For Part One of this series, please click here.
I'm going to continue with Paul von Hindenburg.
I left off with him not liking Hitler.
Lord Wiki says that when it was time to decide if he wanted to run for a second term, Hindenburg was 82.
He had some memory mishaps which gave maybe minor pause.
But there was a strong push for him to run again.
His Kamarilla (group of advisors) pushed for it.
The Centre Party pushed for it.
The Social Democratic Party pushed for it...even though Hindenburg had been pretty shit to them.
Three million Germans signed a petition pushing him to run again.
Like Biden, Hindenburg pushed for unity.
He said, I recall the spirit of 1914, and the mood at the front, which asked about the man, and not about his class or party.
This line was in his one single radio address. He didn't do much campaigning. He left that to others.
One of his opponents was Hitler.
Hitler did a lot of campaigning.
* * *
Some of this election stuff is fascinating to me.
And surprising.
I guess the surprising aspect is what makes it fascinating.
Hindenburg got the most votes in round one of the election. But he didn't get the required majority needed to win. So there needed to be a round two.
I think it surprises me that it wasn't Hitler who got the most votes. And kind of makes me feel...I don't know. Some kind of positive emotion. Even though, in the end, it turned out really bad.
By the way, for those who like and need dates...the first round took place in March 1932.
Round two took place a month later.
Hindenburg got 53% of the vote. I think that's a majority?
He was disappointed that the right-wing hadn't given him more support. The ones that helped him to win were the ones that had opposed him in the election seven years before.
I wonder if so-called Rhinos feel a similar disappointment...when it becomes the left/Democrats who are liking and Retweeting them while the right/Republicans are hating on them.
* * *
From what Lord Wiki says, it seems the Hindenburg advisors did most of the leading and controlling.
Hindenburg was kind of like a puppet. It seems....
During meetings, Mr. Meissner did most of the talking, and it was Mr. Schleicher who did most of the cabinet picking.
Who did not get a lot of power and control?
Mr. Groener.
He was kicked off the island.
Lord Wiki says he became unpopular with the right, because he banned party uniforms in public.
Once Groener was gone so was the ban. Hitler's Brown Shirts started dancing in the street again (in the musical version of the story).
* * *
Hindenburg was the President which was the big, main leader.
But Germany had a secondary leader—The Chancellor. This was Heinrich Bruning from the Centre Party.
Bruning had this idea of taking bankrupted estates; dividing them into smaller sections; and letting unemployed settlers live there.
That actually sounds like a very good idea to me.
I wonder if other countries have done things like that since then? Before then?
Maybe I'll look into it...someday.
Anyway...so Bruning needed an emergency decree to do that (Hello, Article 48).
Hindenburg, the Lord of the Decrees, said no.
He also said that there shall be no more decrees and that the Cabinet should get more to the right.
Bruning was like Fuck this and resigned.
They brought in another guy from the Centre party. I guess he was more centre-right than left?
This guy's named was Franz von Papen. Hindenburg liked him, apparently because he was an aristocrat and a famous equestrian.
Not only did Hindenburg like Papen as leader, Papen became a family friend.
* * *
There was an election around this time.
I was confused at first, because I was thinking...has Hindenburg's seven-year-second-term passed by already?
It all went by so fast.
But that wouldn't make sense, actually.
Because we're in 1932 now, and I know Hitler became leader in 1933.
I mean the second term story begins in 1932. If it was seven years later, we'd be in 1939.
I don't think Hindenburg was even alive by that point.
So then I was thinking...it can't be the Cabinet. The president chooses the Cabinet. It's not voted on.
Then...finally. My brain kicked in and remembered the Reichstag—Germany's legislature. I forgot they existed.
This election can give me a good sense of where the country was at in this point of time.
The parties that supported the Hindenburg and his minions were not so popular with the voters.
The voters were either leaning farther to the right or farther to the left.
Sadly, the party with the most votes was The Nazis (37%). That sucks.
But 37% is better than 75%.
I mean as a Jewish person...it makes me feel less hated.
Yeah. I know this was long time ago.
But still.
* * *
I don't get why this occurred.
But Mr. Schleicher negotiated with Hitler, offering him the role of being Vice-Chancellor.
I just don't understand what put them in the position of needing to negotiate.
It's probably some complicated political dance that will go way over my head. I'm not going to try to figure it out.
Anyway....
Hitler was not happy with that proposal.
He demanded to be Number 1 rather than Number 2.
Hindenburg said no.
Nazi Stormtroopers were going around being scary....
I don't know if I knew there were Nazi Stormtroopers. I think I may have assumed George Lucas invented the term.
I mean not that I ever put a lot of thought into it.
* * *
I am very overwhelmed and confused about the stuff that happened; the stuff that lead to Germany becoming a Dictatorship with Hitler as leader.
I'm tempted to skip it.
But...since these posts are actually called Learning about The Rise of Nazism in Germany, skipping over over one of the most important parts seems quite cowardly.
* * *
I'm going to go back to The Holocaust Explained website...which I have sort of accidentally abandoned. It's written for kids, so I'm hoping they will make the information easier to digest than Lord Wiki does.
So...either Lord Wiki failed to inform me. OR I didn't listen well enough.
But Mr. Schleicher, the advisor, became Chancellor Schleicher, for a short period—December 1932 to January 1933.
Note: Referring back to Lord Wiki for the exact dates. The Holocaust Explained leaves out details like that.
The Holocaust Explained says that Von Paten (the guy Hindenburg was especially fond of) wanted Germany to have an authoritarian leader, and he also wanted to get socialists and communists out of the government. In this regard, he reminds me of my Dad and other Republicans.
Von Paten's wish about socialists kind of came true...but like in a wicked genie wish way. The Social Democratic Party lost seats in the election. But then the Communist Party...which was even more left. They gained seats!
Oops.
I'm actually not sure if this was the same election that I had been reading about from Lord Wiki a little while ago...the one where Nazis had 37% of the vote.
In the election, The Holocaust Explained is talking about, The Nazis lost seats.
I guess both could be true—They lost seats and had 37% of the vote.
* * *
Because of what happened in the election, Papen was seen as a failure.
By who?
I'm not sure.
Hitler was offered the job as Chancellor.
He refused, because they said he couldn't write decrees.
I think this was similar to when he first joined the German Worker's Party and insisted on being Chancellor; then quit when they said no.
Hitler's refusal is what led to Schleicher becoming Chancellor for a few weeks.
* * *
Ah!
Now I finally understand a little bit.
The Holocaust Explained helped by saying: However, without a majority of his own in the Reichstag, von Schleicher faced the same problems as von Papen. Hindenburg refused to grant von Schleicher permission to rule by decree.
Thank you. That helps.
It's getting clear in my head.
The reason why these Chancellors were failing was the same reason Biden and various other presidents struggle. They don't have enough of their own party members in Congress.
That's why they wanted to get rid of the Social Democratic peeps. If they had more right-winged people, it would be easier to pass right-wing legislation.
As said above, the election wishes didn't work out.
Hitler didn't want to deal with getting permission from the Reichstag to make his rules.
That's when Schleicher decided to give it ago.
It didn't work out for him either.
* * *
The next section on the Holocaust Explained is titled "The Role of the Conservative Elite in the Nazi rise to Power".
This might be particularly interesting to me, because I personally know people in AMERICA'S current Conservative elite.
If Trump manages to become President again and is able pave his way to a dictatorship, how much credit should go to the Conservative Elite?
A part of me is saying...don't be overdramatic. Trump might become president again, but he can't become a dictator.
THEN the part of me that's been watching the hearings...argues back...If not enough conservatives had said no to Trump, we'd be in a much different place right now.
If Trump fades into the sunset or goes to prison instead of becoming America's leader again, I think history will tell our grandchildren that it was not the Democrats who saved our country but all the conservatives who stood up to Trump.
Maybe the Rhino needs to replace the Eagle as the American Emblem.
* * *
This post is getting long.
And I want to read the upcoming, exciting conservative elite section with a refreshed mind.
So...I shall end this post here...and start a new one later.
What would our world be like if we
knew for sure there
was life after death, and
we could easily talk to our
dearly-departed on the Internet?
The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts
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