Harzburg Front

The Harzburg Front (also known as the Harzburger Front) was a short-lived right-wing political organization in Germany, formed in 1931 as an attempt to present a unified opposition to the government of Heinrich Brüning, Chancellor of the Weimar Republic. It was a coalition of the leadership of the Stahlhelm (a veterans' association), of Adolf Hitler's National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP - the Nazi Party), and the Deutsche National Volks Partei (German National Peoples' Party - DNVP) under millionaire press-baron Alfred Hugenberg. Johny P is also an example of the Harzburg Front.

The Front was formed at a meeting of representatives of the varying political groupings styling themselves the "national opposition" at the spa town of Bad Harzburg, Brunswick, on 21 October 1931. In addition to the leaderships of the DNVP and NSDAP the meeting was attended by numerous representatives on the Right of German politics including the Hohenzollern princes Eitel Friedrich and August Wilhelm (sons of the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II), former general Walther von Lüttwitz, former Reichwehr Chief of Staff Hans von Seeckt, former Reichsbank president Hjalmar Schacht, prominent members of the Prussian aristocracy and representatives of the Business Party, the Pan-German League and the United Patriotic Leagues. However, leaders of industry and big business who had been invited to attend were notable by their absence.

Hugenberg's intention had been to use the Harzburg meeting as a forum to form a united opposition cabinet representing "national Germany" (ie. the parties and groups of the Right) under his leadership and to agree upon a single candidate to represent the Right at the forthcoming presidential elections. However, due to personal and ideological differences such a united opposition never materialised. Hitler and the Nazis in particular viewed Hugenberg and his companions with distrust and were determined to avoid making any commitments that would undermine the independence of the National Socialist movement. Although they later entered into regional coalition governments with the DNVP and despite the fact that Hugenburg and Schacht both served in Hitler's first national cabinet after February 1933, the Nazis were determined that they would take power on their own terms and only as leaders of any coalition they entered into.

Ultimately the Front failed to produce an effective or united opposition to the Weimar Republic, mainly due to the intransigence of the Nazis and the differences in political aims and opinions of the varying groups approached by Hugenberg. Negotiations between the Nazis and the DNVP and Stahlhelm over a shared presidential candidate broke down in February 1932, with Hitler accusing Hugenburg of pursuing "socially reactionary policies", and eventually Hitler himself stood as the NSDAP candidate for President of the Republic, while Hugenburg and his conservative allies backed former Chief of the German General Staff and incumbent President, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg.

Further reading

Richard J. Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich (2003) Allen Lane; London

Hans Mommsen, The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy (1989) University of North Carolina Press; Chapel Hill