Paul von Hindenburg

A Prussian-German military officer, Field Marshal of the Imperial German Army, and politician. During World War I, he gained immense fame at the Battle of Tannenberg on the Eastern Front and assumed effective control of the German Supreme Army Command starting in 1916. After the war, he was elected as the second President of the Weimar Republic in 1925 and was re-elected in 1932. On January 30, 1933, he appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor and signed key decrees, including the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act; although he did not necessarily align with Nazism personally, he is evaluated as a crucial figure who enabled the establishment of the Nazi regime.

Timeline

Category
Element

Year	Paul von Hindenburg
1847	Birth of Paul von Hindenburg (Period: October 2, 1847, Location: Poznań (present-day Poznań, Poland; Posen, Kingdom of Prussia at the time of his birth))
1866	Austro-Prussian War (Age: 18 years old, Period: 1866, Location: Theater of war between Kingdom of Prussia and Austrian Empire, especially Bohemia, etc.) Enlistment in the Prussian Army (Age: 18 years old, Period: 1866, Location: Kingdom of Prussia)
1870	Franco-Prussian War (Age: 22 years old, Period: 1870–1871, Location: Eastern and Northern France, Metz, Sedan, surroundings of Paris, etc.)
1871	Witnessing the Founding of the German Empire (Age: 23 years old, Period: January 18, 1871, Location: Palace of Versailles, France)
1879	Marriage (Paul von Hindenburg, Gertrud Wilhelmine von Sperling, Age: 31 years old, Period: September 24, 1879, Location: Stettin (now Szczecin, Poland))
1914	World War I (Age: 66 years old, Period: 1914–1918, Location: Western Front, Belgium and France) Battle of Tannenberg (Age: 66 years old, Period: August 23 – August 30, 1914, Location: Southern East Prussia, near present-day northeastern Poland)
1916	Becoming Leader of the German Army High Command (Age: 68 years old, Period: August 1916 – November 1918, Location: German Empire / German Army High Command)
1918	Defeat of the German Empire and Retirement from the Military (Paul von Hindenburg, Age: 71 years old, Period: November 1918 – 1919, Location: Germany)
1925	Weimar Republic Presidential Election (Paul von Hindenburg, Age: 77 years old, Period: April 26, 1925, Location: All of Germany) Assuming the German Presidency (Paul von Hindenburg, Age: 77 years old, Period: May 12, 1925, Location: Berlin, Germany)
1930	Transition to Rule by Presidential Decree (Age: 82 years old, Period: 1930–1932, Location: Berlin, Germany)
1932	1932 German Presidential Election (Paul von Hindenburg, Age: 84 years old, Period: March–April 1932, Location: All of Germany)
1933	Involvement in the Establishment of the Hitler Regime (Age: 85 years old, Period: January 1933 – August 1934, Location: Berlin and all of Germany) Appointment of Hitler as Chancellor (Age: 85 years old, Period: January 30, 1933, Location: Berlin, Germany) Reichstag Fire (Age: 85 years old, Period: February 27, 1933, Location: Berlin (Germany)) Passing of the Enabling Act (Age: 85 years old, Period: March 23, 1933, Location: Berlin, Kroll Opera House)
1934	Death of Paul von Hindenburg (Age: 86 years old, Period: August 2, 1934)

Map

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Element

Europe World

Related Links

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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Paul von Hindenburg (Español) Paul von Hindenburg (Français) Paul von Hindenburg (Deutsch) 保罗·冯·兴登堡 (中文) パウル・フォン・ヒンデンブルク (日本語)

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Paul von Hindenburg