Kurt von Schleicher

Kurt Ferdinand Friedrich Hermann von Schleicher (German: [ˈkʊʁt fɔn ˈʃlaɪçɐ] ; 7 April 1882 – 30 June 1934) was a German military officer and the penultimate chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic. A rival for power with Adolf Hitler, Schleicher was assassinated by Hitler's Schutzstaffel (SS) during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934.

Schleicher was born into a military family in Brandenburg an der Havel. Entering the Prussian Army as a lieutenant in 1900, he rose to become a general staff officer in the Railway Department of the German General Staff and served in the General Staff of the Supreme Army Command during World War I. Schleicher served as liaison between the army and the new Weimar Republic during the German Revolution of 1918–1919. An important player in the Reichswehr's efforts to avoid the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles, Schleicher rose to power as head of the Reichswehr's Armed Forces Department and was a close advisor to President Paul von Hindenburg from 1926 onward. Following the appointment of his mentor Wilhelm Groener as minister of defence in 1928, Schleicher became head of the defense Ministry's Office of Ministerial Affairs (Ministeramt) in 1929. In 1930, he was instrumental in the toppling of Hermann Müller's government and the appointment of Heinrich Brüning as chancellor. He enlisted the services of the Nazi Party's Sturmabteilung (SA) as an auxiliary force for the Reichswehr from 1931 onward.

Beginning in 1932, Schleicher served as minister of defence in the cabinet of Franz von Papen. Schleicher organised the downfall of Papen and succeeded him as Chancellor on 3 December. During his brief term, Schleicher negotiated with Gregor Strasser on a possible defection of the latter from the Nazi Party, but the plan was abandoned. Schleicher attempted to "tame" Hitler into cooperating with his government by threatening him with an anti-Nazi alliance of parties, the so-called Querfront ("cross-front"). Hitler refused to abandon his claim to the chancellorship and Schleicher's plan failed. Schleicher then proposed to Hindenburg that the latter disperse the Reichstag and rule as a de facto dictator, a course of action Hindenburg rejected.