The “Iron Front” for the “Iron One” – Reich Presidential Election 1932
In 1931, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, the Federation of Republican War Participants, the General Confederation of German Trade Unions (ADGB), the General Confederation of Freelance Employees (AfA-Bund) and the Workers’ Gymnastics and Sports Federation (ATSB) formed the “Iron Front”. The goal was to protect the constitution of the Weimar Republic and to fight against anti-republican efforts. In addition to the NSDAP, the extreme right-wing conservative group Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten and the KPD were seen as enemies of the Weimar Republic.
The “Iron Front” for the “Iron One” – Reich Presidential Election 1932
In 1931, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, the Federation of Republican War Participants, the General Confederation of German Trade Unions (ADGB), the General Confederation of Freelance Employees (AfA-Bund) and the Workers’ Gymnastics and Sports Federation (ATSB) formed the “Iron Front”. The goal was to protect the constitution of the Weimar Republic and to fight against anti-republican efforts. In addition to the NSDAP, the extreme right-wing conservative group Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten and the KPD were seen as enemies of the Weimar Republic.
Since the term of Reich President Hindenburg (1847–1934) ended on May 5, 1932, new elections were required in the spring. There were a total of five candidates on the first ballot. Hindenburg, who did not actually want to run again due to his age, had been urged to do so not only by right-wing conservatives, but also by the Iron Front in order to prevent Adolf Hitler (1889–1945), and thus the NSDAP, from winning the election.
On March 13, 1932, Hindenburg narrowly missed securing an absolute majority, receiving 49.5% of the vote. Hitler was well behind with 30.1%, and Ernst Thälmann (1886–1944) of the KPD received 13.2% of the national vote. In the runoffelection held on April 10, 1932, Hindenburg received 53.1% of the vote, beating Hitler’s 36.8%.
March of the “Iron Front”
Election campaign rally in Berlin, July 14, 1932
The “Iron Front” for the “Irons”
Ernst Thälmann, the Stalinist-oriented chairman of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), described the Iron Front as a “terror organization of social fascism.” Duwdiwani caricatured the Iron Front‘s support of the right-wing conservative “Iron” Reich President Paul von Hindenburg during his re-election in 1932 in the communist satirical newspaper Roter Pfeffer. On the line on the right he signed “d”.
Election poster of the SPD: The Three Arrows
The three arrows symbolized the Iron Front‘s fight against monarchy, National Socialism, and Communism. The symbol was developed by Sergei Stepanowitsch Tschachotin (1883–1973) and SPD Reichstagsmember Carlo Mierendorff (1897–1943) and was used after February 1932.
Hindenburg statue at the Kyffhäuser monument
On May 6, 1939, a Hindenburg statue by the Thuringian sculptor Hermann Hosaeus (1875–1958) was inaugurated below the Kyffhäuser monument near Frankenhausen. The ten-ton, five-meter-high figure, made of Bavarian porphyry, was buried by the Red Army in 1945 and rediscovered in 2004 during the construction of a house.
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Online: https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/weimarer-republik/innenpolitik/die-eiserne-front.html
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