Romanian Eagle

While the world is talking about the famine in Ukraine, Germany is in political turmoil.

In early November 1931, Hindenburg met Hitler. Hindenburg had no favors for the "Bohemian corporal", and later told his cronies: "He can only be a postmaster at best."

Hindenburg was able to reappoint Brüning as chancellor in 1932 because all the democratic parties in the parliament at that time, including the German Social Democratic Party and the German Centre Party, supported Hindenburg in order to prevent Adolf Hitler from becoming German chancellor.

In the spring of 1932, Hindenburg's 7-year term expired, and the old president was willing to retire, but due to the mockery and irony of the party members, Hindenburg, who was already in his 80s, decided to come out again, and he was nominated as a candidate again. The party nominated Hitler as its candidate. *********'s candidate is Thallmann.

In the first round of elections, Hindenburg had 496 votes, Hitler had 30, and neither candidate had an absolute majority. The second round of elections was held on April 10, and Hindenburg was elected with 53 over Hitler's 368. However, a few weeks later, old comrade Grener was forced to resign as minister after being framed by the Schleicher conspiracy.

In the process of this election, Hitler knew that his prestige among the people was inferior to that of Hindenburg, so he put forward the slogan "Respect Hindenburg, vote for Hitler", trying to use Hindenburg's momentum to elevate his own worth.

As a result, Hitler lost the election, but he left a good impression on Hindenburg. After Hindenburg was re-elected as president, he ignored the opposition of the general public, prepared to use Hitler, and said to those who advised him to be wary of Hitler: "I should turn poachers into forest watchers."

In 1932 Hindenburg was 85 years old. Because of his declining age and physical and mental health, Hindenburg increasingly relied on his own small group of right-wing friends and advisers to comrades-in-arms. These included his son Oskar von Hindenburg, neighbors of his estate, Lieutenant General Kurt von Schleicher and Franz von Papen.

These people persuaded him to fire Bruening and nominate Papen as prime minister because they wanted Papen's policies to be more rightward. After this plan failed, the men considered a coup d'état for this purpose, but Schleicher refused to provide troops for the coup, so the plan was abandoned. It was later proposed to organize a "noble cabinet" by Franz von Papen, who had close ties to the forces. In order to fulfill its "miracle of taming the party", it attempted to invite party members into the cabinet.

Hindenburg was very fond of Paben, so he respected his authority, but Paben failed to tame the party. Hitler at this time did not buy Hindenburg's account at all. Hitler saw the strength of his German Workers' Party in the general election, so he categorically rejected Hindenburg's request for him to form a cabinet with Papen. And put forward: "As the leader of Germany's largest political party, I am responsible for the entire power including all aspects."

Hitler not only despised Papen, but also held a hostile attitude towards Schleicher, who succeeded Papen as chancellor in December, insisting that he form his own cabinet, while Hindenburg disagreed with Hitler's domineering. Seeing that Hitler might threaten his own political status, he couldn't help being annoyed, he immediately turned 180°, and publicly stated: "Out of my obligation to the motherland and my conscience, I have no right to hand over the power of the whole government to the movement that wants to take power alone. "

In November 1932, a group of industrialists and bankers submitted a letter to Hindenburg demanding the appointment of Hitler as chancellor. But on December 2, 1932, Hindenburg ousted Prime Minister Baben, who had close ties with the forces, and let Schleicher form a cabinet. This hand directly threatened Hitler's plans for a full-scale seizure of power, because the power was still fledgling at the time, and Schleicher had a plan to split the party.

Therefore, Hitler asked Papen to "apology" on the one hand, and on the other hand, he invited the leading figures of the German monopoly consortium to submit a *** book to Hindenburg, so as to accommodate him. Hindenburg, who was originally a representative of the right wing, saw that Hitler had "changed his mind" and was willing to cooperate with him, so he had the idea of ​​using this "forest guard" again.

At this time, Schleicher made a move that made Hindenburg extremely old. He planned to confiscate the bankrupt Juncker's manor in East Germany. As a spokesperson, Hindenburg of course opposed the plan and supported Juncker, while Schleicher did not get the support of Hindenburg, but made an amazing move. Not only did he refuse to associate with the opposing Junckers, but he declared war openly against them.

In this way, Hindenburg's living room was filled with representatives of the Juncker family, angrily demanding the dissolution of the Schleicher government. Not only that, but Schleicher took the military's anger on himself. Schleicher, as a military-turned-chancellor, should remember that Juncker and the military corps have been closely linked for two hundred years.

The beneficiary of Schleicher's folly was Adolf Hitler, who skillfully exploited the mounting discontent. In a desperate bid to make a comeback from his November defeat and regain his prestige among the masses, he delivered speeches in nearly every city and village in Lippe. Wherever he went, he was warmly welcomed. On January 15, he received 396 percent of the popular vote, an increase of 17 percent. This proves that his personal speech is quite attractive.

At this time, according to reason, Hitler should be the chancellor, but Hindenburg was still dissatisfied with it. The biggest obstacle was not the president himself, but the president's son, who openly despised Hitler. But Oscar Hindenburg's sentiments were driven by hubris, not ideological differences. To resolve their differences, Oscar accepted the invitation to meet at Ribbentrop's house on the evening of Sunday, January 22.

Papen, Hitler, Goering and Frank were already waiting in the living room. The atmosphere was tense. After an awkward exchange, Hitler suddenly suggested to Oscar that the two go to the next room. As a result of the secret conversation between the two, according to Oscar, Hitler monopolized the topic. Only he Hitler can save Germany from the red elements, only he Hitler can be a strong chancellor. No other government can stand without the support of the National Socialist Party.

Oscar also agreed to make Hitler Chancellor. So the biggest hurdle was lifted, and now Hitler just had to wait for Hindenburg to be appointed chancellor. While Hindenburg agreed with Hitler as chancellor, he demanded that the new government must be General Varner von Blomburg but the Minister of Defense and Paben as Deputy Chancellor.

The next morning, Papen met with Hitler to put forward Hindenburg's demands, and Hitler agreed to Hindenburg's demands. But Hitler also put forward his own demands, that is, to hold new elections and issue an enabling law, giving him more powers than the previous chancellor. By the afternoon, Papen reported to Hindenburg that the parties had agreed to the new government. It was only then that Papen mentioned Hitler's demands for a new election, and it sounded plausible. He underscored Hitler's promise: this was the last general election.

Now that everything was negotiated, then Hindenburg signed an order to end Schleicher's chancellorship, followed by People's Hitler as chancellor.

At this point Hitler finally boarded the throne of chancellor. The man who didn't even graduate from high school, the man who failed to get into the Academy of Fine Arts, the man who used to be a tramp on the streets of Vienna, is now, on January 30, 1933, the Chancellor of Germany.

Adolf Hitler suddenly became chancellor, and the party members in Berlin were most surprised. For years, they lived in poverty, risking their lives on the streets of the capital, often against the wishes of the head of state. Now, their dream has come true in one fell swoop. Most people, however, learned about the torchlight that night through the newspapers.

Every able-bodied stormtrooper and SS member went out in uniform. Many people thought they would have trouble with the police again, but they were surprised to find that even the police were smiling, and some even wore swastikas. The stormtroopers, holding torches, set off from Tiegarden at dusk, marched on military music, and marched in good order under the Brandenburg Gate. Thousands of Wehrmacht joined them.

Hour after hour passed, still singing "Wissell Forest Song" and other battle songs, as they marched down Wilhelmstraße. They greeted Hindenburg first—he was standing at a window in the presidential palace; after a while, they greeted Hitler. Hitler stood in front of a window of the Chancellery, looking down at them affectionately.

The trees on both sides of William Street were full of young boys, and the children hung over the iron fence like "clusters of grapes". In the cold winter night, the fire stream illuminates the dark night, and the intoxicating warm atmosphere is getting stronger and stronger. All of this was rehearsed by performance master Goebbels.

Even Hitler asked inexplicably: "Where did he get these tens of thousands of torches in just a few hours?"

The reason is that Goebbels controlled the radio, and through live broadcasts, the whole of Germany enjoyed the magnificent view of the torch.

Papen stood behind Hitler, watching the torch. He found that people shouted respectfully to him as the procession approached the Hindenburg. When they saw Hitler, they cheered wildly.

"The contrast is stark and seems to highlight the transition from a moribund rule to a new revolutionary force...It was an extraordinary experience, that never-ending chorus of cheers and triumphant cries of 'Cheers! cheer! Cheers to victory! It was like a wake-up call, ringing in my ears."