Harzburg Front
Encyclopedia
The Harzburg Front was a short-lived right-wing political alliance in Weimar Germany
, formed in 1931 as an attempt to present a unified opposition to the government of Chancellor Heinrich Brüning
. It was a coalition of the conservative German National People's Party
(DNVP) under millionaire press-baron Alfred Hugenberg
with Adolf Hitler
's NSDAP Nazi Party, the leadership of the Stahlhelm
("Steel Helmet", a hawkish, paramilitary veterans' association) under Franz Seldte
and the Alldeutscher Verband (Pan-German League) organization.
in the Free State of Brunswick
. The participating organizations had already undertaken the - unsuccessful - joint "Liberty Law" campaign against the Young Plan
on war reparations in 1929. In addition to the leaderships of the DNVP and NSDAP the meeting was attended by numerous representatives on the right of German politics including the Hohenzollern
princes Eitel Friedrich of Prussia
and his brother August Wilhelm
(sons of the exiled Emperor Wilhelm II), former general Walther von Lüttwitz
, former Reichswehr
Chief of Staff Hans von Seeckt
(then a member of the national liberal German People's Party
(DVP)), prominent members of the Prussian aristocracy and representatives of the Business Party, the Alldeutscher Verband (ADV), the Reichslandbund ("National Rural League", RLB) and the Vereinigten vaterländischen Verbände Deutschlands ("United Patriotic Associations of Germany", VvVD) under Rüdiger von der Goltz
. The non-partisan Hjalmar Schacht
, who had resigned as Reichsbank
president the year before in protest against the Young Plan, also participated in the Front, which caused a great stir. However, leaders of industry and big business who had been invited to attend were notably absent.
Hugenberg had intended to use the Harzburg meeting as a forum to form a united opposition cabinet representing "national Germany" (i.e. the parties and groups of the Right) under his leadership and to agree upon a single candidate to represent the Right at the forthcoming presidential elections
scheduled for 1932. However, due to personal and ideological differences such a united opposition never materialised. Hitler and the Nazis in particular viewed Hugenberg and his companions with distrust and were determined to avoid making any commitments that would undermine the independence of the National Socialist movement. Although they had entered into regional coalition governments with the DNVP and despite the fact that Hugenburg and Schacht both served in Hitler's first national cabinet after the Machtergreifung
on 30 January 1933, the Nazis were determined that they would take power on their own terms and only as leaders of any coalition they entered into.
In reaction to the events in Bad Harzburg, the left-wing Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold
, the Social Democratic Party
(SPD) and the Free Trade Unions
forged the Iron Front
alliance on 16 December 1931. Ultimately the Harzburg Front failed to produce an effective or united right-wing opposition to the Weimar Republic, mainly due to the intransigence of the Nazis and the differences in political aims and opinions of the varying groups approached by Hugenberg. A motion of no confidence
against Chancellor Brüning in the Reichstag
parliament failed. Negotiations between the Nazis, the DNVP and Stahlhelm over a shared presidential candidate broke down in February 1932, with Hitler accusing Hugenburg of pursuing "socially reactionary policies", and eventually Hitler himself stood as the NSDAP candidate for President of the Republic, while Hugenburg and his conservative allies backed former Chief of the German General Staff
and incumbent President, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg
.
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
, formed in 1931 as an attempt to present a unified opposition to the government of Chancellor Heinrich Brüning
Heinrich Brüning
Heinrich Brüning was Chancellor of Germany from 1930 to 1932, during the Weimar Republic. He was the longest serving Chancellor of the Weimar Republic, and remains a controversial figure in German politics....
. It was a coalition of the conservative German National People's Party
German National People's Party
The German National People's Party was a national conservative party in Germany during the time of the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the NSDAP it was the main nationalist party in Weimar Germany composed of nationalists, reactionary monarchists, völkisch, and antisemitic elements, and...
(DNVP) under millionaire press-baron Alfred Hugenberg
Alfred Hugenberg
Alfred Ernst Christian Alexander Hugenberg was an influential German businessman and politician. Hugenberg, a leading figure within nationalist politics in Germany for the first few decades of the twentieth century, became the country's leading media proprietor within the inter-war period...
with Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's NSDAP Nazi Party, the leadership of the Stahlhelm
Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten
The Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten also known in short form as Der Stahlhelm was one of the many paramilitary organizations that arose after the defeat of World War I in the Weimar Republic...
("Steel Helmet", a hawkish, paramilitary veterans' association) under Franz Seldte
Franz Seldte
Franz Seldte was cofounder of the German Stahlhelm paramilitary organization, a Nazi politician, and Minister for Labour of the German Reich from 1933 to 1945.-Life:...
and the Alldeutscher Verband (Pan-German League) organization.
History
The Front formed on 11 October 1931 at a meeting of representatives of the varying political groupings styling themselves the "national opposition" at the spa town of Bad HarzburgBad Harzburg
Bad Harzburg is a town in central Germany, in the Goslar district of Lower Saxony. It lies on the northern edge of the Harz mountains and is a recognised saltwater spa and climatic health resort.- Location :...
in the Free State of Brunswick
Free State of Brunswick
The Free State of Brunswick was the republic formed after the abolition of the Duchy of Brunswick in the course of the German Revolution of 1918–19. It was a state of the German Reich in the time of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany.-History:...
. The participating organizations had already undertaken the - unsuccessful - joint "Liberty Law" campaign against the Young Plan
Young Plan
The Young Plan was a program for settlement of German reparations debts after World War I written in 1929 and formally adopted in 1930. It was presented by the committee headed by American Owen D. Young. After the Dawes Plan was put into operation , it became apparent that Germany could not meet...
on war reparations in 1929. In addition to the leaderships of the DNVP and NSDAP the meeting was attended by numerous representatives on the right of German politics including the Hohenzollern
House of Hohenzollern
The House of Hohenzollern is a noble family and royal dynasty of electors, kings and emperors of Prussia, Germany and Romania. It originated in the area around the town of Hechingen in Swabia during the 11th century. They took their name from their ancestral home, the Burg Hohenzollern castle near...
princes Eitel Friedrich of Prussia
Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia
Prince Eitel Friedrich was the second son of Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany by his first wife, Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein...
and his brother August Wilhelm
Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia
Prince August Wilhelm Heinrich Günther Viktor of Prussia , called "Auwi", was the fourth son of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany by his first wife, Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein....
(sons of the exiled Emperor Wilhelm II), former general Walther von Lüttwitz
Walther von Lüttwitz
Walther von Lüttwitz was a German general known for his involvement in the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch.Lüttwitz was born in Bodland near Kreuzburg in Upper Silesia. During World War I, Lüttwitz held several high military ranks...
, former Reichswehr
Reichswehr
The Reichswehr formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when it was renamed the Wehrmacht ....
Chief of Staff Hans von Seeckt
Hans von Seeckt
Johannes Friedrich "Hans" von Seeckt was a German military officer noted for his organization of the German Army during the Weimar Republic.-Early life:...
(then a member of the national liberal German People's Party
German People's Party
The German People's Party was a national liberal party in Weimar Germany and a successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire.-Ideology:...
(DVP)), prominent members of the Prussian aristocracy and representatives of the Business Party, the Alldeutscher Verband (ADV), the Reichslandbund ("National Rural League", RLB) and the Vereinigten vaterländischen Verbände Deutschlands ("United Patriotic Associations of Germany", VvVD) under Rüdiger von der Goltz
Rüdiger von der Goltz
Gustav Adolf Joachim Rüdiger, Graf von der Goltz was German Army general during World War I. After World War I he was the commander of the army of the Baltic German-established Government of Latvia, which played an instrumental role in the defeat of Russian Bolsheviks and their local allies in...
. The non-partisan Hjalmar Schacht
Hjalmar Schacht
Dr. Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht was a German economist, banker, liberal politician, and co-founder of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank under the Weimar Republic...
, who had resigned as Reichsbank
Reichsbank
The Reichsbank was the central bank of Germany from 1876 until 1945. It was founded on 1 January 1876 . The Reichsbank was a privately owned central bank of Prussia, under close control by the Reich government. Its first president was Hermann von Dechend...
president the year before in protest against the Young Plan, also participated in the Front, which caused a great stir. However, leaders of industry and big business who had been invited to attend were notably absent.
Hugenberg had intended to use the Harzburg meeting as a forum to form a united opposition cabinet representing "national Germany" (i.e. the parties and groups of the Right) under his leadership and to agree upon a single candidate to represent the Right at the forthcoming presidential elections
German presidential election, 1932
The presidential election of 1932 was the second and final direct election to the office of President of the Reich , Germany's head of state during the 1919-1934 Weimar Republic. The incumbent President, Paul von Hindenburg, had been elected in 1925 but his seven year term expired in May...
scheduled for 1932. However, due to personal and ideological differences such a united opposition never materialised. Hitler and the Nazis in particular viewed Hugenberg and his companions with distrust and were determined to avoid making any commitments that would undermine the independence of the National Socialist movement. Although they had entered into regional coalition governments with the DNVP and despite the fact that Hugenburg and Schacht both served in Hitler's first national cabinet after the Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
on 30 January 1933, the Nazis were determined that they would take power on their own terms and only as leaders of any coalition they entered into.
In reaction to the events in Bad Harzburg, the left-wing Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold
Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold
The Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold was a Social Democratic paramilitary force formed during the Weimar Republic in 1924....
, the Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
(SPD) and the Free Trade Unions
Free Trade Unions (Germany)
The Free Trade Unions comprised the socialist trade union movement in Germany from 1890 to 1933. The term distinguished them from the liberal and Christian labor unions in Germany...
forged the Iron Front
Iron Front
The Iron Front was an anti-Nazi, anti-monarchist, and anti-Stalinist paramilitary organization formed in Germany on 16 December 1931 by the Social Democratic Party with the Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, the Reichsbanner and workers' sport clubs originally to counter the right-wing...
alliance on 16 December 1931. Ultimately the Harzburg Front failed to produce an effective or united right-wing opposition to the Weimar Republic, mainly due to the intransigence of the Nazis and the differences in political aims and opinions of the varying groups approached by Hugenberg. A motion of no confidence
Motion of no confidence
A motion of no confidence is a parliamentary motion whose passing would demonstrate to the head of state that the elected parliament no longer has confidence in the appointed government.-Overview:Typically, when a parliament passes a vote of no...
against Chancellor Brüning in the Reichstag
Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...
parliament failed. Negotiations between the Nazis, the DNVP and Stahlhelm over a shared presidential candidate broke down in February 1932, with Hitler accusing Hugenburg of pursuing "socially reactionary policies", and eventually Hitler himself stood as the NSDAP candidate for President of the Republic, while Hugenburg and his conservative allies backed former Chief of the German General Staff
German General Staff
The German General Staff was an institution whose rise and development gave the German armed forces a decided advantage over its adversaries. The Staff amounted to its best "weapon" for nearly a century and a half....
and incumbent President, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg
Paul von Hindenburg
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg , known universally as Paul von Hindenburg was a Prussian-German field marshal, statesman, and politician, and served as the second President of Germany from 1925 to 1934....
.
Further reading
- Evans, Richard J.Richard J. EvansRichard John Evans is a British academic and historian, prominently known for his history of Germany.-Life:Evans was born in London, of Welsh parentage, and is now Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge and President of Wolfson College...
, The Coming of the Third Reich (2003) Allen Lane; London - Mommsen, HansHans MommsenHans Mommsen is a left-wing German historian. He is the twin brother of the late Wolfgang Mommsen.-Biography:He was born in Marburg, the son of the historian Wilhelm Mommsen and great-grandson of the Roman historian Theodor Mommsen. He studied German, history and philosophy at the University of...
, The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy (1989) University of North Carolina Press; Chapel Hill