Hindenburg, Paul von (1847-1934)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1934 Aug 8 p. 1

Birth date: 1847

text of obituary:

Aged German President Called by Death Last Week

Berlin. — Paul von Hindenburg, Germany's internationally known and loved soldier, statesman, and aristocrat, passed away last Wednesday at his home at Neubeck [sic Neudeck]. By his fatherland he was honored in death as he had been in life. For the last nine years he had stood at the head of the nation in troubled times.

Death came peacefully and without pain after weeks of suffering, thru which the venerable field marshal-general maintained his usual proud and erect carriage.

Von Hindenburg, who was deeply religious, lifted his hands in prayer.

Then, with a look of contentment on his face, and hands folded on his breast, he fell into a sleep from which he never awoke.

The huge, fortress-like memorial at Tannenburg, erected near Hohenstein on the spot where von Hindenburg's army turned back invading Russians 20 years ago this month, was the scene of his funeral.

His body lay in this monument to his military prowess and his patriotism.

His family, it was announced in Berlin, yielded to a plea of the government that the final resting place of the hero be given national significance.

Von Hindenburg himself had expressed the wish to be buried in the Neubeck [sic Neudeck] estate, which was so close to his heart in his later years.

There the funeral oration was also held by Chancellor Adolf Hitler, who assumed Von Hindenberg's [sic Von Hindenburg's] presidential powers while retaining the chancellorship.

With his voice choked in emotion Hitler declared: "We want to preserve the miracle of this new resurrection of our people as a precious inheritance of a great age and we want to pass it on to the generations that come after us. He who thus observed fidelity to his people shall himself ever remain unforgotten in fidelity."