alternatehistory.com

How else was the Great War rationalized if not by the moniker of the 'War to End All Wars'? After all, it would seem inconceivable to the Briton, Russian, Frenchman, or American of the 1919 that two hundred million more would have to die in another pointless World War. But such is the only path of human war, and one day, we will have to look back on ourselves and ask why we still engage in such evils. - Senator Jeannette Rankin (R-MT), 1952 Campaign Rally

~~~

Hindenburg was 84 years old, in ailing health, and not particularly keen on being president another seven years. There was really only one reason for Hindenburg to seek the presidency again in 1932 and that was because the bulk of his inner circle perceived him to be the only candidate capable of defeating a potentially overpowering challenger, Adolf Hitler, whom both Germany's conservative establishment and liberal intelligentsia viewed with suspicion.

Hindenburg had triumphed in the first electoral round on March 13th, taking 49.6% of the vote to Hitler's 30.2%, but it was not the electoral majority required to prevent a run-off round. After Hindenburg's heart attack on March 15th, and eventual death on March 25th, it seemed that the office of Reichspräsident was really up for grabs.

Hindenburg's death really did seal the outcome of the April elections. With the political mandate Hitler received, some speculate that Hitler really could have reigned in and controlled his National Socialist German Worker's Party (especially considering their overwhelming landslide victory in the 1932 elections) if Mordechai Grynszpan had shakier aim.

The rumors that Hindenburg had suffered from a heart attack while watching Fritz Lang's 1931 film, M, would haunt the filmmakers career, but ultimately pile onto the film's later mystique, as we can see today through the adulation 'beatniks' tend to pour into the work.

[Excerpt from Term Paper on 'Politics in Interbellum Germany' by Brandeis University student Noah Kirschwasser in 1956.]
Top