„Benzin verdirbt den Charakter“
zitiert nach Hans-Otto Meissner: Junge Jahre im Reichspräsidentenpalais, 1988, S. 221 books.google https://books.google.de/books?id=SCgfAAAAMAAJ&q=benzin
Zitate von Paul von Hindenburg
5 2
Paul von Hindenburg
Geburtstag: 2. Oktober 1847
Todesdatum: 2. August 1934
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg war ein deutscher Generalfeldmarschall und Politiker. Im Ersten Weltkrieg übte die von ihm geführte Oberste Heeresleitung von 1916 bis 1918 quasi diktatorisch die Regierungsgewalt aus. Hindenburg wurde 1925 zum zweiten Reichspräsidenten der Weimarer Republik gewählt. 1932 wurde er wiedergewählt und blieb bis zu seinem Tod Reichspräsident. Am 30. Januar 1933 ernannte er Adolf Hitler widerwillig zum Reichskanzler.
Zitate Paul von Hindenburg
„Als Mensch habe ich gedacht, gehandelt und geirrt. Maßgebend in meinem Leben und Tun war für mich nicht der Beifall der Welt, sondern die eigene Überzeugung, die Pflicht und das Gewissen.“
Zur Einführung. In: Aus meinem Leben http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30695?msg. Leipzig 1920, S. V.
„Wer das gesehen hat, wird immer dran denken … aber das ist nun Mal so in einem Krieg … jeder Krieg ist eine furchtbare Sache.“
über die Schlacht bei Königgrätz 1866 zitiert nach Hans-Otto Meissner: Junge Jahre im Reichspräsidentenpalais, 1988, S. 235 books.google https://books.google.de/books?id=SCgfAAAAMAAJ&q=furchtbare
„Notfalls kann ich immer noch als Oberbefehlshaber eingreifen.“
Ende Mai 1934 zum niederländischen Botschafter Johan Paul van Limburg Stirum über die Machtansprüche der Nationalsozialisten, zitiert nach Fritz Günther von Tschirschky: Erinnerungen eines Hochverräters, 1972, S. 240 books.google http://books.google.de/books?hl=de&id=5l8bAAAAMAAJ&dq=notfalls.
„Der Krieg bekommt mir wie eine Badekur.“
»Geflügelte Worte«, Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig, 1981, S. 601
„Prosperity can come through peace alone.“
Kontext: Prosperity can come through peace alone. The German people are in favor of all possible means to make war impossible. I have seen three wars. A man who has seen three wars never will wish another war. He must be a friend of peace.
But I am not a pacifist. All my impressions of war are so bad that I could be for it only under the sternest necessity — the necessity of fighting Bolshevism or of defending one's country.
„All we know is that, sometimes, in our battles with the Russians, we had to remove the mounds of enemy corpses from before our trenches, in order to get a clear field of fire against fresh assaulting waves.“
The Great War: A Combat History of the First World War (2013) by Peter Hart, p. 242
Undated
„I have always been a Monarchist. In sentiment I still am. Now it is too late for me to change. But it is not for me to say that the new way is not the better way, the right way. So it may prove to be.“
As quoted in TIME magazine (13 January 1930)
President
„Interview of 1929, as quoted in "Nations are greatly concerned over death of German President" in Berkeley Daily Gazette“
1 August 1934
Variant translation:
I am not a pacifist. That is not my attitude. But all my impressions of war are so bad that I could be for it only under the sternest necessity — the necessity of fighting Bolshevism or of defending one's country.
As quoted in TIME magazine (13 January 1930)
President
„In case of a resumption of hostilities we are militarily in a position to reconquer, in the east, the province of Posen and to defend our frontier. In the west, we cannot, in view of the numerical superiority of the Entente and its ability to surround us on both flanks, count on repelling successfully a determined attack of our enemies. A favorable outcome of our operations is therefore very doubtful, but as a soldier I would rather perish in honor than sign a humiliating peace.“
Letter to Friedrich Ebert after the Treaty of Versailles was presented to Germany (17 June 1919), quoted in Andreas Dorpalen, Hindenburg and the Weimar Republic (Princeton University Press, 1964), p. 39 and John W. Wheeler-Bennett, The Nemesis of Power: The German Army in Politics 1918-1945 (London: Macmillan, 1964), p. 52
Chief of the German General Staff
„If I address the following lines to you, I do so because I am credibly informed that you, like myself, as a true German, love your fatherland before everything, putting aside personal opinions and wishes, as I have had to do in order to help my country in its hour of need. In this spirit I have joined forces with you to rescue our people from a threatening collapse. … The fate of the German people has been laid in your hands. Upon your determination it will depend whether the German Reich acquires a new impetus. I am ready, and behind me stand the whole Army, to support you unreservedly. We all know that after this lamentable upshot of the war, the reconstruction of the realm can only be effected upon new foundations and in new forms.“
Letter to Friedrich Ebert (8 December 1918), quoted in John W. Wheeler-Bennett, The Nemesis of Power: The German Army in Politics 1918-1945 (London: Macmillan, 1964), p. 29
Chief of the German General Staff
„In the middle of August I did not consider that the time had come for us to despair of a successful conclusion of the war. In spite of certain distressing but isolated occurrences in the last battle, I certainly hoped that the Army would be in a position to continue to hold out. I fully realised what the homeland had already borne in the way of sacrifices and privations and what they would possibly still have to bear.“
As quoted in The Great War: Sources and Evidence (1995) by David Stewart, James Fitzgerald and Alf Pickard, p. 269
Undated
„I need them for the manoeuvring of my left wing in the next war.“
Recommending the annexation of the Baltic Provinces at the Crown Council at Kreuznach (18 December 1917), quoted in John W. Wheeler-Bennett, The Nemesis of Power: The German Army in Politics 1918-1945 (London: Macmillan, 1964), p. 511, n. 2
Chief of the German General Staff
„In the Great War ledger, the page on which the Russian losses were written has been torn out. No one knows the figure. Five or eight Million?“
As quoted in With Snow on Their Boots : The Tragic Odyssey of the Russian Expeditionary Force in France During World War I (1999) by Jamie H. Cockfield, p. 28
Undated
„Fundamentally, Britain is responsible for the war. She was jealous. British business men wanted this war. It is a British business war. … We have no dislike for France, nor Russia. We think highly of the French. But Britain! We hate Britain!“
Interview with Senator Beveridge (March 1915), Paul Dehn, Hindenburg, als Erzieher (1918), p. 43, quoted in W. W. Coole (ed.), Thus Spake Germany (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1941), p. 174
Supreme Commander of All German Forces in the East
