The Communist Party ran their own candidate, Ernst Thälmann. The parties on the right established a committee to select their strongest candidate. After a week's indecision, they decided on Hindenburg, despite his advanced age and the fear, notably in Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann, of unfavorable reactions by their former enemies. A delegation came to his home on 1 April. He stated his reservations but concluded, "If you feel that my election is necessary for the sake of the Fatherland, I'll run, in God's name." Since some parties on the right still opposed him, he drafted a telegram declining the nomination, but before it was sent, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz arrived in Hanover to persuade him to wait until the strength of his support was clearer. After his conservative opponents gave way, he consented on 9 April. Again, he obtained Wilhelm II's approval. His campaign stressed his devotion to "social justice, religious equality, genuine peace at home and abroad". He addressed only one public meeting, held in Hanover, and gave one radio address, on 11 April, calling for a "national community" (Volksgemeinschaft) under his leadership. The second round required only a plurality to win, which Hindenburg obtained thanks to the support of the Bavarian People's Party (BVP), which had switched from Marx, and by the refusal of the Communists to withdraw their candidate. In most of the world, including Great Britain, the victory of the aged field marshal was accepted with relative equanimity, although there was a greater degree of apprehension in France.

Parliamentary governments

Hindenburg took office on 12 May 1925 "[...] offering [his] hand in this hour to every German". He moved into the elegant Presidential Palace on the Wilhelmstrasse, accompanied by his son Oskar (his military liaison officer) and Oskar's wife and their three children. The new president, always a stickler about uniforms, soon had the servants wearing new regalia with the shoe buckles appropriate for a court. Nearby was the Reich chancellery, which during Hindenburg's tenure would have seven residents. He notified Chancellor Hans Luther that he would replace the head of Ebert's presidential staff, Dr. Otto Meissner, with his own choice, but Meissner was kept on and was Hindenburg's right-hand man throughout his presidency.

At his first meeting with Foreign Minister Stresemann, Hindenburg listened attentively and was persuaded that Stresemann's strategy of promoting friendly relations with the victors was correct. He was cooler at their next, reacting to backlash from the right. He nonetheless gave his support to the government's policy, and on 1 December 1925, the Locarno Treaties were signed. By agreeing to guarantee its post-war borders on the west, Germany took a significant step in restoring its position in Europe, although the German right was infuriated because the treaties accepted the loss of Alsace–Lorraine. Hindenburg countered their demands to restore the monarchy by arguing that the return of a Hohenzollern would block progress in revising Versailles. He accepted the Republic as the mechanism for restoring Germany's position in Europe, although he was no Vernunftrepublikaner (republican by reason), since democracy was incompatible with the militaristic national community that would unite the people of Germany for future conflicts.

After the Luther government resigned over the signing of the Locarno Treaties, Hindenburg worked actively with the parties in the Reichstag to form a new coalition, an effort which took five weeks. The second Luther cabinet lasted just under four months and was followed by the return of Wilhelm Marx of the Centre Party as chancellor. Stresemann stayed on as foreign minister in both cabinets.

A major issue during Marx's chancellorship was whether the properties of the former rulers of the German states, including the Hohenzollerns, should be expropriated without compensation. Hindenburg felt that he could not speak out on the issue as president and talked of resigning so that he could express his opposition. He nevertheless did not object when a private letter was made public in which he described the proposed referendum on the issue as a "grave injustice" that showed a "deplorable lack of sense of tradition" and "gross ingratitude". The majority of those who voted in the referendum on expropriation favored the measure, but their numbers did not reach the voter participation threshold for it to pass. Hindenburg then urged the states, again under the threat of resigning, to reach fair settlements promptly, which for the most part they did.

Presidential governments

In early 1930, the Müller government became embroiled in a dispute over how to pay for the rapidly rising costs of unemployment insurance. Müller asked Hindenburg to have his budget passed by presidential decree, which was allowed by Article 48 of the constitution, but Kurt von Schleicher persuaded Hindenburg to refuse. Schleicher had for some time been planning a government in which the chancellor would be responsible to the president rather than the Reichstag. He thought that in such a presidential government, the trained economist and leader of the Centre Party, Heinrich Brüning, would make an excellent chancellor and sounded him out on his willingness to take on the position under such terms. Müller's government fell on 27 March 1930, and Hindenburg appointed Brüning chancellor. Brüning had hesitated because he lacked parliamentary support, but Hindenburg appealed to his sense of duty and threatened to resign if Brüning did not accept. Only the four Social Democrats in the previous cabinet were replaced, resulting in what the press labeled the "Hindenburg Cabinet". The German historian Eberhard Jäckel concluded that presidential government was within the letter of the constitution but violated its spirit. Article 54 stated that the chancellor and his cabinet were responsible to the Reichstag, which made presidential government an end run around the constitution.

Faced with declining tax revenues and mounting costs for unemployment insurance, Brüning introduced a deflationary austerity budget with major spending cuts and steep tax increases. After his budget was defeated in the Reichstag in July 1930, Hindenburg signed it into law by invoking Article 48. The Reichstag voted to repeal the budget bill, so Hindenburg dissolved it just two years into its mandate and re-approved the budget using Article 48.

In the September 1930 election, the Nazis achieved an electoral breakthrough, gaining 18 percent of the vote to become the second strongest party in the Reichstag. The Communists made gains as well, moving up to third place with 13%. The SPD remained the strongest with 25% of the vote. After the election, Brüning continued to govern largely through Article 48. His government was kept afloat by the Social Democrats, who voted against canceling his Article 48 bills in order to avoid another election that could only benefit the Nazis and the Communists.

Hindenburg met Adolf Hitler for the first time in October 1931 at a high-level conference in Berlin. Everyone present saw that they took an immediate dislike to one another. Afterwards, Hindenburg privately often referred to Hitler as "that Austrian corporal", "that Bohemian corporal" or sometimes simply as "the corporal". He also ridiculed Hitler's Austrian accent. Hitler for his part called Hindenburg "that old fool" or "that old reactionary" in private conversations.

Second presidency

By January 1932, at the age of 84, Hindenburg was vacillating about running for a second term. Brüning recalled that once the president came to meet him at the railway station, but failed to recognise him. On the other hand, Franz von Papen, a later chancellor, found that despite minor lapses with his short-term memory, the president remained competent until his last days. Hindenburg was persuaded to run by the Kamarilla (his son Oskar, Groener, Meissner and Schleicher), and supported by the Centre Party, the Deutsche Volkspartei (DVP) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which regarded him as the only hope of defeating Hitler. His fighting spirit was evoked by Nazi taunts when he appeared in public and in a few weeks, three million Germans signed a petition urging him to carry on. Brüning proposed to the Reichstag that in light of the still-escalating economic disaster — now some of the largest banks had failed — the election should be postponed for two years, which would have required a two-thirds assent, to which the Nazis would never agree. Hitler was to be one of his opponents in the election. Hindenburg left most campaigning to others; in his single radio address, he stressed the need for unity. "I recall the spirit of 1914, and the mood at the front, which asked about the man, and not about his class or party." Hitler campaigned vigorously throughout Germany in the first round of voting and the runoff.

In the first round of voting in March 1932, Hindenburg was the front-runner, but failed to gain the required majority. In the runoff the following month, Hindenburg won with 53% of the vote. However, he was disappointed because he lost voters from the right, only winning by the support of those who had strongly opposed him seven years before. He wrote, "Despite all the blows in the neck I have taken, I will not abandon my efforts for a healthy move to the Right". He called in the party leaders for advice. During the meetings, Meissner led the discussions while Hindenburg would only speak briefly on crucial points. Schleicher took the lead in choosing the cabinet, in which he was Reichswehr Minister. Groener was now even more unpopular to the right because he had banned wearing party uniforms in public. On 13 May 1932, Schleicher told Groener that he had "lost the confidence of the Army" and must resign at once. Once Groener was gone, the ban was lifted and the Nazi brownshirts were back battling on the streets.

To cope with mounting unemployment, Brüning desperately wanted an emergency decree to launch a program in which bankrupt estates would be carved up into small farms and turned over to unemployed settlers. When they met, Hindenburg read a statement that there would be no further decrees and insisted that the cabinet resign and that there must be a turn to the right. Brüning resigned on 1 June 1932. He was succeeded as chancellor by Papen from the Centre Party, who was Schleicher's choice; Hindenburg did not even ask the party leaders for advice. He was delighted with Papen, a rich, smooth aristocrat who had been a famous equestrian and a general staff officer; he soon became a Hindenburg family friend (Schleicher was no longer welcomed because he had quarreled with Oskar). The president was delighted to find that eight members of the new cabinet had served as officers during the war.

Chancellorship of Adolf Hitler

In January 1933, to break the stalemate, Hindenburg proposed Hitler as chancellor, Papen as vice-chancellor and Reich commissioner of Prussia, and Göring as Prussian interior minister (who controlled the police). Two other cabinet ministers would be Nazis; the remaining eight would be from other parties. When Hindenburg met with Hitler, Papen would always be present. The new cabinet included three Nazis: Hitler, Göring and Wilhelm Frick. Besides Hitler, Frick was the only Nazi with a portfolio; he held the nearly powerless Interior Ministry (unlike the rest of Europe, the Interior Ministry had no power over the police, which was the responsibility of the Länder). Göring did not receive a portfolio, but critically was made Prussian interior minister, controlling the largest police force. Blomberg was Reichswehr minister, Hugenberg was economics and agriculture minister, and Seldte was labor minister. Other ministers were holdovers from the Papen and Schleicher cabinets. Hitler was made chancellor on 30 January 1933.

Hitler's first act as chancellor was to ask Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag, so the Nazis and Deutschnationale Volkspartei ("German Nationalists" or DNVP) could win a majority to pass the Enabling Act of 1933 that would give the government power to rule by decree, supposedly for the next four years. Unlike laws passed by Article 48, which could be cancelled by a majority in the Reichstag, under the Enabling Act, the chancellor could pass laws by decree that could not be cancelled by a vote. Hindenburg agreed. In early February 1933, Papen asked for and received an Article 48 bill signed into law that limited freedom of the press. After the Reichstag fire on 27 February, Hindenburg, at Hitler's urging, signed into law the Reichstag Fire Decree via Article 48, which suspended civil liberties. Göring, as Prussian Interior Minister, had enlisted thousands of Sturmabteilung (SA) men as auxiliary policemen, who attacked political opponents of the Nazis, with Communists and Social Democrats being singled out for particular abuse. Fritz Schäffer, a conservative Catholic and a leading politician of the Bavarian People's Party met Hindenburg on 17 February 1933 to complain about the campaign of terror against the SPD. Schäffer told Hindenburg:

We reject the notion that millions of Germans are not to be designated as national. The socialists served in the trenches and will serve in the trenches again. They voted for the banner of Hindenburg [...] I know many socialists who have earned acclaim for their service to Germany; I need only mention the name of Ebert.

Death

Hindenburg remained in office until his death at the age of 86 from cancer which had spread to his lungs, at his home in Neudeck (today, Ogrodzieniec, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship), East Prussia, on 2 August 1934. The day before, Hitler received word that Hindenburg was on his deathbed. He then had the cabinet pass the "Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich," which stipulated that upon Hindenburg's death, the office of president would be abolished and its powers merged with those of the chancellor under the title of Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Chancellor of the Reich).

Three hours after Hindenburg's death, it was announced that as a result of this law, Hitler was now both Germany's head of state and head of government, thereby eliminating the last remedy by which he could be legally dismissed and cementing his status as the absolute dictator of Germany. Publicly, Hitler announced that the presidency was "inseparably united" with Hindenburg, and it would not be appropriate for the title to ever be used again.

In truth, Hitler had known as early as April 1934 that Hindenburg would likely not survive the year. He worked feverishly to get the armed forces — the only group in Germany that would be nearly powerful enough to remove him with Hindenburg dead — to support his bid to become head of state after Hindenburg's death. In a meeting aboard the Deutschland on 11 April with Blomberg, army commander Werner von Fritsch and naval commander Erich Raeder, Hitler publicly proposed that he himself succeed Hindenburg. In return for the armed forces' support, he agreed to suppress the SA and promised that the armed forces would be the only bearers of arms in Germany under his watch. Raeder agreed right away, but Fritsch withheld his support until 16 May, when the senior generals unanimously agreed to back Hitler as Hindenburg's successor.

According to Günther von Tschirschky und Bögendorff, an interwar German diplomat and associate of Hindenburg who later defected to the United Kingdom, President Paul von Hindenburg's last will and testament had criticised the Nazis and supported democracy. The defector said that it had also argued for the establishment of a constitutional monarchy with clear separation of powers, along with the abolition of all forms of racial and religious discrimination. He alleged that the document had been handed over to Hitler by Hindenburg's Nazi-supporting son. A few days after his death, the Nazis released their own version of Hindenburg's final "political testament", which was complimentary of Hitler.

Legacy

Personality traits

On a visit to Hindenburg's headquarters, Crown Prince Wilhelm described the mood as family-like. He reportedly had a good sense of humor and often made jokes at his own expense. He also had a prodigious memory for names and faces, asking colleagues about their sons in the army, even recalling their ranks and units.

Despite this bonhomie, Hindenburg kept his own counsel. According to Kaiser Wilhelm II, "Hindenburg never said more than half of what he really thought". When professor Hugo Vogel, commissioned to immortalise the victorious Tannenberg commanders in paint, arrived at headquarters most of his subjects begrudged posing. Hindenburg visited most days, often staying for hours, which his staff attributed to ego, having no inkling that he and his wife collected paintings of the Virgin nor that he was an amateur artist nor that he liked to discuss books — Schiller was his favorite author. After a painting was completed, Hindenburg would periodically check on how many printed reproductions had been sold. Vogel was with him throughout the war and did his last portrait in 1934. Protecting his warrior image, Hindenburg wrote in his memoir that "the artists were a distraction [with which] we would have preferred to dispense".

Analysis of political career and cultural impact

After overseeing Germany's crushing victory at Tannenberg, Paul von Hindenburg became the center of a massive personality cult that persisted throughout his life. Henceforth, he was lauded as the living ideal of German masculinity and patriotism. According to historian Anna Menge:

The intensity, longevity, striking political and social breadth, and political deployment of the adulation for Hindenburg — in short, the power of the Hindenburg myth from 1914 until 1934 and beyond — was a political phenomenon of the first order [...] The Hindenburg myth was one of the central narratives in German public discourse during the World War I, the Weimar Republic, and the early years of Nazi rule. The striking polyvalence of the narrative — it extolled not only right-wing notions of authoritarian leadership but also more bi-partisan national values, such as salvaging something positive from war and defeat and self-affirmation in the face of crisis — meant that Hindenburg's myth could be deployed by different groups, at different times, and for different purposes. Although promoted first and foremost by German nationalists, especially in Weimar's early years, some elements of the Hindenburg myth had considerable cross-party appeal. That his initiation as a mythical figure rested on national defence and a battle fought against the arch-enemy of German Social Democracy, Tsarist Russia, had endeared him to many on the moderate left from 1914 onwards.

During World War I, the most celebrated tribute to Hindenburg was a 12-meter-tall (39 ft) wooden likeness erected in Berlin. What admirers paid to drive in nails—ultimately 30 tons of them—went to war widows. Smaller versions were erected throughout Germany. The wooden images and his photographs invariably portray a resolute, indomitable warrior, wearing a stern likeness.

The famed zeppelin Hindenburg that was destroyed by fire in 1937 was named in his honor, as was the Hindenburgdamm, a causeway joining the island of Sylt to mainland Schleswig-Holstein that was built during his time in office. The previously Upper Silesian town of Zabrze (German: Hindenburg O.S.) was also renamed after him in 1915, as well as the SMS Hindenburg, a battlecruiser commissioned in the Imperial German Navy in 1917 and the last capital ship to enter service in the Imperial Navy. The Hindenburg Range in New Guinea, which includes perhaps one of the world's largest cliffs, the Hindenburg Wall, also bears his name.

Honours and arms

Awards and decorations

German honours

Foreign honours

Austria-Hungary:

Grand Cross of St. Stephen, 1914

Military Merit Cross, 1st Class, with War Decoration, 22 January 1917; in Diamonds, 5 November 1917

Gold Military Merit Medal ("Signum Laudis"), 5 August 1917

Grand Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa, 26 March 1918

Kingdom of Bulgaria: Grand Cross of St. Alexander, with Swords and Collar

Finland: Grand Cross of the Cross of Liberty, with Swords, 31 July 1918

Kingdom of Italy: Grand Officer of Saints Maurice and Lazarus

Ottoman Empire:

Order of Osmanieh, 1st Class in Diamonds

Order of Glory, with Swords

Order of the Medjidie, 1st Class with Swords and Diamonds

Gold Imtiyaz Medal

Gallipolli Star

Spain:

Grand Cross of Military Merit

Knight of the Golden Fleece, 1931