Hindenburg: Power, Myth, and the Rise of the Nazis (Oxford Historical Monographs)



The publication of Dr von der Goltz' s slim yet remarkable book on former German Reichspräsident Hindenburg coincides with that of Prof. Pyta's voluminous biography of the same person. Neither author has had access to the Hindenburg familily papers. Apart from this handicap and despite their different scientific approach both learned treatises come to remarkably similar conclusions:the mythical persona of the great military leader , the hero of Tannenberg , the saviour from the Russian Untermenschen, is a self-serving invention of Hindenburg himself, reinforced by supporters of various ilks and of various interests, be it the Kaiser who needed bolstering up his diminishing stature throughout WW I, be it first Reichspräsident Ebert who needed the Field Marshal in 1919 to keep the revolting troops at bay or be they lesser politicians serving their own purposes. Neither author denies his protagonist's astute and selfish motives. While Pyta points out the shortcomings of a weak, comfort-seeking and intellectually limited character, von der Goltz stresses his ideological fixations of the Wilhelmine elite, his conservative Prussianism. The book by Dr von der Goltz brings to life the political climate of the Weimar republic by citing many, often critical, published opinions on Hindenburg while Prof. Pyta extensively describes the official side of Hindenburg's political activities and bases his judgment on his subject on its intrigant, treacherous and fallacious side. Both books have great merits and it is a pity that von der Goltz' treatise is not yet (?) available in German.

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