|
The 1932 German presidential elections were held on 13 March (first round) and 10 April (second round run-off).〔Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p762 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7〕 They were the second and final direct elections to the office of President of the Reich (''Reichspräsident''), Germany's head of state under the Weimar Republic. The incumbent President, Paul von Hindenburg, first elected in 1925, was re-elected to a second seven-year term of office. His major opponent in the election was Adolf Hitler of the Nazi Party (NSDAP). Under the Weimar system, the presidency was a powerful office and, following his re-election, Hindenburg played an important role in the coming to power of the Nazis, reluctantly appointing Hitler as Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. ==Overview== Incumbent President Paul von Hindenburg was 84 years old and in poor health. Never enthusiastic about the presidency (or public office in general), Hindenburg had planned to stand down after his first term. However, the prospect of Adolf Hitler being elected President of Germany persuaded the reluctant incumbent to seek a second term. The German government of Chancellor Heinrich Brüning had developed plans to evade direct elections by a Reichstag resolution to extend Hindenburg's time in office and arranged significant concessions to be made to Hitler's Nazi Party and the German National People's Party (DNVP) under chairman Alfred Hugenberg. However, both party leaders, unified in the Harzburg Front alliance of October 1931, rejected his proposals. In the 1930 federal election, the Nazi Party had dramatically increased its number of seats in the Reichstag. Despite becoming a German citizen (and thus eligible for public office) only on 25 February 1932, Hitler hoped to use the presidency to overturn the Weimar Constitution and establish a dictatorship. In view of that threat, the Social Democrats and Brüning's Centre Party would support Hindenburg – in contrast to the 1925 presidential election, when the non-partisan had been the candidate of the political right and had been strenuously opposed by much of the moderate left and political centre. However, in 1932, this part of the political spectrum decided to unite with the moderate right in supporting Hindenburg to prevent Hitler's election. The support of the moderate Weimar coalition was also encouraged by the fact that, contrary to fears expressed at the time of his election in 1925, Hindenburg had not used his office to subvert the constitution, as Hitler now aimed to do. Brüning recognized that only a general support from the right would induce Hindenburg to announce his readiness for candidacy. He therefore arranged the formation of a "Hindenburg committee" chaired by the Berlin mayor Heinrich Sahm, publishing a declaration of support to Hindenburg as the candidate of national unity and German ''Volksgemeinschaft''. The writer Gerhart Hauptmann, painter Max Liebermann, Artur Mahraun, leader of the Young German Order, the industrialist Carl Duisberg, as well as the former ministers Otto Gessler and Gustav Noske were among the signatories of the appeal, which convinced Hindenburg to run. The liberal German People's Party and the German State Party also declared their support. The Social Democratic leaders Ernst Heilmann and Otto Braun (himself a candidate in the 1925 election) despite the initial resistance of the party's left wing, were able to launch a broad electoral campaign and received the support of the Iron Front alliance, including the democratic ''Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold'' association, the Free Trade Unions (ADGB, AfA-Bund) and the ''Arbeiter-Turn- und Sportbund'' organization. On the far-right, the Harzburg Front collapsed, when the DNVP nominated the ''Stahlhelm'' leader Theodor Duesterberg as its own candidate. Duesterberg immediately faced a massive defamation campaign by the Nazis, who, however, still had to procure German citizenship for Hitler. The problem was settled (in the second attempt) by Dietrich Klagges, Nazi state minister in Brunswick, when he appointed him a government official. Like in 1925, the Communist Party nominated Ernst Thälmann. Backed by the Communist International, it was hoped that he would gain support from left-wing Social Democrats disgusted by Hindenburg's character. Indeed, leftist splinter parties such as the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany and the ''Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund'' organization declared their support, as did intellectuals like Carl von Ossietzky. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「German presidential election, 1932」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|