Paul Von Hindenburg was a renowned military and political leader for Germany; he is most notable for being a distinguished Field Marshal for the Imperial German Army during WWI, and being the second president of the Weimar republic. His military hero status was essential for his ability to garner support from the German public. His monarchistic views were highly influential in shaping the government while he was reigning as president, and as a result of his seat of presidency, he was a major determining factor in the eventual fate of the republic.
Born 1847, as Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg in Prussia to an aristocrat father; Robert von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, and his wife; Luise Schwickart, Hindenburg grew up a proud aristocrat, although shameful of his mother's non-aristocratic background. His upbringing as an aristocrat played a vital role in his political views, and grew up to become a staunch monarchist and conservative. It was these views which would dominate Hindenburg's agenda during his tenure as president of the Weimar Republic.
As is common in aristocracy; Hindenburg was involved in the military from a young age, joining the cadets at age 11. Hindenburg is renowned for his long and successful career in the military, and earned a status as a war hero among the German people. Prior to WWI, Hindenburg gained a reputation for himself by fighting in the Austro-Prussian war and the Franco-Prussian war. He was decorated for bravery in battle, and was chosen to represent his regiment for a variety of prestigious events; such as at the palace of Versailles in 1871 when the German Empire was proclaimed, and as an honour guard for Emperor William I's military funeral in 1888. He was...
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... resulted in a “presidential government”, where the president ended up having nearly ultimate power over the government. With the power out of the parliament and into the presidency, the democratic Weimar republic was seeing the end of its existence. With the fall of Hermann Muller's government in March of 1930, and Hindenburg's subsequent appointing of Heinrich Bruning's as chancellor, the Weimar republic was now heavily focused on presidential power of parliamentary.
During Bruning's stint as chancellor, he lacked the support of the Reichstag, and so instead relied on the power of article 48, passing emergency bills on his own and Hindenburg's powers. Bruning had to dissolve parliament, which resulted in considerable gains to the extremist right and left wings for seats in the Reichstag; an example being Hitler's Nazi party increased its seats from 12 to 107.
There could have been a return to parliamentary Party politics. There were some signs to show that democracy may have been revived. During the continuous utilisation of Article 48 to govern, the Reichstag gave their vote of no confidence in challenging the executive use of it. Also, a section of the public appeared to still support the Republic; the Centre Party and SPD continued to have steady support until 1932. However, it seems that any chances of democracy were ruled out. The political Parties were still inclined to pursue their own political interests when a united, broad and moderate front was needed. Two moderate Parties even defected to Hitler after the offensive from the right and Hindenburg made little effort to restore the influence of the Reichstag.
The period after World War One was very politically unstable. Many different kinds of governments, such as fascism and communism, were coming up all over Europe. One country that especially faced this political fluctuation was Germany. After the war, Germany was forced into a democracy known as the Weimar Republic, but this government soon collapsed and Hitler’s fascism took over. There were various factors that contributed to the fall of the Weimar Republic, but three major ones were the lack of popular support for the government, the lack of efficiency and internal organization, and the competition of other, more conservative parties such as the Nazis.
The historical field concerning the Weimar Republic, Germany's parliamentary government during the interwar years, is not only an extremely sophisticated area of study, but an extremely competitive one as well. In the early eighties, a much heated and unprecedented scholarly dispute arose surrounding The Collapse of the Weimar Republic, written by David Abraham - at the time, a fledgling historian and assistant professor at Princeton University. Nazi seizure of power from the Weimar Republic has long intrigued scores of historians. Various models have been constructed in an attempt to explain how an entity such as the Nazi movement came to power over such an industrially, culturally, and socially advanced society such as Germany's (Notes from Jamie van Hook 2/14).
In conclusion, there were many reasons the Weimar Republic failed, firstly due to the treaty of Versailles, where the Weimar Republic was blamed for everything that happened as a result. This then caused a lack of trust and the German people began to question their government during the period of hyperinflation and their economic crisis. The Garman people found the Nazis and slowly voted them into Government. Hitler took advantage of Germany while it was vulnerable and he succeeded using clever tactics. For the people of Germany it was certain that there was no way of overcoming the events that took place, which eventually led to the collapse of the Weimar.
In the Reichstag from 1928 to 1932, seats of the Nazi Party rose from 12 to 230. This was the result of a number of factors involving the crash of the Wall Street and the following depression, the weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution and Hitler’s speaking skills in the public. The actions of President Hindenburg and the crippling nature of Article 48 were important factors in helping Hitler and his rise to power.
From their he began to suspend basic rights of the people one-by-one. He then creates the Enabling Act. The Enabling Act was an amendment that gave Hitler’s legislative cabinet the power to enact laws without the Reichstag’s involvement. With this act enforced, Hitler used it to gain more power by abolishing the presidential office, and combining its power with the chancellor’s.
Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau Am Inn in Austria, the son of Alois Hitler and Klara Pölzl. Of the six children that his mother had just reached adulthood Adolfo and his younger sister Paula. He also had more siblings from his father. School performance, who was the great German leader, was not good and had to leave school at age 16. Although I wanted to study painting, was rejected by the Academy of Arts in Vienna due to his inability to discipline. However, from 1907, worked in Vienna as an amateur painter, selling copies of postcards to merchants and tourists.
After the First World War Germany recognised her first ever democratic government, the Weimar republic lasted from 1918 – 1933 an astonishingly long time given its turbulent start. The November revolution saw the election of soldier and worker councils similar to that of the Russian revolution in 1917, it spread across Germany like wildfire and in turn split the country before a democracy could even be instated nevertheless on November 9th 1918 the German republic was established. From then on The Weimar Republic was set on unstable and insecure path and this is why it is one of Germanys most important historical periods; it was Germanys earliest form of non-imperial government and rule and its collapse in 1933 paved the way for the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. For these reasons there have been endless works published on the Weimar republic and the outpouring of literature post world war two focuses on the collapse of the Weimar republic and how the Nazi party came to power. However, to understand why the debate surrounding the Golden Era in the Weimar Republic is an interesting one and lacking in historical works, it is key to examine the historiography of the Weimar republic as a whole. Furthermore, to understand why historians focus on other periods in the Weimar’s history in particular the consequences of the treaty of Versailles and the consequences of the Wall Street crash in 1928 which led to its collapse.
In World War I he served in the Bavarian army, was gassed and wounded, and received the Iron Cross (first class) for bravery. The war had embittered him and he blamed Germany’s defeat on the Jews and the Marxists. He settled in Munich, joined with other nationalists in 1920, to form the Nazi party. In 1923, he tried to overthrow Bavaria’s Republican governmen...
The beginning of the 30s in Germany was run under a president by the name of Paul Von Hindenburg and the country, still recovering from World War I, was under good control. Since Hindenburg became president in 1925, he would make laws and decisions without the consent from Parliament, mostly because he did not agree with their decisions. In 1933, Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as chancellor of Germany, a title he kept for a short time, due to the death of Hindenburg a year later. So, in 1934, Hitler declared himself leader, or in precise words, dictator of Germany. By the time he had control over Germany, Hitler overthrew the constitution, permitted only one poli...
Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in Austria as son of Alois Schickelgruber Hitler, an Austrian custom office and his third wife Klara Polzi. Hitler was born in a middle class family. As a child Adolf had strong leadership qualities. Even as a child he showed racial discrimination towards Non-Aryan races. He was a top excellent student in the elementary school, but he didn’t do well in his High School. So, his father told him to become a Civil Servant. But, Adolf dream was to become an artist. Later, he wrote: “I yawned and grew sick to my stomach at the thought of sitting in an office, deprived of my liberty; ceasing to be the master of my own time and being compelled to force the content of a whole life into blanks that had to be filled out” (Haugen, 20). At the age of 16, Hitler dropped out of high school. After his father’s death he moved to Vienna in hope of becomin...
To avoid military duty in Austria Hitler relocated to Munich just as World War I commenced. Appreciating German customs and traditions he soon became a part of the Bavarian- German army. Although proving to be very courageous amongst his fellow- men Hitler did not advance in highe...
2. What were weaknesses of the Weimar Republic? How did different political groups seek to remedy these weaknesses?
The causes of the failure of the Weimar government are multi-faceted. However, I assert that the Weimar government's inability to keep the people's confidence in their capabilities, which eventually rendered them obsolete, was fundamentally due to the threats from within rather than the external hazards. Through exploring the flaws in the constitution and the threats to the WG's authority from the outside, it will be proven that what brought the WR down were its intrinsic vulnerabilities , and that the external threats were only catalysts of their downfall; without the presence of the internal weaknesses in the first place, the external perils would not have been able to threaten the rule of the government.
“On 2 August 1934, President Hindenburg died. Within an hour of his death Hitler announced that the offices of chancellor and president were to be combined and that he was the new head of state. Hitler’s adolescent dream of becoming Fuhrer of the German people had been realized” President Hindenburg’s death marked the official end of the Weimar Republic, a democratic ‘experiment’ that had lasted since 1918. The causes of the dissolution of the Republic are wide ranging and numerous, as was explained in the articles of both Richard Bessel, and John McKenzie. The two author’s agree on the sequence of events which led to the dissolution of the Republic, however, they disagree on what exactly caused the transition from Weimar to the Third Reich. The author’s disagreement stem from a differing view of the fundamental cause, political structure versus political leadership.