Paul von Hindenburg, Reichspräsident (President of the German Reich)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_von_Hindenburg

Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, known universally as Paul von Hindenburg (2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a Prussian/German field marshal, statesman, and politician, and served as the second President of Germany from 1925 to 1934.

Hindenburg enjoyed a long career in the Prussian Army, retiring in 1911. He was recalled at the outbreak of World War I, and first came to national attention, at the age of 66, as the victor at Tannenberg in 1914. As Germany's Chief of the General Staff from 1916, he and his deputy, Erich Ludendorff, rose in the German public's esteem until Hindenburg came to eclipse the Kaiser himself. Hindenburg retired again in 1919, but returned to public life one more time in 1925 to be elected as the second President of Germany.

Though 84 years old and in poor health, Hindenburg was persuaded to run for re-election in 1932, as he was considered the only candidate who could defeat Adolf Hitler. Hindenburg was re-elected in a runoff but nonetheless played an important role in the Nazi Party's rise to power, dissolving parliament twice in 1932 and eventually appointing Hitler as Chancellor in January 1933. In February, he issued the Reichstag Fire Decree which suspended various civil liberties, and in March he signed the Enabling Act, in which parliament gave Hitler's administration legislative powers. Hindenburg died the following year, after which Hitler declared the office of President vacant and, as "Führer und Reichskanzler", made himself head of state.

The famed zeppelin Hindenburg that was destroyed by fire in 1937 was named in his honor, as was the Hindenburgdamm, a causeway joining the island of Sylt to mainland Schleswig-Holstein that was built during his time in office. The previously German Upper Silesian town of Zabrze (German: Hindenburg O.S.) was also renamed for him in 1915. SMS Hindenburg, a battlecruiser commissioned in the Imperial German Navy in 1917 and the last capital ship to enter service in the Imperial Navy, was also named for him.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_von_Hindenburg

http://www.aefl.de/ordld/Hindenburg/07/hindenburg_7.htm

BIOGRAPHY Son of Robert von Beneckendorff und Hindenburg and Luise Schwickart, Paul von Hindenburg was born 2 October 1847 in Posen (now Poznan). Son of a Prussian Junker family, Paul von Beneckendorff und Hindenburg was educated at the cadet schools at Wahlstatt and Berlin. In 1866 he fought at the battle of Königgrätz and in the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian war.

Paul von Hindenburg married Gertrud von Sperling, 24 September 1879 in Stettin (now Szczecin). Becoming a general in 1903, he retired in 1911, but was recalled at the outbreak of the First World War. Hindenburg and Ludendorff in 1914 won decisive victories over the Russians at Tannenberg and, in 1915, at the Masurian Lakes. These successes against the Russians were not repeated on the western front, and in the summer of 1918 he was obliged to supervise the retreat of the German armies.

A national hero and 'father figure' from 1925 till 1934 he was president of the German Republic. He did not oppose Stresemann's enlightened foreign policy, but neither did he oppose the rise of Hitler, whom he defeated in the presidential election of 1932 and who became chancellor in 1933. But such was his influence, that Hitler was unable to overthrow constitutional government until after his death. Paul von Hindenburg died 2 August 1934 in Neudeck, East-Prussia (now Susz in Poland).

Against the wishes he had expressed during his life, Hindenburg was buried in the Tannenberg memorial on that battlefield site. In 1945, German troops removed his and his wife's coffins, to save them from the approaching Soviets, however, the caskets of Hindenburg and his wife were located in an abandoned salt mine on 27 April 1945 by U. S. Ordinance Troops. Later that month, he and his wife were interred anew in the North Tower Chapel of the famous Elisabeth Church of Marburg an der Lahn.