Theodor Duesterberg Theodor Duesterberg ( ; October 19 , 1875 – November 4 , 1950 ) was a leader of the Stahlhelm , Bund der Frontsoldaten , in Germany prior to the Nazi seizure of power . Background . Born the son of an army surgeon in Darmstadt , Duesterberg entered the Prussian Army in 1893 after training in the cadet corps . In 1900 , Duesterberg was part of the East Asian Expedition Corps that saw action in China during the Boxer Rebellion . Two years later , Duesterberg became an officer and held a variety of army commands prior to World War I . During the war , Duesterberg served in the Prussian War Ministry and eventually attained the rank of lieutenant colonel . Following the war , Duesterberg resigned from the army in protest over the Versailles Treaty , which Duesterberg viewed as being extremely unfair to Germany . Duesterberg subsequently decided to enter politics and joined the German National People ' s Party ( DNVP ) in 1919 . Stahlhelm , Bund der Frontsoldaten . After various disagreements with the party leadership , however , Duesterberg left the DNVP in 1923 and joined the nationalistic and pro - monarchy Stahlhelm , Bund der Frontsoldaten , which largely consisted of ex - servicemen disgruntled with the Weimar Republic . Duesterberg quickly moved through the party hierarchy and by 1924 was one of two of its federal leaders ( the other being Franz Seldte ) . Under Duesterberg ’ s leadership , the Stahlhelm became Germany ’ s largest para - military groups . In the late 1920s , Duesterberg allied the Stahlhelm with the Nazi Party and other right wing groups and actively protested in 1929 against the Young Plan . Two years later , Duesterberg allied the Stahlhelm with the Nazis , DNVP , and other right wing groups in order to form the Harzburger Front . The Harzburger Front attempted to bring about the downfall of Heinrich Brüning and the Weimar Republic , but it eventually dissolved due to Adolf Hitler ’ s unwillingness to subordinate the Nazi Party to such a vast right wing coalition on a long term basis . Many in the traditional nationalist - right were discomforted with the NSDAP ' s excessive anti - Semitism and its near - socialist views ( especially that of the SA , the Strasser brothers , etc . ) . After the dissolution of the Harzburger Front , Duesterberg continued to lead the Stahlhelm and maintained the organization ’ s alliance with the DNVP . Presidential nomination . In 1932 , Duesterberg was nominated by the Stahlhelm and DNVP to run for President of Germany , but the Nazis ultimately destroyed any chance Duesterberg had of gaining mass support from the German people when they revealed he had Jewish ancestry . This revelation caused Duesterberg to poll poorly in the first ballot of the election , and he withdrew from the runoff election that followed . Ironically , Duesterberg was offered a position in Hitler ’ s cabinet when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933 , but Duesterberg flatly refused the proposal . Franz Seldte , however , did enter Hitler ’ s cabinet , which undermined the Stahlhelm and Duesterberg ’ s authority over the organization , and thus he resigned his leadership position in 1933 . Arrest . In 1934 , Duesterberg was arrested by the Nazis during the Night of the Long Knives and sent to Dachau concentration camp , where he was briefly interned . After being released , Duesterberg drifted into obscurity . He was known to have had limited contacts with the anti - Nazi Carl Friedrich Goerdeler in 1943 , but Duesterberg ultimately did not play any role in Goerdeler ’ s plots against Hitler . In 1949 , Duesterberg wrote " The Steel Helmet and Hitler , " in which he defended his pre - war political career and the Stahlhelm and detailed the movement ’ s independence from the Nazi Party and " the insane Jew hatred preached by Hitler " . A year later , Duesterberg died in Hameln .