First of all, I must say that Herr Hugenberg is the closest a human being can come to a character of the Tin Tin stories by Hergé.
Well, Alfred von Hugenberg was the german chancellor from 1933 until his death in 1946, and remains a usually positively figure who did some very negative points and also flirted with fascism.
He crushed the NSDAP after refusing a coalition with him as he was appointed Chancellor after the fall of the Schleicher government, most people agree that Germany had a fascist menace and could end like Italy if he didn't that. On the other hand he adopted many aspects of fascism like Salazar did in Portugal, there was the Bismarckjugend, he was a anti semite but was persuaded to not act against the german jewish minority, he held mass rallies and created a cult to his personality
He increased worker's rights and made a extensive labour legislation, while also promoted christian trade unions. On another hand he crushed all socialist and communist trade unions. Interpretations vary as some believe he did that to strengh his power, while others point at the fact that these unions were supportive of the soviet stalininst dictatorship.
His government (not him, but his foreign minister, alltough his followers like to credit him for that) recognized once for all the french rule in Alsace Lorraine, and even signed a trade deal allowing Krupp to build factories there while the Renault built plants on the Rhine, the german flag flies along with the french in Stratsburg even today, on a lower level of course. He also won privileges for the german minorities on Belgium (malmedy), Czechoslovakia (the sudets) and after a victory of a similar party on austria, both countries unified. While he had these success there is the polish question, but I gonna leave this to the end.
After the death of President Hindenburg in 1934 the german monarchy was restored, but contraty to Kaiser Wilhelm III wishes he didn't restored the imperial constitution, he made a new one that kept the ban on the DKP, the NSDAP and a extreme pressure towards the liberals and the social democrats, creating a monopoly of power to the DNVP. He also restore the privileges to the german nobility, something that is polemical even today in Germany since they have to spend part of the budget with a class that either doesn't do anything all day, or that already have large estates and industries and could sustain their own wealth by themselves. After Austria joined Germany the habsburgs were granted local rule, the same for the Wittelsbach in Bavaria.
Apart from the censorship, support for Franco in the spanish civil war, political monopoly and the cult to the personality, Hugenburg main critic comes from the Polish-German war of 1939. He had lost a lot of political capital by normalizing the relations with the west and so he didn't wanted to compromise with the Poles. After failing to receive the corridor back he authorized the German army to make plans for a offensive takeover, the war began on october 11 of 1939 with three spearheads going into Poland, one from the enclave of Prussia, the second from the north and the last from Silesia. This gave Stalin the opportunity he wanted to also attack Poland as the west failed to react, and the country got splitted, with the germans retaking 1914 borders and setting up a puppet kingdom of Poland under the house of Wettin, while the belarussian and ukrainian majority regions were annexed on the soviet SSRs.
For the rest of his government he became more and more isolated internationally with the war with the Poland, combined with his declining health that prevented him from giving his energetic speeches, Von Hugenberg popularity began to suffer more and more, while still popular at the time of his death in 1946 he was far from his glory days of the mid-late 1930s. Since them the monopoly of power of the DNVP was broken up, but anti socialism remains high in germany even today, and while some chancellors tried to emulate Hugenberg they failed to get to the same level of popularity.
So, what do you think of the second Bismarck, guys?
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