Oldenburg-Januschau, Elard von

(1855-1937)

   politician; archetypal Junker* who exercised leverage on Hindenburg* in the Republic's final year. He was born in the West Prussian town of Beisleiden; his family had held estates in both East and West Prussia* since the eighteenth century. Com-missioned a Prussian officer in 1874, he was a powerful member of the Bund der Landwirte (Agrarian League) and served as the organization's chairman in East Prussia. As a Conservative, he entered Prussia's Abgeordnetenhaus in 1901; he held his mandate until 1910 and sat concurrently in the Reichstag* during 1902-1912. During the war's final two years (1916-1918) he sat in the Prussian Herrenhaus. A leader of the old Conservative Party, he joined the DNVP and was among the outspoken opponents of the Republic. In September 1930 he was elected to the Reichstag, where he represented East Prussia until July 1932.

   A proponent of presidential dictatorship, Oldenburg was an exemplar of the archconservative militarist. Even in the Kaiserreich he was antagonistic to par-liament: in a speech of 1910 he exclaimed that with a lieutenant and ten men, one could shoot the entire Reichstag. An intimate of Hindenburg, he wielded an unfortunate influence on the old President; indeed, he disparaged Hinden-burg's anxiety over the "violent manners" of the Nazis and reproached him for adhering to the Constitution.* He helped alienate Hindenburg from both his Chancellor (Heinrich Brüning*) and his Defense Minister (Wilhelm Groener*). REFERENCES: Bosl, Franz, and Hofmann, Biographisches Wörterbuch; Dorpalen, Hin-denburg.