Hindenburg Elected: First Direct Vote in Weimar Germany

Paul von Hindenburg defeated Wilhelm Marx in the second round of the German presidential election on April 26, 1925, becoming the first directly elected head of state of the Weimar Republic. Born on October 2, 1847, in Posen, Prussia, Hindenburg had retired from the German Army as a field marshal in 1919 after commanding the Eastern Front and later serving as de facto military dictator of Germany during the final years of World War I. His victory in the popular national war hero category over Marx, a centrist Catholic politician, reflected the deep political divisions of Weimar Germany. Hindenburg won with 48.3 percent of the vote in the first round, insufficient for an outright majority, and then secured 48.3 percent again in the runoff, which required only a plurality. Marx received 45.3 percent. The Communist candidate, Ernst Thälmann, received 6.4 percent, splitting the left-wing vote in a manner that likely cost Marx the presidency. Hindenburg governed as a constitutional president for his first years, respecting the democratic framework. But the economic catastrophe of the Great Depression, which began in 1929 and produced unemployment rates exceeding 30 percent, destabilized the parliamentary system. Hindenburg increasingly relied on emergency presidential decrees to govern as chancellors proved unable to maintain parliamentary majorities. In January 1933, under pressure from conservative advisors who believed they could control him, Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as chancellor. The decision was the single most consequential political appointment of the twentieth century. Within eighteen months, Hitler had dismantled the Weimar constitution, banned all opposition parties, and established a totalitarian dictatorship. Hindenburg died on August 2, 1934, and Hitler merged the offices of president and chancellor into his own position.