Paul Von Hindenburg

Hindenburg, Paul Von 

(Paul von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg). Born Oct. 2, 1847, in Posnan; died Aug. 2, 1934, in Neudeck. German military and political figure, a general field marshal (1914). Born into the family of a Prussian officer.

Hindenburg graduated from military school. He took part in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. During World War I (1914-18), he became commander of the Eighth German Army in East Prussia at the end of August 1914 and of all the troops on the Eastern Front in November of that year. In August 1916 he became the chief of the General Staff, becoming in effect the commander in chief. Having allied themselves with rightist Social Democratic leaders, the militarists, headed by Hindenburg, cruelly suppressed the revolutionary workers in Germany during the November Revolution of 1918. In 1925 a bloc of rightist parties achieved the election of Hindenburg to the presidency of the Weimar Republic. Hindenburg supported military-monarchist and fascist organizations; he was honorary chairman of the Steel Helmet military organization. Hindenburg’s policies prompted the rebirth of German military potential and the restoration of Germany’s military power. In 1932, aided by rightist Social Democratic leaders, he was again elected president. On Jan. 30, 1933, Hindenburg transferred power to the fascists, entrusting the formation of the government to Hitler.

WORKS

Aus meinem Leben. Wiesbaden [1933]. In Russian translation, Vospominaniia, Petrograd, 1922.

REFERENCES

Lenin, V. I. Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed. (See Index, part 2, p. 428.)
Rozanov, G. L. Ocherki noveishei istorii Germanii. Moscow, 1959.