Heinrich Brüning

Who was Heinrich Brüning?

Heinrich Brüning was Chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic from 1930 to 1932. He was the longest continuously serving Chancellor of the Weimar Republic.

Shortly after Brüning took office he was confronted by an economic crisis caused by the Great Depression. Brüning responded with tightening of credit and a rollback of all wage and salary increases. These policies increased unemployment and made Brüning highly unpopular, losing him support in the Reichstag.

Invoking President Paul von Hindenburg's constitutional powers, Brüning established a so-called presidential government, basing his administration's authority on presidential emergency decrees which were instituted without prior consent of the Reichstag.

Brüning remains a controversial figure in Germany's history. His use of emergency decrees and ambivalent policies toward the National Socialist German Workers Party, at times opposing them and at other times cooperating with them, contributed to the demise of the Weimar Republic.