Oskar von Hindenburg
Oskar Wilhelm Robert Paul Ludwig Hellmuth von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (31 January 1883 – 12 February 1960) was a German Generalleutnant. The son and aide-de-camp to Generalfeldmarschall and Reich President Paul von Hindenburg had considerable influence on the appointment of Adolf Hitler as German chancellor in January 1933.
Oskar von Hindenburg
Oskar Wilhelm Robert Paul Ludwig Hellmuth von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg
31 January 1883
Königsberg, Prussia, German Empire
12 February 1960 (aged 77)
Bad Harzburg, Lower Saxony, West Germany
German Empire (1903–1918) 
Weimar Republic (1918–1933) 
Nazi Germany (1933–1934, 1939–1945)
1903–1934, 1939–1945
Early life[edit]
Oskar von Hindenburg was born in Königsberg, East Prussia (present-day Kaliningrad, Russia), the only son of Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934) and his wife Gertrud Wilhelmine (1860–1921). He had two sisters, Irmengard Pauline (1880–1948) and Annemarie (1891–1978). In 1921, he married Margarete von Marenholtz (1897–1988); the couple had four children.
Hitler's appointment[edit]
In a meeting with the "camarilla" around Franz von Papen and State Secretary Otto Meissner on 22 January 1933, Oskar von Hindenburg, who like his father had long been opposed to making Hitler chancellor, was persuaded to support the plan to have Hitler appointed but having von Papen control him from behind the scenes as Vice-Chancellor. At the same time, Oskar was stuck in the major Eastern Aid (Osthilfe) scandal, concerning a Weimar Republic programme for developing the agrarian economy in eastern Germany. Moreover, he was under pressure due to his manor in Neudeck, which the German government with large contributions from German industrialists on initiative of Elard von Oldenburg-Januschau gave to President Hindenburg on the occasion of his 80th birthday on 2 October 1927. The president had titled the deed in the name of his son Oskar, according to his political opponents ostensibly to avoid payment of inheritance taxes. Shortly after Hitler's appointment, Hindenburg and his descendants were officially exempt from taxes by law.
World War II[edit]
Discharged from active military service in the rank of major general in 1934, Oskar von Hindenburg had retired to Neudeck manor. During World War II, Oskar von Hindenburg was again appointed general commanding in East Prussia, where he supervised several prisoner of war camps. Promoted to Generalleutnant in 1942, he finally requested permission to resign because he considered the position to be a demotion when compared to his previous military and government positions. As a member of the Führerreserve, he lived in Neudeck until the advance of Red Army troops late in the war forced him to flee to his brother-in-law in Medingen. Previously, he had supervised the dismantling of the Tannenberg Memorial honoring his father's 1914 victory over the Russians. He also had his parents' remains moved west. In the 1950s, Polish authorities razed the site, leaving few traces.
Later life[edit]
In the Nuremberg trials, Oskar von Hindenburg was a witness against Franz von Papen. In 1956, he won a lawsuit against South German Publishers, which in 1954 posthumously published the book by Baron Erwein von Aretin, Crown and Chains. Memories of a Bavarian Nobleman alleging that in 1930 Oskar von Hindenburg had obtained illegal funding from the Eastern Aid programme. Oskar von Hindenburg lived in Medingen, West Germany after the war. Having suffered a heart attack in early 1960 he traveled to a spa in Bad Harzburg, where he died on 12 February 1960. He was buried at Waldfriedhof Medingen.
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