23 Facts About Theodor Duesterberg

In 1900, Theodor Duesterberg was assigned to the East Asian Expedition Corps that saw action in China during the Boxer Rebellion, where he was lightly wounded in the right arm.

Theodor Duesterberg was transferred to the War Ministry in Berlin on 22 March 1914.

Theodor Duesterberg was promoted to Major on 5 September 1914.

Theodor Duesterberg was wounded on 17 November 1914 with Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr.

Theodor Duesterberg retired on 3 February 1920 with the Charakter of Oberstleutnant.

Theodor Duesterberg's retirement was in protest over the Versailles Treaty, which Duesterberg viewed as being extremely unfair to Germany.

Theodor Duesterberg subsequently decided to enter politics and joined the German National People's Party in 1919.

Theodor Duesterberg quickly moved through its hierarchy and by 1924 was one of two of its federal leaders.

Together with General Georg Ludwig Rudolf Maercker, Theodor Duesterberg was one of the leaders of the extreme anti-Semitic faction within Der Stahlhelm who wanted to ban Jews from joining, and expel all of the current Jewish members.

In March 1924, Maercker and Theodor Duesterberg forced Seldte to adopt the "Aryan clause" and expel all Jews from Der Stahlhelm.

In 1929 Theodor Duesterberg campaigned against the Young Plan in the referendum held in November 1929.

In 1931, Theodor Duesterberg played a key role in forcing the referendum on early elections in Prussia, believing this would help polarize German politics by incorporating the moderate right into the "national" camp.

In October 1931, Theodor Duesterberg allied Der Stahlhelmm with the Nazis, DNVP, and other right wing groups in order to form the Harzburger Front.

In 1932, Theodor Duesterberg was nominated by Der Stahlhelm and DNVP to run for President of Germany, but the Nazis ultimately destroyed any chance Theodor Duesterberg had of gaining mass support from the German people when they revealed he had Jewish ancestry.

Several of Theodor Duesterberg's friends persuaded him not to resign, and in an attempt to stay on as Der Stahlhelm deputy federal leader, he suggested new requirements for every member, namely that:.

Theodor Duesterberg was so hurt by Darre's attacks that he challenged him to a duel, a challenge that Darre rejected because it was beneath him to fight a man with "Jewish blood".

Theodor Duesterberg then took up his dispute with Darre before the court of honor of the Former Officers of the 1st Hanoverian Field Artillery Regiment of Scharnhorst, number 10 to which Darre belonged.

Theodor Duesterberg argued before the court of honor that Darre should be expelled for engaging in behavior that was unbecoming of a German officer while Darre argued that he had right and duty to subject Theodor Duesterberg to anti-Semitic insults.

The court of honor ruled in Darre's favor, stating that he was right to insult Theodor Duesterberg for having "Jewish blood".

Ironically, Theodor Duesterberg was offered a position in Hitler's cabinet when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, but Theodor Duesterberg flatly refused the proposal.

In 1934, Theodor Duesterberg was arrested by the Nazis during the Night of the Long Knives and sent to Dachau concentration camp, where he was briefly interned.

Theodor Duesterberg was known to have had limited contacts with the anti-Nazi Carl Friedrich Goerdeler in 1943, but Duesterberg ultimately did not play any role in Goerdeler's plots against Hitler.

In 1949, Theodor Duesterberg wrote The Steel Helmet and Hitler, in which he defended his pre-war political career and Der Stahlhelm and detailed the movement's independence from the Nazi Party and "the insane Jew hatred preached by Hitler".