William J. Astore

“Hindenburg: Icon of German Militarism” by William J. Astore and Dennis Showalter is another edition in the Potomac’s Military Profiles series that I’ve been steadily making headway through. Mr. Astore and Mr. Showalter present their case defining Hindenburg as the archetype of German Militarism in the late 19th and early 20th century. At the same time, they lay at Hindenburg’s feet responsibility for the ideas of Dolchstoßlegende and his total capitulation to Hitler in 1933. And while I agree with Mr. Astore and Mr. Showalter that Hindenburg has not received the opprobrium he justly deserves, I thought the military profile would deal more with the military actions of Hindenburg and not be a treatise to his accountability in the rise of Nazism.… (mehr)