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Presidential Victory and Popular Festivity in Weimar Germany: Hindenburg's 1925 Election

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Peter Fritzsche
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Type
Symposium: Hindenburg and the Weimar Republic
Information
Central European History , Volume 23 , Issue 2-3 , June 1990 , pp. 205 - 224
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1990

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References

1. Schultze-Pfaelzer, Gerhard, Wie Hindenburg Reichspräsident wurde: Persönliche Eindrücke aus seiner Umgebung vor und nach der Wahl (Berlin, 1925), 7.Google Scholar

2. Quoted in Eyck, Erich, Geschichte der Weimarer Republik (Zurich, 1954), 1:451.Google Scholar In a Slightly different version, Heiber, Helmut, Die Republik von Weimar (Munich, 1966), 171.Google Scholar See also Turner, Henry Ashby, Stresemann and the Politics of the Weimar Republic (Princeton, 1963), 195–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3. Kaufmann, Walter H., Monarchism in the Weimar Republic (New York, 1953), 149.Google Scholar

4. Berliner Tageblatt, no. 197, 27 Apr. 1925. quoted in Schulze, Hagen, Weimar: Deutschland 1917–1933 (Berlin, 1982), 296.Google Scholar

5. Craig, Gordon, Germany 1866–1945 (New York, 1978), 510–11Google Scholar; Heiber, Die Republik von Weimar, 172. See also Quigley, Hugh and Clark, R. T., Republican Germany: A Political and Economic Study (London, 1928), 93.Google Scholar

6. Critical assessments of Hindenburg's presidency can be found in Kolb, Eberhard, The Weimar Republic, trans. Falla, P. S. (London, 1985), 74–75Google Scholar; and Schulze, Weimar, 298–300. On the absence of a shared sense of nation, see James, Harold, A German Identity: 1770–1990 (London, 1989), 111;Google Scholar and Ribbe, Wolfgang, “Flaggenstreit und Heiliger Hain: Bemerkungen zur nationalen Symbolik in der Weimarer Republik”, in Kurze, Dietrich, ed., Aus Theorie und Praxis der Geschichtswissenschaft: Festschrift für Hans Herzfeld Zum 80. Geburtstag (Berlin, 1972), 175–88.Google Scholar

7. Conze, Werner, “Die Krise des Parteienstaats in Deutschland 1929/30,” in Jasper, Gotthard, ed., Von Weimar zu Hitler 1930–1933 (Cologne, 1968), 27–57;Google ScholarEschenburg, Theodor, “The Role of the Personality in the Crisis of the Weimar Republic,” in Holborn, Hajo, ed., Republic to Reich: The Making of the Nazi Revolution (New York, 1972), 3–50;Google ScholarBracher, Karl Dietrich, “Demokratie und Machtvakuum: Zum Problem des Parteienstaats in der Auflösung der Weimarer Republik,” in Erdmann, Karl D. and Schulze, Hagen, eds., Weimar: Selbstpreisgabe einer Demokratie: Eine Bilanz heute (Düsseldorf, 1980), 109–34.Google Scholar

8. Kaufmann, Monarchism in the Weimar Republic, 151–52, 229–38.

9. Heiber, Die Republik von Weimar, 172.

10. Eschenburg quoted by Heiber, Die Republik von Weimar, 171; and Schulze, Weimar, 297.

11. Kaufmann, Monarchism in the Weimar Republic, 150.

12. Erdmann and Schulze, Weimar: Selbstpreisgabe einer Demokratie, 47.

13. Berliner Tageblatt, no. 197, 27 Apr. 1925, quoted in Schulze, Weimar, 296.

14. Falter, Jürgen W. and Hänisch, Dirk, “Die Anfälligkeit von Arbeitern gegenüber der NSDAP bei den Reichstagswahlen 1928–1933,” Archiv für Sozialgeschichte 26 (1986),Google Scholar and Falter, “The Two Hindenburg Elections of 1925 and 1932: A Total Reversal of Voter Coalitions,” in this issue.

15. Thomas Childers, in particular, has argued for a closer examination of the 1920s. See his contribution “Inflation, Stabilization, and Political Realignment in Germany, 1924–1928”, in Felman, Gerald D. et al. , eds., Die Deutsche Inflation: EIne Zwischenbilanz/The German Inflation Reconisdered: A Preliminary Balance (Berlin and New York, 1982).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16. The term “radical nationalism” is from Eley, Geoff, Reshaping the German Right: Radical Nationalism and Political Change after Bismarck (New Haven, 1980), 201–2, 351–57.Google Scholar See also Blackbourn, David and Eley, Geoff, The Peculiarities of German History: Bourgeois Society and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Germany (New York, 1984), 23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17. Berghahn, Volker R., Der Stahlhelm: Bund der Frontsoldaten 1918–1935 (Düsseldorf, 1966).Google Scholar Contemporary accounts of the Stahlhelm in Lower Saxony include Brenning, Hans, 10 Jahre Stahlhelm: Kresigruppe Oldenburg (Oldenburg, 1930);Google Scholar and Lippelt, O. and Huckstorf, E., Fünfzehn Jahre Stahlhelm in Niedersachsen (Braunschweig, 1936).Google Scholar

18. See, for example, Der Bürger, no. 17, 17 Feb. 1924; Goslarsche Zeitung, no. 131, 4 Apr. 1924; Hannoversche Kurier, no. 229, 16 May 1924; and Braunschweigische Landeszeitung, no. 125, 5 May 1924.

19. Cary, Noel, “The Making of the Reich President, 1925: German Conservatism and the Nomination of Paul von Hindenburg,” in this issue.Google Scholar See also Dorpalen, Andreas, Hindenburg and the Weimar Republic (princeton, 1964), 64–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20. “Wahlauschuss für die Reichspräsident-Kandidatur,” 11 Mar. 25 meeting, Stadtarchiv Braunschweig, G X 6/406. For Goslar, see Goslarsche Zeitung, no. 72, 26 Mar. 1925; and for Celle, see Volker, Peter, “Wahlen und politische Parteien in Raum Celle von 1867 bis 1972” (Ph.D diss., Hanover, 1977), 210–12.Google Scholar

21. Dorpalen, Hindenburg, 70–74.

22. Harzsche Zeitung, no. 99, 27 Apr. 1925; Volksfreund (Braunschweig), no. 85, 11 Apr. 1925.

23. On political adornment, see Mosse, George, The Nationalization of the Masses: Political Symbolism and Mass Movements in Germany from the Napoleonic Wars through the Third Reich (New York, 1975), particularly 162–82;Google Scholar and also Lidtke, Vernon, The Alternative Culture: Socialist Labor in Imperial Germany (New York, 1985).Google Scholar

24. Hannoversche Kurier, no. 182, 20 Apr. 1925; and Schultze-Pfaelzer, Wie Hindenburg Reichspräsident wurde, 24–26, 33.

25. See the untitled memorandum, no. 7 (dated 12 Mar. 1925), circulated by the Reichsblock, in DVP party files, Bundesarchiv Koblenz, R 45II/12/107. See also Kaufmann, Monarchism in the Weimar Republic, 146. Koshar, Rudy carefully analyzes the shift away from the established parties in Social Life, Local Politics and Nazism: Marburg, 1880–1935 (Chapel Hill, 1986).Google Scholar

26. Dorpalen, for example, emphasizes the pessimism and doubt in the Reichsblock campaign, though he relies on the remarks of Berlin politicians and not on local evidence. See Hindenburg, 81.

27. Weser Zeitung (Bremen), no. 247, 7 May 1927.

28. Schultze-Pfaelzer, Wie Hindenburg Reichspräsident wurde, 41–43.

29. Goslarsche Zeitung, no. 97, 27 Apr. 1925; and no. 99, 29 Apr. 1925. A general overview of Goslar politics is provided by Krull, Lieselotte, Wahlen und Wahlverhalten in Goslar während der Weimarer Republik (Goslar, 1982).Google Scholar

30. Hannoversche Kurier, no, 99, 29 Apr. 1925; Harzsche Zeitung, no. 100, 28 Apr. 1925; Gandersheimer Kreisblatt, no. 99, 29 Apr. 1925; and Schöninger Zeitung, no. 98, 28 Apr. 1925.

31. See reports prepared by Bremen police, dated 13 Apr. 1925 and 2 Oct. 1925, Bremisches Staatsarchiv, Nachrichtenstelle der Polizeidirektion, 4.65, 895/163/87.

32. Volksblatt (Göttingen), 28 Apr. 1925; Schöninger Zeitung, no. 98, 28 Apr. 1925; and Gandersheimer Kreisblatt, no. 99, 28 Apr. 1925.

33. See, for example, the assessments in Braunschweig's Volksfreund, no. 105, 7 May 1925; no. 280, 30 Nov. 1927; and no. 13, 16 Jan. 1928, and Allen, William Sheridan, The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town, 1922–1945, rev. ed. (New York, 1984).Google Scholar

34. Volksfreund (Braunschweig), no. 162, 15 July 1925.

35. Glaeser, Ernst, The Last Civilian, trans. David, Gwenda and Mosbacher, Eric (New York, 1935).Google Scholar

36. Reichsbanner resolution, dated 18 Sept. 1927, Stadtarchiv Aurich in Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv Aurich, Dep. 34, Gedanktage Verfassungsfeier, no. 191; Stadtarchiv Goslar, RR I 29/8.

37. See the files collected in Goslar's Stadtarchiv, RRI 29/8/111.

38. Schöninger Zeitung, no. 232, 4 Oct. 1927.

39. Rotenburger Anzeiger, no. 9772, 3 Oct. 1927.

40. Osnabrückner Tageblatt, no. 13341, 2 Oct. 1927.

41. Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, no. 462, 3 Oct. 1927.

42. Ibid..

43. Deutsche Zeitung, no. 231b, 3 Oct. 1927, evening edition.

44. See Diehl, James, Paramilitary Politics in Weimar Germany (Bloomington, Ind., 1977), 111, 191.Google Scholar See also Fritzsche, Peter, Rehearsals for Fascism: Populism and Political Mobilization in Weimar Germany (New York, 1990).Google Scholar

45. Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, no. 461, 2 Oct. 1927.

46. Loebell to Kempkes et al., 28 May 1925, Bundesarchiv Koblenz, DVP party files, R 45II/14/15–24.

47. Gustav Hagen to an unnamed pastor, 5 May. 1925, Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv Osnabrück, DNVP party files, Erw C 1/6/8.

48. See, for example, Goslarsche Zeitung, no. 232, 3 Oct. 1925; and no. 247, 21 Oct. 1926.

49. Braunschweigische Landeszeitung, no. 355, 3 Dec. 1926.

50. For details, see Fritzsche, Rehearsals for Fascism, 160–64, 183–84.

51. This impression comes from a reading of various Braunschweig newspapers for the period 1900–1914. See in particular Helmstedter Tageblatt, no. 204, 1 Sept. 1913; no. 22, 27 Jan. 1913; Braunschweigische Neueste Nachrichten, no. 24, 28 Jan. 1911; and no. 208, 5 Sept. 1911.

52. Allgemeine Rundschau (Munich) 22 (21 05 1925)Google Scholar. See also Deutsches Volkstum 11 (1927), 884.Google Scholar

53. Braunschweigische Landeszeitung, no. 140, 21 May 1925.

54. For the prewar debate on national holidays, see Schieder, Theodor, Das deutsche Kaiserreich von 1871 als Nationalstaat (Cologne, 1961), 125–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mosse, The Nationalization of the Masses, 73–99; Goldschmidt, Hans, “Der Sedantag als Nationalfeiertag 1871–1914,” Deutsche Rundschau 53 (1926), 181–93.Google Scholar

55. Die Woche 29 (1 10 1927), 1185–88Google Scholar. See also Illustrite Zeitung (Leipzig), no. 4309, 13 10 1927;Google Scholar and Bloem, Walter, Hindenburg der Deutsche (Berlin, 1932).Google Scholar

56. Schultze–Pfaelzer, Wie Hindenburg Reichspräsident wurde, 7. See also Lambach, Walther, Die Arbeitnehmerschaft und Hindenburg: Zum 80. Geburtstag des Reichspräsidenten”, Deutsche Handels-Wacht 34 (21 09 1927).Google Scholar On Hindenburg's Presidential trips, Hubatsch, Walther, Hindenburg und der Staat: Aus den Papieren des Generalfeldmarschalls und Reichpräsident von 1878 bis 1934 (Göttingen, 1966), 91–95.Google Scholar

57. Childrens, Thomas, “Inflation, Stabilization, and Political Realignment 1924–1928”, in Feldman, et al. , eds., Die Deutsche Inflation;Google ScholarJones, Larry Eugene, “The Dissolution of the Bourgeois Party System in the Weimar Republic,” in Bessel, Richard and Feuchtwanger, E. J., eds., Social Change and Political Development in the Weimar Republic (London, 1981).Google Scholar