Background
Theodor Duesterberg was born in Darmstadt on 19 October 1875.
politician Stahlhelm Vice-President
Theodor Duesterberg was born in Darmstadt on 19 October 1875.
After serving as a Lieutenant-Colonel in World War I, Duesterberg founded the Stahlhelm on 23 December 1918, together with the manufacturer, Franz Seldt, calling on ex-servicemen ‘without distinction of class' to fight against ‘the slavery of the Versailles Diktat'. By 1931 it consisted of twenty-three federal units with as many as 14,000 local groups and a million uniformed men with military training at its disposal. The largest of the para-military organizations, its leaders included men belonging to the old aristocracy with important connections in the army, the industrial and political élites.
In 1931 the Stahlhelm was among the rightist nationalist groups which sought to combine in the Harzburg Front with the Nazis to overthrow Chancellor Brüning and establish a ‘truly national government'. The Front failed in its objective and when Duesterberg ran in the presidential elections of March 1932, the Nazis destroyed his chances by revealing that he was of partly Jewish descent. His candidature was withdrawn for the run-off elections in April 1932. When Hitler came to power on 30 January 1933 he nonetheless offered Duesterberg a post in his cabinet, which the latter refused, in contrast to his colleague Seldte, who became Reich Minister of Labour.
Following the bloodbath of June 1934, Duesterberg was temporarily sent to a concentration camp for criticizing the Nazis. He survived the Third Reich.
The Stahlhelm's own role in consistently undermining the Weimar Republic and thereby abetting the National Socialists was ignored.
Duesterberg died on 4 May 1950 in Hameln.
(The author denounced the ‘insane Jew hatred preached by H...)
1949The Stahlhelm sought to mobilize the spirit of the frontline soldier against ‘the heresy of Internationalism, Pacifism and Marxism’, demanding ‘adequate lehensraum' for Germany.