Hindenburg, Paul von

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Hindenburg—Culver Pictures

(born Oct. 2, 1847, Posen, Prussia—died Aug. 2, 1934, Neudeck, Ger.) German field marshal and second president (1925–34) of the Weimar Republic. Born to an aristocratic family, he retired from the Prussian army as a general in 1911. Recalled to duty in World War I, he commanded German forces in East Prussia and became a national hero after the Battle of Tannenberg (1914). With Erich Ludendorff as his chief aide, he nominally commanded all German forces until the end of the war, then retired again in 1919. Supported by conservative groups, he was elected president of Germany in 1925. When the Great Depression led to a political crisis, he was pressured to make the government more independent of parliamentary controls. In 1930 he allowed Chancellor Heinrich Brüning to dissolve the Reichstag, and in the new elections the Nazi Party emerged as the second largest party. In 1932 Hindenburg was reelected president by opponents of the Nazis; however, his advisers considered the Nazis useful, and in 1933 he was persuaded to appoint Adolf Hitler chancellor.

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