Paul von Hindenburg (full name Paul von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg) (October 2, 1847 - August 2, 1934) was a German general and politician born in Posen in Prussia (now Poznań, Poland), as the son of the Prussian Robert von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg and his wife Luise (born Schwickart).

After his education at the Wahlstatt and Berlin cadet schools, he fought at the 1866 Battle of Königgrätz and in the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War. In 1903, he gained promotion to the rank of general.

He retired from the army in 1911, but returned on the outbreak of World War I. He was victorious in the Battle of Tannenberg (1914) and the 1915 Battle of the Masurian Lakes against the Russian army. Much of the credit for these victories belongs to Colonel Max Hoffmann, who recognized the significance of the breakdown in the security of the Russian Army's radio communications. Enough information was sent in clear (because their cryptographic planning did not survive contact with the enemy) that the German Army in the area, under Ludendorff and Hindenburg, knew where the Russians would be and when. In late 1916 he became Chief of the General Staff, although real power was exercised by his deputy, Erich Ludendorff.

After the end of the war, von Hindenburg again retired from the military in 1918, and began to pursue a career in politics. In 1925, he succeeded Friedrich Ebert as President of Germany during the turbulent period of the Weimar Republic. Despite the fact that Hindenburg was now lapsing in and out of senility, he was persuaded to run for re-election in 1932, as the only candidate who could defeat Adolf Hitler. Hindenburg defeated Hitler for the Presidency, but Hitler staged an electoral comeback, with his Nazi party winning a solid plurality of seats in the Reichstag.

Hindenburg stayed President after appointing Hitler to become Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and remained in office until his death on August 2, 1934 at his home in Neudeck, East Prussia, exactly two months short of his eighty-seventh birthday. One day before his death, Hitler flew to Neudeck and visited him. Hindenburg, old and confused, thought he was meeting the emperor and called Hitler "Your Majesty ". [1]

He would be Germany's last President until 1945, when Karl Dönitz became President, as following Hindenburg's death, Hitler merged the offices of President and Chancellor into the new office of Führer and Chancellor (Führer und Reichskanzler) making him Germany's Head of State and Head of government (see Gleichschaltung).

Hindenburg himself was said to be a monarchist who favored a restoration of the German monarchy which his own office had replaced. He had hoped one of the Prussian princes would be appointed to succeed him as Head of State.

Hindenburg was buried in the Tannenberg memorial. In 1945, American troops removed his coffin and that of his wife, to save it from the approaching Russians, to Marburg an der Lahn in their zone of occupation (and of which Hindenburg was an Honorary Citizen), where he was interred anew in the famous Saint Elizabeth Church in the North Tower Chapel. He still rests there, although the church chapter recently voted to keep the lights switched off at his grave as he is no longer respected.

The zeppelin Hindenburg was named in his honor; see Hindenburg disaster.

Preceded by: Erich von Falkenhayn	Chief of the General Staff 1916-1919	Followed by: Wilhelm Groener
Preceded by: Friedrich Ebert	President of Germany 1925-1934	Followed by: Führer Adolf Hitler

Sources

[1] Ian Kershaw : Hitler. 1889-1936. German edition, Munich, 1998, p. 659.

External links

• http://www.rosenberg-wpr.de/Hindenburg/Hindenburg.htm (German only, with many photos)
• http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/HindenburgPaul/index.html (German only, some photos)