Paul von Hindenburg (*1847)
A legend of the First World War and President of the Reich, Hindenburg despised democracy.
‘Hindenburg is a granite-faced, bass-voiced Field Marshal with a commanding manner that makes little corporals tremble.’
– Hubert Renfro Knickerbocker, correspondent for the New York Evening Post
Kurt von Schleicher (*1882)
A power-broking general who suddenly found himself becoming chancellor.
‘It won’t be easy to strike a deal with Schleicher. He has a clever but sly gaze. I don’t believe he is honest.’
– Adolf Hitler
Franz von Papen (*1879)
A risk-taker bent on revenge
‘[Papen looks] like an ill-tempered billy-goat trying to stand to attention. A character out of Alice in Wonderland.’
– Harry Graf Kessler, journalist and bon vivant
Adolf Hitler (*1889)
As Führer of the NSDAP, Hitler wanted to create a dictatorship.
‘When finally I walked into Adolf Hitler’s salon in the Kaiserhof Hotel, I was convinced that I was meeting the future dictator of Germany. In something less than fifty seconds I was quite sure I was not.’
– Dorothy Thompson, American reporter
Head of Propaganda for the NSDAP
‘The Führer is playing […] chess for power. It is an exciting and nerve-racking struggle, yet it also conveys the thrilling sense of being a game in which everything is at stake.’
– Joseph Goebbels