Wilhelm Groener
As Brüning gradually lost Hindenburg's support, the ban of the Nazi "SA" paramilitary organisation initiated by Minister Wilhelm Groener on 13 April 1932 sharpened the conflict and led to considerable ill-feeling between Hindenburg and his trusted friend Kurt von Schleicher. At the same time, he was viciously attacked by the Prussian Junkers, led by Elard von Oldenburg-Januschau, who opposed Brüning's policies of distributing land to unemployed workers in the course of the Eastern Aid ("Osthilfe") programme and denounced him as an "Agro-bolshevik" to Hindenburg.