Paul von Hindenburg assassinated on November 9th, 1930

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_von_Hindenburg

He is shot by a slightly insane, pro-republican and anti-stalinist communist that believes Hindenburg is the head of a capitalist plot to use the economical crisis to abolish the republic, suspend civil liberties and establish a military dictatorship with the help of Poland and Italy controled by the "internationalist industrialists" and the "rotten old prussian guard".


What are the effects on German politics?
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_von_Hindenburg

He is shot by a slightly insane, pro-republican and anti-stalinist communist that believes Hindenburg is the head of a capitalist plot to use the economical crisis to abolish the republic, suspend civil liberties and establish a military dictatorship with the help of Poland and Italy controled by the "internationalist industrialists" and the "rotten old prussian guard".


What are the effects on German politics?

Bruning is now President, instead of Chancellor, so now he probably has even less checks on his power, as he can simply appoint a toady who'll agree to much the same policies he does of using emergency powers to push for (misdirected) economic reform. The Depression continues as scheduled.

OTOH, I don't think Bruning would appoint Hitler as Chancellor. Though given the presidential elections are in '32, maybe Hitler may just win the Presidency... Bruning, after all, has none of the nationalist mythos and charisma Hindenburg would have, plus Hitler could run a negative campaign on "Centrist failure".

Of course, given that Bruning is still somewhat autocratic, maybe he just voids the election and presidentializes Germany?
 
In 1930, the nazis "only" had 20% of the votes, so I think Hitler wouldn't be elected. In 1932, things were already much worse. So you may save the republic with your POD.

Brüning becoming president automatically? Not sure about the Weimar constitution, but I think not. I'm not even sure whether the Centrum party would automatically make him candidate. They might also have former chancellor Marx run again, and the SPD will probably nominate Prussian minister president Otto Braun, or Brüning predecessor Hermann Müller.
 
There were supposed to be elections as soon as possible after the death of the old President, wasn't there? Like in '25.
 
There were supposed to be elections as soon as possible after the death of the old President, wasn't there? Like in '25.

Yes, though in 1925 "as soon as possible" took a few months.

The Weimar Constitution is online at

http://www.zum.de/psm/weimar/weimar_vve.php

but doesn't make the point clear. The Chancellor takes over Presidential duties "until the next election" but it isn't specified when that should be, so in theory I suppose Bruning could act until the expiry of Hindenburg's term, unless a law had been passed providing otherwise. In view of how things were going though, it certainly wouldn't have been the smartest move. More likely there's an election in late 1930 or early 1931, and somebody like Wilhelm Marx gets in.
 
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The chancellor could only act on a short term vacancy (matter of days); if a longer period was to be covered, the Reichstag had to pass a special law. - This is quite clear in the German text of the constitution.

As long as there was no automatic vice RP (in 1932 the chairman of the Imperial Court of Justice was added as such to the text of the constitution), new elections for a new RP were required.

That means, the Reichstag had to pass a law covering the preparation period and the elections.
 
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