- Theodor Duesterberg
Theodor Duesterberg (IPA2|ˈdyːstɐbɛʁk;
October 19 ,1875 –November 4 ,1950 ) was a leader of theStahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten , inGermany prior to the Nazi seizure of power.Background
Born the son of an army surgeon in
Darmstadt , Duesterberg entered thePrussian Army in 1893 after training in the cadet corps. In 1900, Duesterberg was part of the East Asian Expedition Corps that saw action inChina during theBoxer Rebellion . Two years later, Duesterberg became an officer and held a variety of army commands prior toWorld War I . During the war, Duesterberg served in the Prussian War Ministry and eventually attained the rank oflieutenant colonel . Following the war, Duesterberg resigned from the army in protest over theVersailles Treaty , which Duesterberg viewed as being extremely unfair to Germany. Duesterberg subsequently decided to enter politics and joined theGerman National People's Party (DNVP) in 1919.Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten
After various disagreements with the party leadership, however, Duesterberg left the DNVP in 1923 and joined the nationalistic and pro-monarchy
Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten , which largely consisted of ex-servicemen disgruntled with theWeimar Republic . Duesterberg quickly moved through the party hierarchy and by 1924 was one of two of its federal leaders (the other beingFranz Seldte ). Under Duesterberg’s leadership, the Stahlhelm became Germany’s largestFreikorps group.In the late 1920s, Duesterberg allied the Stahlhelm with the
Nazi Party and other right wing groups and actively protested in 1929 against theYoung Plan . Two years later, Duesterberg allied the Stahlhelm with the Nazis, DNVP, and other right wing groups in order to form theHarzburger Front . The Harzburger Front attempted to bring about the downfall ofHeinrich Brüning and the Weimar Republic, but it eventually dissolved due toAdolf Hitler ’s unwillingness to subordinate the Nazi Party to such a vast right wing coalition on a long term basis. Many in the traditional nationalist-right were discomforted with the NSDAP's excessive anti-Semitism and its near-socialist views (especially that of theSA , theStrasser brothers , etc). After the dissolution of the Harzburger Front, Duesterberg continued to lead the Stahlhelm and maintained the organization’s alliance with the DNVP.Presidential nomination
In 1932, Duesterberg was nominated by the Stahlhelm and DNVP to run for
President of Germany , but the Nazis ultimately destroyed any chance Duesterberg had of gaining mass support from the German people when they revealed he had Jewish ancestry. This revelation caused Duesterberg to poll poorly in the first ballot of the election, and he eventually withdrew from the race.Ironically, Duesterberg was offered a position in Hitler’s cabinet when Hitler became
Chancellor of Germany in 1933, but Duesterberg flatly refused the proposal. Franz Seldte, however, did enter Hitler’s cabinet, which undermined the Stahlhelm and Duesterberg’s authority over the organization, and thus he resigned his leadership position in 1933.Arrest
In 1934, Duesterberg was arrested by the Nazis during the
Night of the Long Knives and sent toDachau concentration camp , where he was briefly interned. After being released, Duesterberg drifted into obscurity. He was known to have had limited contacts with the anti-NaziCarl Friedrich Goerdeler in 1943, but Duesterberg ultimately did not play any role in Goerdeler’s plots against Hitler. In 1949, Duesterberg wrote "The Steel Helmet and Hitler," in which he defended his pre-war political career and the Stahlhelm and detailed the movement’s independence from the Nazi Party. A year later, Duesterberg died inHameln .External links
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