Paul von Hindenburg

Coming from an aristocratic Prussian family, Paul von Hindenburg joined the Prussian army as a young man, retiring as a general in 1913 at age 66. Recalled to duty during World War I, he was placed in command of the German forces at the battle of Tannenberg in 1914 against the Russians which, due to a combination of his skillful tactics and staggeringly incompetent leadership on the part of the Russian generals, resulted in a disastrous defeat for the Russian army, which lost an estimated 350,000 men. In 1916 he was made supreme commander of all German forces. He retired from the army again in 1919, but in 1925 returned to public life as a candidate for President of Germany, and won the election. He ran for re-election in 1932, not so much because he wanted to but because he was considered the only candidate who could beat Adolf Hitler, which he proceeded to do. Hindenburg had little use for Hitler and the Nazi party and did what he could to thwart their grab for power, but it was too little too late--in 1933, due to the Nazi party's gains in local and national elections and their majority of seats in the German parliament, Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor, and later he signed the Enabling Act of 1933, which granted sweeping powers to the government formed by Hitler. Frustrated, frail and in poor health, Hindenburg died the next year.