The German field marshal and statesman Paul Ludwig Hans von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (1847-1934) commanded the German forces during the last 2 years of World War I. He was president of Germany from 1925 to 1934.

Paul von Hindenburg was one of the last prominent representatives of the old Prussian Junkerdom--once the mainstay of Prussia's military power and its honest and efficient civil service--and he profoundly shared its values of honor, duty, and total dedication to the state. As president during the critical years of the Depression, he also symbolized the curious inability of the old Prussian aristocrats to deal with the barbaric nationalism and reckless militarism of Hitler's national socialism.

Hindenburg was born in Posen (now Pozna, Poland) on Oct. 2, 1847, to a family of old Junker stock. Trained in the Prussian Cadet Corps, he fought bravely in the wars against Austria (1866) and France (1870), earning a citation for bravery and...