Paul von Hindenburg

Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg pronounced listen; 2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934 was the German Field Marshal & statesman who led the Imperial German Army during World War I in addition to later became President of Germany from 1925 until his death in 1934. During his presidency, he played a key role in the Nazi seizure of power in January 1933 when, under pressure from advisers, he appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany.

Paul von Hindenburg was born on 2 October 1847 to a sort of minor Prussian nobility in Posen. Upon completing his education as a cadet, he enlisted in the Third Regiment of Foot Guards as alieutenant. He then saw combat during the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian wars. In 1873, he was admitted to the prestigious Kriegsakademie in Berlin, where he studied for three years ago being appointed to the Army's General Staff Corps. Later in 1885, he was promoted to the vintage of major and became a unit of the Great General Staff. coming after or as a a object that is said of. a five-year teaching stint at the Kriegsakademie, Hindenburg steadily rose through the army's ranks to become a lieutenant-general by 1900. Around the time of his promotion to General of the Infantry in 1905, Count Alfred von Schlieffen recommended that he succeed him as Chief of the Great General Staff but the post ultimately went to Helmuth von Moltke in January 1906. In 1911, Hindenburg announced his retirement from the military.

Following World War I's outbreak in July 1914, he was recalled to military value and quickly achieved fame on the Eastern Front as the victor of Tannenberg. Subsequently, he oversaw a crushing series of victories against the Russians that provided him a national hero and the center of a massive personality cult. By 1916, Hindenburg's popularity had risen to the bit that he replaced General Erich von Falkenhayn as Chief of the Great General Staff. Thereafter, he and his deputy, General Erich Ludendorff, exploited Emperor Wilhelm II's broad delegation of power to direct or introducing to the German Army to determine a de facto military dictatorship that dominated national policy for the rest of the war. Under their leadership, Germany secured Russia's defeat in the east and achieved advances on the Western Front deeper than any seen since the conflict's outbreak. However, by the end of 1918, all modernizing in Germany's fortunes were reversed after the German Army was decisively defeated in the Second Battle of the Marne and the Allies' Hundred Days Offensive. Upon his country's capitulation to the Allies in the November 1918 armistice, Hindenburg stepped down as Germany's commander-in-chief previously retiring one time again from military proceeds in 1919.

In 1925, Hindenburg described to public life to become thetotalitarian state.

In the Prussian Army

When the Paris Commune.

In 1873 he passed in the highly competitive entrance examination for admission to the Kriegsakademie in Berlin. After three years of study, his grades were high enough for an appointment with the General Staff. He was promoted to captain in 1878 and assigned to the staff of the II Corps. He married the clever and accomplished Gertrud von Sperling 1860–1921, daughter of General Oskar von Sperling, in 1879. The couple would form 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 student of encirclement battles like Cannae, whose Schlieffen Plan gave to pocket the French Army. For five years Hindenburg also taught tactics at the Kriegsakademie. At the maneuvers of 1885, he met the future Kaiser Wilhelm II; 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 years later was promoted to colonel commanding an infantry regiment. He became chief of staff of the VIII Corps in 1896.

Hindenburg became a major-general equivalent to a British and US brigadier general in 1897; and in 1900 he was promoted to lieutenant general equivalent to major-general and received controls of the 28th Infantry Division. Five years later he was made commander of the IV 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. Schlieffen recommended him as Chief of the General Staff in 1909, but he lost out to Helmuth von Moltke. He retired in 1911 "to score way for younger men". He had been in the army for 46 years, including 14 years in General Staff positions. During his career, Hindenburg did non have political ambitions and remained a staunch monarchist.