Duesterberg, Theodor

(1875-1950)

   army officer and politician; deputy chairman of the Stahlhelm.* Born in Darmstadt, he joined the cadet corps and launched a career in the Prussian Army in 1893. Several postings, including service in the East Asian Expeditionary Force of 1900-1901 and a frontline stint in World War I, were followed by assignment to the War Ministry. After the war he protested the disarmament* stipulation that forced his discharge. He entered politics, but his experiment as the DNVP's local secretary in Halle proved short-lived. He next joined the newly formed Stahlhelm, a defense force made up of frontline veterans. He was soon a leading figure in the organization, and his extreme nationalistic ideas increasingly politicized the Stahlhelm. Or-ganizationally talented, he was elected Stahlhelm deputy chairman (behind Franz Seldte*) in 1924; he became cochairman in 1927.

   Duesterberg made it Stahlhelm policy to oppose both the Versailles Treaty* and the Weimar Constitution.* Despite ideological affinity with the DNVP, he rejected appeals to affiliate with the Party. Yet, hoping to use the Stahlhelm as a means of uniting rightist opposition to the Republic, he encouraged the bond-ing with the NSDAP that resulted in the plebiscite demand against the Young Plan* (1929) and a shared political platform at the Harzburg* Conference (1931). The unenduring cooperation strengthened the NSDAP, but did little for the Stahlhelm. On the occasion of the 1932 presidential elections, the DNVP and the Stahlhelm nominated him against the candidacies of Hindenburg* and Hitler.* Duesterberg had little chance of winning; moreover, his candidacy was fraught with danger. During the campaign the Nazis learned that his paternal great-grandfather, Abraham Duesterberg, was Jewish. Although the Stahlhelm and many Nationalists continued to back him, he was discredited with the anti-Semitic Right. Soon after Hitler seized power, a quarrel was orchestrated be-tween Seldte and Duesterberg that led to the latter's resignation. Briefly arrested after the 1934 Roïhm* purge, he was privy to the resistance activities centered on Carl Goerdeler* without himself being involved. In his 1949 memoirs he defended himself and underscored his differences with the Nazis.

   REFERENCES:Benz and Graml, Biographisches Lexikon; Diehl, Paramilitary Politics; NDB, vol. 4.