Heinrich Brüning
Heinrich Brüning was the Chancellor of Germany from 1930 to 1932, whose governance further opened the ways for Hitler.
Brüning was born in Westphalia in 1885, obtained academic qualifications and distinguished himself in World War 1, winning an Iron Cross and commanding a machine gun company. Brüning then joined the Catholic parts of the trade union movement, joining the Catholic Centre Party and being elected a deputy for them in the Reichstag.
Establishing himself as an economic mind, he became Centre Party chairman in 1929, and in 1930 became Chancellor. He’d risen to power just as the Great Depression was causing chaos, and he determined to stick to deflationary measures. However, slashing expenditure, salaries and welfare upset many people, and on July 18th 1930 he dismissed the Reichstag when they objected to a budget, and began to rule through President Hindenburg and emergency decrees via Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution.
Weimar democracy began to vanish, although Brüning meant relatively well: he was a monarchist rather than a fascist, and he was worried by the growth in the Nazi vote. But Brüning could not end the depression, economic upset grew, and a plan to redistribute Junker land was suicide given Hindenburg was an aristocratic Prussian himself. General Schleicher, a background powerbroker, weighed in too, and Brüning was forced out of power. Germany would not return to that level of open government until after WW2.
Brüning emigrated to Switzerland, and then the USA, becoming a professor at Harvard. Despite a return to Germany in the fifties, he died in Germany in 1970.
More on Hitler's acquisition of power.
Brüning was born in Westphalia in 1885, obtained academic qualifications and distinguished himself in World War 1, winning an Iron Cross and commanding a machine gun company. Brüning then joined the Catholic parts of the trade union movement, joining the Catholic Centre Party and being elected a deputy for them in the Reichstag.
Establishing himself as an economic mind, he became Centre Party chairman in 1929, and in 1930 became Chancellor. He’d risen to power just as the Great Depression was causing chaos, and he determined to stick to deflationary measures. However, slashing expenditure, salaries and welfare upset many people, and on July 18th 1930 he dismissed the Reichstag when they objected to a budget, and began to rule through President Hindenburg and emergency decrees via Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution.
Weimar democracy began to vanish, although Brüning meant relatively well: he was a monarchist rather than a fascist, and he was worried by the growth in the Nazi vote. But Brüning could not end the depression, economic upset grew, and a plan to redistribute Junker land was suicide given Hindenburg was an aristocratic Prussian himself. General Schleicher, a background powerbroker, weighed in too, and Brüning was forced out of power. Germany would not return to that level of open government until after WW2.
Brüning emigrated to Switzerland, and then the USA, becoming a professor at Harvard. Despite a return to Germany in the fifties, he died in Germany in 1970.
More on Hitler's acquisition of power.
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