Kurt von Schleicher
Kurt Ferdinand Friedrich Hermann von Schleicher (7 April 1882 – 30 June 1934) was a German general and the last Chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic. A rival for power with Hitler, he was murdered by Hitler’s SS during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934.
About Kurt von Schleicher in brief
Kurt Ferdinand Friedrich Hermann von Schleicher (7 April 1882 – 30 June 1934) was a German general and the last Chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic. A rival for power with Hitler, he was murdered by Hitler’s SS during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934. He was born into a military family in Brandenburg an der Havel. He rose to become a General Staff officer in the Railway Department of the German General Staff and served in the General Staff of the Supreme Army Command during World War I. In 1930 he was instrumental in the toppling of Hermann Müller’s government and the appointment of Heinrich Brüning as Chancellor. He enlisted the services of the Nazi Party’s SA as an auxiliary force for the Reichswehr from 1931 onward. In 1932 he served as Minister of Defense in the cabinet of Franz von Papen and was the prime mover behind the Preußenschlag coup against the Social Democratic government of Prussia. In 1933, facing a political impasse and deteriorating health, he resigned and recommended Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in his stead. He and his wife Elisabeth were murdered on the orders of Hitler during the night of the long Knives. He had an older sister, Thusnelda Luise Amalie Magdalene, and a younger brother, Ludwig-Ferdinand Friedrich. On 28 July 1931, Schleiher married Elis Elizabeth von Schlicher, daughter of the Prussian general Victor von Hennigs.
She had previously been married to Schleichher’s cousin, Bogislav von Schliemann, whom she had divorced on 4 May 1931. He studied at the Hauptkadettenanstalt in Lichterfelde from 1896 to 1900 and was promoted to Leutnant on 22 March 1900. He served as adjutant of the Fusilier battalion of his regiment from 1906 to October 1909. From 1 November 1906 to 31 October 1909 he was assigned to the 3rd Foot Guards, where he befriended fellow junior officers Oskar von Hindenburg, Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord and Erich von Manstein. He joined the Railway Staff at his own request and became a protégé of his immediate superior, Lieutenant Colonel Wilhelm Groener. From November 1916 to May 1917 he was tasked with administering the Kriegsamt, an agency that led the war economy. In 1917 he wrote a manuscript criticising war profiteering in certain industrial sectors, causing a sensation and earning him the approval of the social Democratic Party of Germany of Friedrich Ebert and Ebert’s son, Friedrich Friedrich. In 1929 he became head of the Defense Ministry’s Office of Ministerial Affairs and succeeded Groener as minister of defense. In 1931 he was appointed Chancellor and succeeded Papen as Chancellor on 3 December. He negotiated with Gregor Strasser on a possible defection of the latter from theNazi Party, but the plan was abandoned.
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