Hindenburg was active at a time when events in Germany and Europe came thick and fast within a few years: defeat in the war and revolution led the German Empire into a deep crisis, while inflation and the global economic crisis plunged the Weimar Republic into severe turmoil. The world was coming apart at the seams and Hindenburg played a decisive role in determining the fate of Germany: in the Supreme Army Command during the First World War, at the fall of Kaiser Wilhelm II in November 1918 and in January 1933, when as Reich President he appointed Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor.
