DEATH OF HINDENBURG

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 254, 15 July 1918, Page 4

DEATH OF HINDENBURG

The death of von Hindenburg will occasion more stir in Germany than in Allied countries. In their ate Army chief the Germans have lost a popular i.jiol and a man who to an exceptional degree filled the public eye as a kind of national figurehead. .From the purely military standpoint their loss' is less serious. The place Hindenburo held in Germany was perhaps even better indicated by tho construction of a gigantic wooden effigy, to be filled by his admirers with nails, than by his elevation to the supreme command of the German armies. His death is likely to lead to a distinct drop in public confidence in Germany, and the Kaiser loses somethingmore than a rhetorical flourish in being no longer able to appeal to his people to repose unouestioning faith in "our mighty Hindenbuhg." It would probably he going well beyond the facts, however, to suggest that in the death of Hindenburg Germany has suffered any serious military loss. An announcement that Ludendorff was dead would have_ aroused interested speculation in Allied countries as to whether Germany had a successor capable of adequately filling his place.- No such speculation is likely to arise in reference to HindenBURG so far as the strategic control and direction of the German armies is concerned. In his latter days his leadership became frankly nominal, bub the extent to which ho had captured the public imagination made him to the last a great asset to the German military autocrats, and from this standpoint the place he leaves vacant will not be easily filled.

Apart from the physical and mental characteristics which so eminently fitted him to be tho figurehead of the German nation in time of war —a living embodiment of autocratic militarism—Hindenburg owed his remarkable elevation largely to the fa.ct that he had made a close study of the topography of the marshy regions of East Prussia. The career which,..to appearance had ended in retirement before the war was not particularly distinguished. Indeed, it was written of Hixdenbuiio that ho was the comic butt of the German Army during autumn manoeuvres. But it was known to- Falkenhayn, whom ho was to .succeed in August, 1916, as Chief of the German General Staff, that Hindenburg had made a lifelong study of the problems' of attack and defence in the East Prussian borderland. In 1914 the old General was called from his quiet retreat in Hanover to cope with the Russian invasion. His victory at Tanncnberg established his reputation and laid tho foundation of more widespread fame and popularity. Precisely _ what gift's Hindenburg displayed in the events in which ho' subsequently played a conspicuous part, at first in Eastern Europe and latterly in supreme command of the German armies, it must be for the future historian of the war to say. But visible evidence suggests that he obtained considerably move than his share of the limelight. It was Mackensen, for instance, who directed the drive which forced the Russian ictreat in 1915, and Mackeksen and Falkekhayn conducted tho campaign against Rumania in the following year. Yet those- generals were greeted with no such popular acclaim as "Papa" Hindenburg. The latter had not long supplanted Falkenhayn before it became known that the new power was a power behind the throne, and that it. was wielded not by Hindenburg, but by his nominal subordinate Ludendohff. Yet here, as at an earlier stage, it was in Hindenburg that the"hopes and fears of the German people largely centred. The true position lias become of late clearly evident, except, perhaps, in Germany, and it is not seriously in doubt that ITixr>ENßuito performed far more effective service in popularising the military autocracy and securingunqucstio'ning obedience to its dictation than as a strategist or tactician. It was his remarkable but unenviable achievement to gain popularity in Germany for the German war machine in the days when it was set in motion in the vain 'hope of enslaving and degrading the world.