Heinrich Brüning (1885 – 1970) |
Dr. Heinrich Brüning (26. November 1885 – 30. March 1970) was a German politician who was
Chancellor of Germany.
Born in Münster in Westphalia, he grew up in a conservative, catholic family. His father died as he was only one year old.
So his late upbringing was mainly influenced by his older brother Herrmann Joseph. Brüning studied history, law and national
economy at various German universities and the London School of Economics before finalising his PhD in Bonn.
He volunteered at the start of World War I and served in the army as
machine gunner, receiving rank as an officer. In 1925 he was elected to the
Reichstag, the German Parliament, in which he represented Breslau, and in 1929, he became head of the Centre Party
(Zentrums Partei), belonging to its right wing.
Recognized for his financial acumen, he was appointed Chancellor of Germany on 29. March 1930, after the collapse of
Social Democrat Hermann Müller's coalition government in an effort to remedy the economic crisis caused by the Great
Depression. Within a month, however, his remedy to the dire situation - increased taxes and severe budget cuts - had
been rejected by the Reichstag and were only implemented in the summer, when President Paul von Hindenburg began ruling
by decree based on Article 48 of the Weimar constitution, circumventing Parliament.
The measures were very unpopular with the people - who were in a desperate social situation already - and unsuccessful.
When negotiations over rearmament failed, Brüning resigned his position as Chancellor on 30. May 1932. He was briefly
succeeded by Franz von Papen, a member of his party's own right wing, before
Adolf Hitler became Chancellor on 30. January 1933, marking the end
of the Weimar Republic.
As leader of the Centre Party he compromised over important legal changes proposed and pushed through by Hitler, which
allowed him to constitutionalise his power. Among these was the support of the Enabling Act, which gave Hitler dictatorial
authority over Germany.
Brüning fled Germany in 1934, though, to escape Hitler's political purges. He settled in the United Kingdom and later the
United States, where he taught at Harvard University's School of Business Administration. He returned to Germany in
1952. Not having been able to continue a political career in Germany, he returned to the USA in 1955 and died there in 1970.
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