- Harzburg Front
The Harzburg Front (also known as the Harzburger Front) was a short-lived
right-wing political organization inGermany , formed in1931 as an attempt to present a unified opposition to the government ofHeinrich Brüning , Chancellor of theWeimar Republic . It was a coalition of the leadership of the Stahlhelm (a hawkish, paramilitary veterans' association, also known as Steel Helmets),Adolf Hitler 's National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP - the Nazi Party), and the Deutschnationale Volkspartei (German National Peoples' Party -DNVP ) under millionaire press-baronAlfred Hugenberg .The Front was formed at a meeting of representatives of the varying political groupings styling themselves the "national opposition" at the spa town of
Bad Harzburg , Brunswick, on 21 October 1931. In addition to the leaderships of theDNVP andNSDAP the meeting was attended by numerous representatives on the right of German politics including theHohenzollern princes Eitel Friedrich and August Wilhelm (sons of the exiled KaiserWilhelm II ), former generalWalther von Lüttwitz , former Reichwehr Chief of StaffHans von Seeckt , former Reichsbank presidentHjalmar Schacht , prominent members of the Prussian aristocracy and representatives of the Business Party, the Pan-German League (ADV), the National Rural League (RLB) and the United Patriotic Associations of Germany (VVVD).Hjalmar Schacht , the Reich's Banker, also participated in the Front. However, leaders of industry and big business who had been invited to attend were notably absent.Hugenberg's intention had been to use the Harzburg meeting as a forum to form a united opposition cabinet representing "national Germany" (ie. 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. 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 later entered into regional coalition governments with theDNVP and despite the fact that Hugenburg and Schacht both served in Hitler's first national cabinet after February 1933, the Nazis were determined that they would take power on their own terms and only as leaders of any coalition they entered into.Ultimately the 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. Negotiations between the Nazis and theDNVP 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 MarshalPaul von Hindenburg . [Larry Eugene Jones, "The Harzburg Rally of October 1931" in "German Studies Review" XXIX (3), 483-494]References
Further reading
*Evans, Richard J., "The Coming of the Third Reich" (2003) Allen Lane; London
*cite journal | title=The Harzburg Rally of October 1931 | last=Jones | first=Larry Eugene | authorlink=Larry Eugene Jones | journal=German Studies Review | volume=XXIX | issue=3 | pages=483–494
*Mommsen, Hans, "The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy" (1989) University of North Carolina Press; Chapel Hill
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