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On November 1, 1914, Paul von Hindenburg was named Marshal of the Eastern front. From the article:
"Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (About this sound listen (help·info)), known generally as Paul von Hindenburg (German: [ˈpaʊl fɔn ˈhɪndn̩bʊʁk] (About this sound listen); 2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934), was a Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) and statesman who commanded the German military during the second half of World War I before later being elected President of the Weimar Republic in 1925. He played a key role in the Nazi "Seizure of Power" in January 1933 when, under pressure, he appointed Adolf Hitler chancellor of a "Government of National Concentration", even though the Nazis were a minority in cabinet and the Reichstag.
Hindenburg retired from the army for the first time in 1911,[1] but was recalled shortly after the outbreak of World War I in 1914. He first came to national attention at the age of 66 as the victor of the decisive Battle of Tannenberg in August 1914. Upon being named Germany's Chief of the General Staff in August 1916,[1] his popularity among the German public increased exponentially to the point of giving rise to an enormous personality cult. As Kaiser Wilhelm II increasingly delegated his power as Supreme Warlord to the German high command, Hindenburg and his deputy Erich Ludendorff ultimately formed a de facto military dictatorship that dominated German policymaking for the rest of the war.
Hindenburg retired again in 1919, but returned to public life in 1925 to be elected the second President of Germany. In 1932, Hindenburg was persuaded to run for re-election as German President, even though he was 84 years old and in poor health, because he was considered the only candidate who could defeat Hitler. Hindenburg was re-elected in a runoff. He was opposed to Hitler and was a major player in the increasing political instability in the Weimar Republic that ended with Hitler's rise to power. He dissolved the Reichstag twice in 1932 and finally, under pressure, agreed to appoint Hitler Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. Hindenburg did this to satisfy Hitler's demands that he should play a part in the Weimar Government, since Hitler was the leader of the Nazi party which had won the largest plurality in the November 1932 elections (no party achieved a majority). In February, he signed off on the Reichstag Fire Decree, which suspended various civil liberties, and in March he signed the Enabling Act of 1933, which gave Hitler's regime arbitrary powers. Hindenburg died the following year, after which Hitler declared himself Führer und Reichskanzler, or Supreme Leader and Chancellor, which superseded both the President and Chancellor.
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg was born in Posen, Prussia (Polish: Poznań; until 1793 and since 1919 part of Poland[2]), the son of Prussian aristocrat Hans Robert Ludwig von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (1816–1902) and his wife Luise Schwickart (1825–1893), the daughter of medical doctor Karl Ludwig Schwickart and wife Julie Moennich. His paternal grandparents were Otto Ludwig Fady von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (1778–18 July 1855), through whom he was remotely descended from the illegitimate daughter of Count Heinrich VI of Waldeck, and his wife Eleonore von Brederfady (died 1863).[clarification needed] Hindenburg was also a direct descendant of Martin Luther and his wife Katharina von Bora, through their daughter Margareta Luther. Hindenburg's younger brothers and sister were Otto, born 24 August 1849, Ida, born 19 December 1851 and Bernhard, born 17 January 1859. One of his first-cousins was the great-grandmother of IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad. His family were all Lutheran Protestants in the Evangelical Church of Prussia, which since 1817 included both Calvinist and Lutheran parishioners.
Paul was proud of his family and could trace ancestors back to 1289.[3] The dual surname was adopted in 1789 to secure an inheritance and appeared in formal documents, but in everyday life they were von Beneckendorffs. True to family tradition his father supported his family as an infantry officer, he retired as a major. In the summer they visited his grandfather at the Hindenburg estate of Neudeck in East 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.
When the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 broke out Hindenburg wrote 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".[4] During the decisive battle at Königgrätz he was briefly knocked unconscious by a bullet that pierced his helmet and creased the top of his skull. Quickly regaining his senses, he wrapped his head in a towel and resumed leading his detachment, winning a decoration.[5] He was 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, "[6] swept through the French lines. His regiment suffered 1096 casualties, and he became 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; he was an impressive figure: 195 cm (6 feet 5 inches) tall with a muscular frame and striking blue eyes.[7] After the French surrender he watched from afar the suppression of the Paris Commune.
In 1873 he passed in the highly competitive entrance examination for admission to the Kriegsakademie in Berlin[8] After three years study his grades were high enough for appointment to the General Staff. He was promoted to captain in 1878 and assigned to the staff of the Second Army Corps. He married the intelligent and accomplished Gertrud von Sperling (1860–1921) by whom he had 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 noted student of encirclement battles like Cannae, whose famous Schlieffen Plan proposed to pocket the French Army. For five years Hindenburg also taught tactics at the Krieg-akademie. At the maneuvers of 1885 he met the future kaiser; 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 year later was promoted to colonel commanding an infantry regiment. He became chief of staff of the Eight Army Corps in 1896.
He was given command of a division in 1897 as a major-general (equivalent to a British and US brigadier general) in 1897; in 1900 he was promoted to lieutenant general (major-general). Five years later he was made commander of the Fourth Army 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.[9] In 1909 Schlieffen recommended him as Chief of the General Staff, but he lost out to Helmuth von Moltke.[10] He retired in 1911 “to make way for younger men.”[11] He had been in the army for 46 years, including 14 years in General Staff positions.
When the war broke out, Hindenburg was retired in Hanover. On 22 August, out of the blue, he was selected by the War Cabinet and the German high command (Oberste Heeresleitung, OHL) to assume command of the German Eighth Army in East Prussia, with General Erich Ludendorff as his chief of staff.[1] 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.[12] The Chief of the German General Staff, Generaloberst Helmuth von Moltke, responded by relieving Prittwitz and replacing him with Hindenburg.[13]
Tannenberg
Upon arriving at Marienberg in 23 August, Hindenburg and Ludendorff were met by members of Eighth Army staff led by Lieutenant Colonel Max Hoffmann, an expert on the Russian army. Hoffman informed them of his plans to shift part of the 8th Army south[14] to attack the exposed left flank of the advancing Russian Second Army.[15] Agreeing with Hoffman's strategy, Hindenburg authorized Ludendorff to transfer most of the 8th Army south while leaving behind only two cavalry brigades to face the Russian First Army in the north. In Hindenburg's words, the line of soldiers that was defending Germany's border against the advancing Second Army were "thin, but not weak", because the men were defending their homes.[16] If pushed too hard, he believed they would cede ground only gradually as German reinforcements continued to mass on the advancing Russians' flanks before ultimately encircling and annihilating them.[17] On the eve of the ensuing battle, Hindenburg reportedly strolled close to the decaying walls of the fortress of the Knights of Prussia, recalling how the Knights of Prussia were defeated by the Slavs in 1410 at nearby Tannenberg.[18]
On the night of 25 August Hindenburg told his anxious staff, "Gentlemen, our preparations are so well in hand that we can sleep soundly tonight”.[19] 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, Russian losses amounted to the capture of 92,000 Russians and another 78,000 killed or wounded[20] 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".[21] Hindenburg realized that he would become a national hero and acted swiftly to fit that part, asking the Kaiser to name the victory the Battle of Tannenberg.
After this decisive victory Hindenburg repositioned the Eighth Army to face the Russian First Army. Hindenburg's tactics spurned head-on attacks all along the front in favor of schwerpunkts, sharp, localized hammer blows.[22] Two schwerpunkts struck in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes, from these breakthrough points two columns drove east to pocket the Russians led by General Paul von Rennenkampf, who managed to retreat 100 km (62 mi) with heavy losses. In the first six weeks of the war the Russians had lost more than 310,000 men.[23] Eight hundred thousand refugees were able to return to their East Prussian homes, thanks to victories that strikingly contrasted with the bloody deadlock that characterized the Western Front following the failure of the Schlieffen Plan."
"Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (About this sound listen (help·info)), known generally as Paul von Hindenburg (German: [ˈpaʊl fɔn ˈhɪndn̩bʊʁk] (About this sound listen); 2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934), was a Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) and statesman who commanded the German military during the second half of World War I before later being elected President of the Weimar Republic in 1925. He played a key role in the Nazi "Seizure of Power" in January 1933 when, under pressure, he appointed Adolf Hitler chancellor of a "Government of National Concentration", even though the Nazis were a minority in cabinet and the Reichstag.
Hindenburg retired from the army for the first time in 1911,[1] but was recalled shortly after the outbreak of World War I in 1914. He first came to national attention at the age of 66 as the victor of the decisive Battle of Tannenberg in August 1914. Upon being named Germany's Chief of the General Staff in August 1916,[1] his popularity among the German public increased exponentially to the point of giving rise to an enormous personality cult. As Kaiser Wilhelm II increasingly delegated his power as Supreme Warlord to the German high command, Hindenburg and his deputy Erich Ludendorff ultimately formed a de facto military dictatorship that dominated German policymaking for the rest of the war.
Hindenburg retired again in 1919, but returned to public life in 1925 to be elected the second President of Germany. In 1932, Hindenburg was persuaded to run for re-election as German President, even though he was 84 years old and in poor health, because he was considered the only candidate who could defeat Hitler. Hindenburg was re-elected in a runoff. He was opposed to Hitler and was a major player in the increasing political instability in the Weimar Republic that ended with Hitler's rise to power. He dissolved the Reichstag twice in 1932 and finally, under pressure, agreed to appoint Hitler Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. Hindenburg did this to satisfy Hitler's demands that he should play a part in the Weimar Government, since Hitler was the leader of the Nazi party which had won the largest plurality in the November 1932 elections (no party achieved a majority). In February, he signed off on the Reichstag Fire Decree, which suspended various civil liberties, and in March he signed the Enabling Act of 1933, which gave Hitler's regime arbitrary powers. Hindenburg died the following year, after which Hitler declared himself Führer und Reichskanzler, or Supreme Leader and Chancellor, which superseded both the President and Chancellor.
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg was born in Posen, Prussia (Polish: Poznań; until 1793 and since 1919 part of Poland[2]), the son of Prussian aristocrat Hans Robert Ludwig von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (1816–1902) and his wife Luise Schwickart (1825–1893), the daughter of medical doctor Karl Ludwig Schwickart and wife Julie Moennich. His paternal grandparents were Otto Ludwig Fady von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (1778–18 July 1855), through whom he was remotely descended from the illegitimate daughter of Count Heinrich VI of Waldeck, and his wife Eleonore von Brederfady (died 1863).[clarification needed] Hindenburg was also a direct descendant of Martin Luther and his wife Katharina von Bora, through their daughter Margareta Luther. Hindenburg's younger brothers and sister were Otto, born 24 August 1849, Ida, born 19 December 1851 and Bernhard, born 17 January 1859. One of his first-cousins was the great-grandmother of IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad. His family were all Lutheran Protestants in the Evangelical Church of Prussia, which since 1817 included both Calvinist and Lutheran parishioners.
Paul was proud of his family and could trace ancestors back to 1289.[3] The dual surname was adopted in 1789 to secure an inheritance and appeared in formal documents, but in everyday life they were von Beneckendorffs. True to family tradition his father supported his family as an infantry officer, he retired as a major. In the summer they visited his grandfather at the Hindenburg estate of Neudeck in East 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.
When the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 broke out Hindenburg wrote 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".[4] During the decisive battle at Königgrätz he was briefly knocked unconscious by a bullet that pierced his helmet and creased the top of his skull. Quickly regaining his senses, he wrapped his head in a towel and resumed leading his detachment, winning a decoration.[5] He was 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, "[6] swept through the French lines. His regiment suffered 1096 casualties, and he became 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; he was an impressive figure: 195 cm (6 feet 5 inches) tall with a muscular frame and striking blue eyes.[7] After the French surrender he watched from afar the suppression of the Paris Commune.
In 1873 he passed in the highly competitive entrance examination for admission to the Kriegsakademie in Berlin[8] After three years study his grades were high enough for appointment to the General Staff. He was promoted to captain in 1878 and assigned to the staff of the Second Army Corps. He married the intelligent and accomplished Gertrud von Sperling (1860–1921) by whom he had 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 noted student of encirclement battles like Cannae, whose famous Schlieffen Plan proposed to pocket the French Army. For five years Hindenburg also taught tactics at the Krieg-akademie. At the maneuvers of 1885 he met the future kaiser; 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 year later was promoted to colonel commanding an infantry regiment. He became chief of staff of the Eight Army Corps in 1896.
He was given command of a division in 1897 as a major-general (equivalent to a British and US brigadier general) in 1897; in 1900 he was promoted to lieutenant general (major-general). Five years later he was made commander of the Fourth Army 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.[9] In 1909 Schlieffen recommended him as Chief of the General Staff, but he lost out to Helmuth von Moltke.[10] He retired in 1911 “to make way for younger men.”[11] He had been in the army for 46 years, including 14 years in General Staff positions.
When the war broke out, Hindenburg was retired in Hanover. On 22 August, out of the blue, he was selected by the War Cabinet and the German high command (Oberste Heeresleitung, OHL) to assume command of the German Eighth Army in East Prussia, with General Erich Ludendorff as his chief of staff.[1] 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.[12] The Chief of the German General Staff, Generaloberst Helmuth von Moltke, responded by relieving Prittwitz and replacing him with Hindenburg.[13]
Tannenberg
Upon arriving at Marienberg in 23 August, Hindenburg and Ludendorff were met by members of Eighth Army staff led by Lieutenant Colonel Max Hoffmann, an expert on the Russian army. Hoffman informed them of his plans to shift part of the 8th Army south[14] to attack the exposed left flank of the advancing Russian Second Army.[15] Agreeing with Hoffman's strategy, Hindenburg authorized Ludendorff to transfer most of the 8th Army south while leaving behind only two cavalry brigades to face the Russian First Army in the north. In Hindenburg's words, the line of soldiers that was defending Germany's border against the advancing Second Army were "thin, but not weak", because the men were defending their homes.[16] If pushed too hard, he believed they would cede ground only gradually as German reinforcements continued to mass on the advancing Russians' flanks before ultimately encircling and annihilating them.[17] On the eve of the ensuing battle, Hindenburg reportedly strolled close to the decaying walls of the fortress of the Knights of Prussia, recalling how the Knights of Prussia were defeated by the Slavs in 1410 at nearby Tannenberg.[18]
On the night of 25 August Hindenburg told his anxious staff, "Gentlemen, our preparations are so well in hand that we can sleep soundly tonight”.[19] 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, Russian losses amounted to the capture of 92,000 Russians and another 78,000 killed or wounded[20] 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".[21] Hindenburg realized that he would become a national hero and acted swiftly to fit that part, asking the Kaiser to name the victory the Battle of Tannenberg.
After this decisive victory Hindenburg repositioned the Eighth Army to face the Russian First Army. Hindenburg's tactics spurned head-on attacks all along the front in favor of schwerpunkts, sharp, localized hammer blows.[22] Two schwerpunkts struck in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes, from these breakthrough points two columns drove east to pocket the Russians led by General Paul von Rennenkampf, who managed to retreat 100 km (62 mi) with heavy losses. In the first six weeks of the war the Russians had lost more than 310,000 men.[23] Eight hundred thousand refugees were able to return to their East Prussian homes, thanks to victories that strikingly contrasted with the bloody deadlock that characterized the Western Front following the failure of the Schlieffen Plan."
Paul von Hindenburg - Wikipedia
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