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Harzburg Front | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Adolf Hitler Alfred Hugenberg |
| Founded | 11 October 1931; 94 years ago (11 October 1931) |
| Dissolved | 1933; 93 years ago (1933) |
| Ideology | Völkisch nationalism[1] |
| Political position | Far-right |
| Member parties | NSDAP DNVP Der Stahlhelm Agricultural League Pan-German League |
| Colors | Black White Red (German Imperial colours) |
TheHarzburg Front (German:Harzburger Front) was a short-livedfar-right[2] and anti-democratic[3] political alliance inWeimar Germany, formed in 1931 as an attempt to present a unified opposition to the government of ChancellorHeinrich Brüning. It was a coalition of thenational conservativeGerman National People's Party (DNVP) under millionaire press-baronAlfred Hugenberg withAdolf Hitler'sNational Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), the leadership ofDer Stahlhelm paramilitary veterans' association, theAgricultural League and thePan-German League organizations.
The Front formed on Sunday, 11 October 1931 at a convention of representatives of the varying political groupings styling themselves the "national opposition" at the spa town ofBad Harzburg in theFree State of Brunswick, where the NSDAP'sDietrich Klagges had just been elected State Minister of the Interior. By choosing the province, the organizers avoided a rigid approval procedure, conducted by the Social DemocraticPrussian government, as well as possibleCommunist protests. Several local communists were nevertheless arrested. They were charged with sedition and compromising public security. Many Harzburg citizens appreciated the gathering (and the accompanying revenues).[4]
The participating organisations had already undertaken the ultimately-unsuccessful joint "Liberty Law" campaign against theYoung Plan on war reparations in 1929, by which Hitler had become an accepted ally of anti-democratic national conservative circles. In the course of theGreat Depression, the Reich government under the Social Democratic chancellorHermann Müller had broken up in March 1930, whereafter formerChief of the German General Staff and Reich President Field MarshalPaul von Hindenburg had promoted the succession ofCentre politician Heinrich Brüning to rule by authoritarianArticle 48 emergency decrees. His policies however intensified the crisis and in theelection of September 1930, the NSDAP made the breakthrough with 18.2% of the vote cast (+15.7%), while the DNVP dropped to 7.0% (-7.3%). Hitler had outpaced his conservative associates, and he reluctantly assented to appear at Bad Harzburg, but he had no intention to serve as Hugenberg's assistant.
In addition to the leadership of the DNVP and NSDAP,Sturmabteilung (SA) chiefErnst Röhm,Reichsführer-SSHeinrich Himmler andReichstag MPHermann Göring, the meeting was attended by numerous representatives on the right of German politics including theHohenzollern princesEitel Friedrich of Prussia and his brotherAugust Wilhelm (sons of the exiled EmperorWilhelm II) and further prominent members of thePrussian aristocracy, theStahlhelm leadersFranz Seldte andTheodor Duesterberg, former GeneralWalther von Lüttwitz behind theKapp Putsch and former commander of theBaltic Sea Division andBaltische Landeswehr GeneralRüdiger von der Goltz, formerReichswehr Chief of Staff GeneralHans von Seeckt (then Reichstag MP of the national liberalGerman People's Party), the Pan-German League chairmanHeinrich Class, State Minister Klagges as well as some representatives of the business party such as steel magnateFritz Thyssen and theVereinigten vaterländischen Verbände Deutschlands ("United Patriotic Associations of Germany", VvVD) under von der Goltz. The non-partisanHjalmar Schacht, as a highly respected fiscal expert who had resigned asReichsbank president the year before in protest against the Young Plan, vehemently spoke against Brüning's economic and financial policy, which caused a great stir. However, most leaders of industry and big business who had been invited to attend were notably absent. OnlyErnst Brandi attended.[4]
Hugenberg had intended to use the Harzburg meeting as a forum to form a united opposition cabinet representing "national Germany" (the parties and the groups of the right) under his leadership and to agree upon a single candidate to represent the right at the forthcomingpresidential elections scheduled for 1932. However, personal and ideological differences caused such a united opposition never to materialise. The evening before the meeting, Hitler had been personally received by President Hindenburg for the first time and in the night left for Bad Harzburg conscious that he would be the actual strong man on the right.
The NSDAP viewed the aging Hugenberg and his companions with distrust and contempt. It was determined to avoid making any commitments that would undermine the independence of its movement. Although it had entered regional coalition governments with the DNVP, and Hugenberg and Schacht would both serve in Hitler's first nationalcabinet, the NSDAP was already determined that it would take power on its own terms and only as leaders of any coalition that it entered. Until the final rally, Hitler evaded all joint appearances. In the end, the participants found no common ground beyond their enmity against theBrüning Cabinet andOtto Braun's Prussian government.[4]
Amotion of no confidence against Chancellor Brüning, jointly initiated in the Reichstag on 16 October, failed. In reaction to the events in Bad Harzburg, the left-wingReichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, theSocial Democratic Party (SPD) and theFree Trade Unions forged theIron 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 NSDAP and the differences in political aims and opinions of the varying groups approached by Hugenberg. Negotiations between the NSDAP, the DNVP andStahlhelm over a shared presidential candidate broke down in February 1932, with Hitler accusing Hugenberg of pursuing "socially reactionary policies", and eventually Hitler himself (quickly naturalized by the Free State of Brunswick) stood as the NSDAP candidate for president, while Hugenberg and his conservative allies presented Theodor Duesterberg in the first round and in the second round backed incumbent President Paul von Hindenburg.[5]
However, when Brüning's government finally collapsed in May with Hindenburg appointing the "Cabinet of Barons" under Centre politicianFranz von Papen, both sides again approached, culminating in the formation of acoalition government in the course of theMachtergreifung on 30 January 1933. In view of thefederal election scheduled for March, the DNVP together with theStahlhelm and the Agricultural League on 11 February once again formed a unitedKampffront Schwarz-Weiß-Rot ("Struggle Front Black-White-Red" named after the colours of theGerman Empire) electoral alliance, before all right-wing organizations were dissolved by the NSDAP as part of theGleichschaltung process.