Alfred Hugenberg
| Alfred Hugenberg | |
|---|---|
As Reich Minister, 1933
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| Born |
Alfred Ernst Christian Alexander Hugenberg 19 June 1865 Hanover, Kingdom of Hanover |
| Died | 12 March 1951 (aged 85) Kükenbruch, West Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Education | Doctorate in economics |
| Alma mater | Göttingen, Heidelberg, Berlin, Strassburg |
| Employer | Krupp |
| Known for | Politician, media tycoon |
| Title | Minister of Economics and Agriculture |
| Term | January 1933 – 29 June 1933 |
| Predecessor | Hermann Warmbold (Economics), Magnus von Braun (Agriculture) |
| Successor | Kurt Schmitt (Economics), Richard Walther Darré (Agriculture) |
| Political party | German National People's Party |
| Spouse(s) | Gertrud Adickes |
Alfred Ernst Christian Alexander Hugenberg (19 June 1865 – 12 March 1951) was an influential German businessman and politician. A leading figure in nationalist politics in Germany for the first few decades of the twentieth century, he became the country's leading media proprietor during the inter-war period. As leader of the German National People's Party he was instrumental in helping Adolf Hitler become Chancellor of Germany and served in his first cabinet in 1933, hoping to control Hitler and use him as his "tool." Those plans backfired, and by the end of 1933 Hugenberg had been pushed to the sidelines. Although Hugenberg continued to serve as a "guest" member of the Reichstag until 1945, he wielded no political influence.
Born in Hanover to Carl Hugenberg, a royal Hanoverian official who in 1867 entered the Prussian Landtag as a member of the National Liberal Party, he studied law in Göttingen, Heidelberg, and Berlin, as well as economics in Strassburg. In 1891, Hugenberg was awarded a PhD at Strassburg for his dissertation Internal Colonization in Northwest Germany. In Internal Colonization in Northwest Germany, Hugenberg set out three ideas that guided his political thought for the rest of his life:
Later in 1891, Hugenberg co-founded, along with Karl Peters, the ultra-nationalist General German League and in 1894 its successor movement the Pan-German League (Alldeutscher Verband). From 1894 to 1899, Hugenberg worked as a Prussian civil servant in Posen (modern Poznań, Poland). In 1900 Hugenberg married his second cousin, Gertrud Adickes (1868 - 1960). At the same time he was also involved in a scheme in the Province of Posen where the Prussian Settlement Commission bought up land from Poles in order to settle ethnic Germans there. In 1899 Hugenberg had called for "annihilation of Polish population". Hugenberg was strongly anti-Polish, and criticized the Prussian government for its "inadequate" Polish policies, favoring a more vigorous policy of Germanization.
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