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Paul von Hindenburg

1847 – 1934

dead

Paul von Hindenburg was a German military officer who led the Imperial German Army during the second half of the First World War and served as the second president of the Weimar Republic from 1925 until his death in August 1934. Despite personally disliking Adolf Hitler, in January 1933 he appointed Hitler chancellor in the belief that he could be controlled, and he subsequently signed the Reichstag Fire Decree and Enabling Act that gave the Nazi regime legal cover to dismantle the Weimar Constitution. His death cleared the way for Hitler to merge the offices of president and chancellor and assume absolute power as Führer.