Heinrich Brüning and Presidential Decrees

Heinrich Brüning

A politician and economist belonging to the German Centre Party (Zentrum) who served as Chancellor during the late Weimar Republic. He became a Member of the Reichstag in 1924, rising to prominence as an expert in finance and taxation. Serving as Chancellor from March 1930 to June 1932, he implemented austerity and deflationary policies in response to the Great Depression. Unable to secure a parliamentary majority, he governed using emergency decrees from President Paul von Hindenburg, which led to the weakening of parliamentary democracy. Meanwhile, wary of the rise of the Nazi Party, he supported Hindenburg's reelection in 1932 as a rival to Hitler. After resigning as Chancellor in 1932, he fled Germany in 1934 following the establishment of the Nazi regime and went into exile in the United States. He taught political science at Harvard University and other institutions, and after the war, he temporarily returned to Germany to teach at the University of Cologne as well. Evaluations remain divided to this day over whether his policies during the Great Depression were the final defense attempt to protect the Weimar Republic or if they accelerated the republic's collapse.

Timeline

Category
Element

Year	Heinrich Brüning
1885	Birth of Heinrich Brüning (Period: November 26, 1885, Location: Münster (Germany))
1904	University Studies and Doctorate (Heinrich Brüning, Age: 18 years old, Period: 1904–1915, Location: Strasbourg, London, Bonn)
1914	World War I (Age: 28 years old, Period: 1914–1918, Location: Western Front, Belgium and France)
1918	German Revolution (Age: 32 years old, Period: 1918–1919, Location: Various parts of Germany, especially Berlin, etc.) Support for the Reintegration of Returning Soldiers (Age: 32 years old, Period: 1918–1920, Location: Berlin, etc.)
1920	Assuming Leadership of Christian Trade Unions (Heinrich Brüning, Age: 34 years old, Period: 1920–1930, Location: Berlin)
1923	Occupation of the Ruhr and Passive Resistance (Age: 37 years old, Period: January 1923 – 1923, Location: Ruhr Region (Germany))
1924	First Election to the Reichstag (Heinrich Brüning, Age: 38 years old, Period: May 1924, Location: Breslau Constituency (present-day Wrocław))
1928	Election to the Prussian Landtag (Heinrich Brüning, Age: 42 years old, Period: 1928–1930, Location: Berlin, Prussian Landtag)
1929	Great Depression and German Economic Crisis (Age: 43 years old, Period: 1929–1932, Location: All of Germany)
1930	Austerity and Deflationary Policy (Age: 44 years old, Period: 1930–1932, Location: All of Germany) Taking Office as Chancellor (Heinrich Brüning, Age: 44 years old, Period: March 30, 1930, Location: Berlin) 1930 Reichstag Election and the Rise of the Nazi Party (Heinrich Brüning, Age: 44 years old, Period: September 14, 1930, Location: All of Germany)
1931	Concept of a German-Austrian Customs Union (Age: 45 years old, Period: 1931, Location: Berlin, Vienna, Geneva, etc.) Response to the Hoover Moratorium (Age: 45 years old, Period: 1931, Location: Berlin, Washington, Paris, etc.) German Banking Crisis (Age: 45 years old, Period: June – July 1931, Location: All of Germany, Berlin) Concurrently Serving as Foreign Minister (Age: 45 years old, Period: October 9, 1931 – June 1, 1932, Location: Berlin)
1932	Support for President Hindenburg's Re-election (Age: 46 years old, Period: March – April 1932, Location: Various parts of Germany, Berlin) Ban on SA and Communist Paramilitary Organizations (Age: 46 years old, Period: April 1932, Location: All of Germany) Collapse of the Brüning Cabinet (Age: 46 years old, Period: May – June 1932, Location: Berlin) Resignation as Chancellor (Heinrich Brüning, Age: 46 years old, Period: May 30 – June 1, 1932, Location: Berlin)
1933	Reichstag Activities after the Nazi Rise to Power (Age: 47 years old, Period: January – July 1933, Location: Berlin)
1934	Exile to the United States and Professorship at Harvard University (Heinrich Brüning, Age: 48 years old, Period: 1934–1952, Location: United States, Cambridge, Massachusetts) Exile before the Night of the Long Knives (Heinrich Brüning, Age: 48 years old, Period: June 1934, Location: From Germany via Netherlands, Switzerland, and UK to USA)
1951	Return to Postwar Germany and Activities at the University of Cologne (Heinrich Brüning, Age: 65 years old, Period: 1951–1955, Location: Cologne (West Germany))
1970	Death of Heinrich Brüning (Age: 84 years old, Period: March 30, 1970)
Unknown	Marriage (Heinrich Brüning, None, Period: Unmarried lifelong, Location: N/A)

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Element

Europe World

Group	List
Nazi Germany	Adolf Hitler Paul von Hindenburg Hermann Göring Joseph Goebbels Heinrich Himmler Rudolf Hess Martin Ludwig Bormann Joachim von Ribbentrop Albert Speer Hermann Wilhelm Göring Paul Joseph Goebbels
Weimar Republic	Friedrich Ebert Gustav Stresemann Wilhelm Marx Heinrich Brüning Hermann Müller Friedrich Naumann Matthias Erzberger Walther Rathenau
German Anti-Nazis	Dietrich Bonhoeffer Claus Philipp Maria Justinian Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg Hans Oster Ludwig Beck Carl Friedrich Goerdeler Erwin von Witzleben Hans Scholl Sophie Scholl Alexander Schmorell Christoph Probst
Warsaw Ghetto	Mordechai Anielewicz Marek Edelman Tuvia Bielski Abba Kovner Henryk Goldszmit Emanuel Ringelblum
Arts & Music	Pablo Picasso Paul Klee Wassily Kandinsky Käthe Schmidt Oskar Kokoschka Egon Schiele Arnold Schoenberg Alban Berg Anton Webern

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Heinrich Brüning and Presidential Decrees

Heinrich Brüning

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