Paul von Hindenburg cause of death lung cancer
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (pronounced [ˈpaʊl ˈluːtvɪç hans ˈantoːn fɔn ˈbɛnəkn̩dɔʁf ʔʊnt fɔn ˈhɪndn̩bʊʁk] (listen); abbreviated pronounced [ˈpaʊl fɔn ˈhɪndn̩bʊʁk] (listen); 2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German field marshal and statesman who led the Imperial German Army during World War I. He later became President of Germany from 1925 until his death. During his presidency, he played a key role in the Nazi seizure of power in January 1933 when, under pressure from his advisers, he appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany.Hindenburg was born to a family of minor Prussian nobility in Posen. Upon completing his education as a cadet, he enlisted in the Third Regiment of Foot Guards as a second lieutenant. He then saw combat during the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars. In 1873, he was admitted to the prestigious Kriegsakademie in Berlin, where he studied for three years before being appointed to the Army's General Staff Corps. Later in 1885, he was promoted to the rank of major and became a member of the Great General Staff. After a five-year teaching stint at the Kriegsakademie, Hindenburg steadily rose through the army's ranks to become a lieutenant general by 1900. Around the time of his promotion to General of the Infantry in 1905, Count Alfred von Schlieffen recommended that he succeed him as Chief of the Great General Staff but the post ultimately went to Helmuth von Moltke in January 1906. In 1911, Hindenburg announced his retirement from the military.
After World War I started in July 1914, Hindenburg was recalled to military service and quickly achieved fame on the Eastern Front as the victor of Tannenberg. Subsequently, he oversaw a crushing series of victories against the Russians that made him a national hero and the center of a massive personality cult. By 1916, Hindenburg's popularity had risen to the point that he replaced General Erich von Falkenhayn as Chief of the Great General Staff. Thereafter, he and his deputy, General Erich Ludendorff, exploited Emperor Wilhelm II's broad delegation of power to the German Supreme Army Command to establish a de facto military dictatorship. Under their leadership, Germany secured Russia's defeat in the east and achieved advances on the Western Front deeper than any seen since the conflict's outbreak. However, by the end of 1918, all improvements in Germany's fortunes were reversed after the German Army was decisively defeated in the Second Battle of the Marne and the Allies' Hundred Days Offensive. Upon his country's armistice with the Allies in November 1918, Hindenburg stepped down as Germany's commander-in-chief and retired once again from military service in 1919.
In 1925, Hindenburg returned to public life to become the second elected president of the German Weimar Republic. Personally opposed to Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party, Hindenburg nonetheless played a major role in the political instability that resulted in their rise to power. After twice dissolving the Reichstag in 1932, Hindenburg agreed in January 1933 to appoint Hitler as Chancellor in coalition with the Deutschnationale Volkspartei. In response to the Reichstag fire, which was allegedly committed by Marinus van der Lubbe, he approved the Reichstag Fire Decree in February 1933, which suspended various civil liberties. Later in March, he signed the Enabling Act of 1933, which gave the Nazi regime emergency powers. After Hindenburg died the following year, Hitler combined the presidency with his office as chancellor before proceeding to declare himself Führer und Reichskanzler des deutschen Volkes (lit. 'Leader and Reich Chancellor of the German People') and transformed Germany into a totalitarian state.Death
Hindenburg remained in office until his death at the age of 86 from lung cancer at his home in Neudeck, East Prussia, on 2 August 1934. The day before, Hitler received word that Hindenburg was on his deathbed. He then had the cabinet pass the "Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich," which stipulated that upon Hindenburg's death, the office of president would be abolished and its powers merged with those of the chancellor under the title of Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Chancellor of the Reich).Two hours after Hindenburg's death, it was announced that as a result of this law, Hitler was now both Germany's head of state and head of government, thereby eliminating the last remedy by which he could be legally dismissed and cementing his status as the absolute dictator of Germany. Publicly, Hitler announced that the presidency was "inseparably united" with Hindenburg, and it would not be appropriate for the title to ever be used again.In truth, Hitler had known as early as April 1934 that Hindenburg would likely not survive the year. He worked feverishly to get the armed forces—the only group in Germany that would be nearly powerful enough to remove him with Hindenburg dead—to support his bid to become head of state after Hindenburg's death. In a meeting aboard the Deutschland on 11 April with Blomberg, army commander Werner von Fritsch and naval commander Erich Raeder, Hitler publicly proposed that he himself succeed Hindenburg. In return for the armed forces' support, he agreed to suppress the SA and promised that the armed forces would be the only bearers of arms in Germany under his watch. Raeder agreed right away, but Fritsch withheld his support until 18 May, when the senior generals unanimously agreed to back Hitler as Hindenburg's successor.According to Günther von Tschirschky und Bögendorff, an interwar German diplomat and associate of Hindenburg who later defected to the United Kingdom, President Paul Von Hindenburg's last will and testament had criticised the Nazis and supported democracy. The defector said that it had also argued for the establishment of a constitutional monarchy with clear separation of powers along with the abolition of all forms of racial and religious discrimination. He alleged that the document had been handed over to Hitler by Hindenburg's Nazi supporting son. A few days after his death the Nazis released their own version of Hindenburg's final "political testament" which was complimentary of Hitler.Hitler had a plebiscite held on 19 August 1934, in which the German people were asked if they approved of Hitler taking the office of Führer. The Ja (Yes) vote amounted to 90% of the vote. This referendum, as well as all efforts to make Hitler Hindenburg's successor, violated the Enabling Act. Although it gave Hitler the right to pass laws that were contrary to the constitution, it stated that the president's powers were to remain "undisturbed", which has long been interpreted to forbid any attempt to tamper with the presidency. The constitution had also previously been amended in 1932 to make the president of the High Court of Justice, not the chancellor, first in the line of succession to the presidency and even then only on an interim basis until fresh elections.
Contrary to Hindenburg's will, he was interred with his wife in a magnificent ceremony at the Tannenberg Memorial. In 1944, as the Soviets approached, Generalleutnant Oskar von Hindenburg moved his parents' remains to western Germany. In January 1945, German troops blew up the memorial. In 1949, Polish authorities razed the site, leaving few traces. His remains were temporarily interred in Thuringia along with the remains of Frederick the Great, Frederick William I, the standards of the Imperial German Army from 1914 to 1918, the files of the Foreign Office, artworks from Prussian state museums, the library of Sanssouci and the Prussian crown jewels. By April 1945, the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section of the United States Army uncovered the remains and transported them to Marburg, where they were interred in St. Elizabeth's Church in Marburg, were they remain to this day. A plaque on his grave only commemorates the victims of war and violence, without mentioning Hindenburg's name.
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