President Hindenburg Dead

President Paul von Hindenburg, 86, died today at approximately 9 AM local time, in Neudeck, East Prussia, of Lung Cancer. Herr Hindenberg served as President since 1925. He named no successor. Currently, Adolf Hitler is the Chancellor.

Hindenburg was born in Posen, Prussia, on October 2, 1847. His lineage was that of an aristocrat. In fact, his full name, not often used in public, is Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg. He was a direct descendant of Religious leader Martin Luther.

Hindenburg fought in the Army during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. He was present in Versailles when the German Empire was formally proclaimed on January 18th, 1871. He also served in the Honor Guard in the Military Funeral of Emperor William I in 1888.

He was General of the Infantry and retired from the Army in 1910 only to be recalled in 1914 with the outbreak of the Great War.

Though Hindenburg was a noted monarchist all his life, he and a staff member Wilhelm Groener, persuaded Kaiser Wilhelm II to abdicate for the greater good of Germany. This was an episode of Hindenburg's life that brought him considerable guilt and embarrassment.

From his Army career, he was decorated with some of the highest medals available in the Wehrmacht notably the Iron Cross, the Military Order of Max Joseph, the Order of the Black Eagle and the Pour le Mérite, a Prussian decoration nicknamed the Blue Max and dating to 1740.

Hindenburg became President on May 12, 1925 and took his oath to the Weimar Constitution seriously. He was known for the dignity and decorum he brought to the office. He kept himself above the sniping German politics of the era and seemed to operate more as a constitutional monarch then an elected official. In fact, he was nicknamed the Ersatzkaiser, or Substitute Kaiser.

He won re-election in 1932 though by then was in poor health and of considerable age. After that, he dissolved Parliament twice as politics flared. The new National Socialist Party, or Nazi, had received an enormous amount of the vote. After the Machtergreifung in early 1933, the Reichstag was burned possibly by Communist Party members. Hindenburg signed the Reichstagsbrandverordnung, or the Reichstag Fire Decree, on February 28th. This suspended civil liberties such as that of the Press, Assembly ant Communication Rights.

Hindenburg was a family man. He married Gertrud von Sperling, also an aristocrat, who preceded him in death. From the union there were three children, duaghters Irmengard Pauline and Annemaria and one son Oskar.

New Chancellor of Germany

A new Chancellor is leading Germany. Adolf Hitler, leader of the National Socialist Party has ascended to this position in the German Government. He was appointed today by President Hindenberg on January 30th.

He spoke to the Reichstag upon his appointment on February 1st. In it he outlined his goals for Germany.

He stated that Germany will use two four-year-plans. Farmers would be aided. Measures would undertaken to ease unemployment.

He also went on to state

May the good will of all others assist in the fulfillment of this our earnest wish for the welfare of Europe and of the whole world.

Great as is our love for our Army as the bearer of our arms and the symbol of our great past, we should be happy if the world, by reducing its armaments, would see to it that we need never increase our own.

If, however, Germany is to experience this political and economic revival and conscientiously fulfill her duties toward the other nations, one decisive step is absolutely necessary first: the overcoming of the destroying menace of communism in Germany. We of this Government feel responsible for the restoration of orderly life in the nation and for the final elimination of class madness and class struggle. We recognize no classes, we see only the German people, millions of peasants, bourgeois, and workers who will either overcome together the difficulties of these times or be overcome by them. We are firmly resolved and we have taken our oath. Since the present Reichstag is incapable of lending support to this work, we ask the German people whom we represent to perform the task themselves.

With the worldwide economic situation, this may be fruitful for Germany and its hard economic times.