The election of Hindenburg as President

The President could dissolve the Reichstag, was head of the armed forces, could issue decrees without taking them through the Reichstag and appointed the chancellor and government. The President took over in a crisis but it was not clear what defined a crisis. Unfortunately, the parties continued to place their own interests above national ones. By the early 1930s Hindenburg was impatient with this at a time of economic crisis and used his powers to rule by decree.

Hindenburg was a symbol of the past. He was revered by the right who saw his election as the beginning of the restoration of the old order. However, when Hindenburg took his presidential oath he appealed to the parties…

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