HARZBURG FRONT

HARZBURG FRONT; label attached to the so-called National Opposition against Heinrich Bru¨ning's* government. Comprised of the NSDAP (Hitler*), the DNVP (Alfred Hugenberg*), the Stahlhelm* (Franz Seldte*), the Pan- German League, and the Vaterla¨ndische Verba¨nde, the members convened at Hugenberg's invitation on 11 October 1931 in Bad Harzburg, two days after Bru¨ning announced a new cabinet. They were joined by Hjalmar Schacht,* Fritz Thyssen,* Hans von Seeckt,* and other notables, thus providing Hugenberg with a broad-based public demonstration. The gathering issued demands for Bru¨- ning's resignation, the termination of emergency decrees, and new elections in Germany and Prussia.* But while they voiced a desire to assume control of the state, the attendees held no common political program. By the presidential elections of April 1932, the Harzburg Front had disintegrated. Although Hitler went to Harzburg with misgivings, he profited from the meeting without needing to commit to Hugenberg's political program, as the latter had desired. With the public already viewing the NSDAP as part of the ‘‘honorable'' Right, Hitler used Harzburg to initiate active courtship of industry, the military, and the Junkers.* Karl Dietrich Bracher claimed that the coalition Hitler formed in January 1933 was largely a revival of the October 1931 affiliation. Without the Harzburg precedent, Hindenburg* would have found it infinitely more difficult to appoint Hitler Chancellor.