The ancestral home of Paul von Hindenburg

The Neudeck estate had been in the possession of the Hindenburg family since 1755. The founder of the Hindenburg estates was Colonel Otto Friedrich von Hindenburg who died on 10th January 1765. As he was childless, the estate of Otto Friedrich von Hindenburg was inherited by his sisters Sophie and Barbara. After Barbara's death in 1778, Neudeck passed to her grandson Otto Gottfried von Beneckendorff , the great-grandfather of the later President of the Reich - but on the condition that the heir also take on the name and coat of arms of the von Hindenburg family. This was approved by King Frederick William II on 2nd January 1789 , and from then on the members of the family borne the double name von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg. Around this time, Otto Gottfried built the Old Manor House of Neudeck, a two-story building with six mansards on the upper floor.
Even though this map does not show Neudeck you can see the location of the nearby town of Freystadt which is today Kisielice. There was a significant Polish speaking population in the southern part of East Prussia (and what became East Prussia once a large part of West Prussia was ceded to Poland). I refer to Neudeck being in East Prussia as that was the case after the territorial changes which led to the creation of Poland, however, Neudeck was in West Prussia until those changes came about. Due to the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, the population in the Marienwerder plebiscite area , to which Neudeck belonged, voted on 11 July 1920, on whether to remain part of Germany or join Poland. In Neudeck, 139 residents voted to remain part of Germany; no votes were cast for Poland. I meant to do a video on the East Prussian plebiscite for the centenary in July 2020 – I still have not done it, maybe I will make it for the bicentenary!
Even though Neudeck had been in the hands of the family since 1755, by the beginning of the 1920s it was owned by banks. In order to cover debts, the family had had to mortgage it. Lina von Hindenburg , the widow of Hindenburg's brother, realised the situation she was in and put the property up for sale in the autumn of 1927. In 1925, Hindenburg had become President of Germany. As a war hero, respected for what was widely considered to be his victory at not so far away Tannenberg, there were those that wanted to thank him. Of course, as we know from recent politics, buying a gift for a president is usually a highly profitable venture.
On the occasion of the 80th birthday of Reich President Paul von Hindenburg in 1927, the conservative politician Elard von Oldenburg-Januschau , organized a fundraising campaign, which he termed the Hindenburgpfennig. The aim was to buy the Neudeck estate and give it to the Reich President as a "gift from the German people". Thanks to some generous donations from industrialists, the campaign was successful. The chemical industrialist Carl Duisberg presented Paul von Hindenburg with the deed of ownership on 2 October 1927.
Over the next two years, he had the manor house enlarged and expanded. Hindenburg stayed here when his personal presence in Berlin was not necessary, and many important meetings took place here, including those with Adolf Hitler once he was Chancellor.
In the run up to the National Socialist take over of power, the biggest scandal in the country was not what Hitler would do to the country but a policy termed Osthilfe.
I cannot emphasize enough the importance that this scandal was to have in getting Hitler promoted to power by conservative elements who wanted to protect their income.
With the industrial revolution and the growth of better opportunities in cities, people left the countryside. In Germany, this was particularly the case in East Prussia which was the third largest province in Prussia but the one with the lowest population. By the time the Nazis came to power, the population density was only half as dense as the Reich average. Despite grants and incentives, the province did not fully recover from the destruction caused by the invasion of the Russian army in August 1914 until the mid 1920s. To make matters worse, the Treaty of Versailles created Poland and cut the province off from the rest of the Reich by the Polish Corridor.

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