The only German president ever to be elected by popular vote undermines the Weimar Republic
The scion of an East Prussian aristocratic family, Paul von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg rose to the rank of field marshal during the First World War after his successes on the Eastern Front. Whilst serving as head of the Supreme Army Command from 1916 to 1918, Hindenburg used his position to dominate war-time politics, functioning as the effective “shadow dictator” of Imperial Germany. In the first election for the office of president following the death of Friedrich Ebert in 1925 – the first incumbent Ebert was never actually elected to the position – no candidate received an absolute majority. Right-wing groups hoped that a new candidate would have a better chance in the second round of voting and asked 77-year-old Hindenburg, who had no party affiliation, to enter the next round of voting. Although he was a convinced monarchist and anti-democrat, Hindenburg accepted their nomination. Despite his immense prestige as a war hero, he only beat the candidate of the popular bloc of left-wing parties by a narrow margin on 12 May 1925.
Although Hindenburg played a significant role undermining parliamentary democracy after 1929, the republican parties rallied to the cause of his re-election in 1932 to ensure that he beat the National Socialist candidate, Adolf Hitler. Hindenburg’s eventual victory ensured his status as the last and thus only president in Germany to be elected by popular vote. The state president in the Federal Republic is not an elected office, a move designed to prevent a single person accruing too much power. Hindenburg despised Hitler, as he was shocked at a situation in which a mere corporal – the rank at which Hitler served in the First World War – was able to stand against a full field marshal. After his easy victory at the polls at the grand old age of 85, Hindenburg was persuaded to put his recent opponent under pressure by appointing him as chancellor. The idea was to use the National Socialist majority in parliament in support of a Conservative agenda whilst marginalizing the inexperienced Hitler in cabinet. The trick backfired and it enabled Hitler to transform the Weimar Republic into a National Socialist dictatorship.
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