The son and aide-de-camp to Generalfeldmarschall and Reich President Paul von Hindenburg had considerable influence on the appointment of Adolf Hitler as German chancellor in January 1933.

[citation needed] Nevertheless, after his father became a German World War I hero upon the Battle of Tannenberg, Oskar von Hindenburg's career started to advance thanks to his surname.

After the war, he continued his career within the newly established German Reichswehr, where he was promoted to major and acted as his father's liaison officer.

The president had titled the deed in the name of his son Oskar, according to his political opponents ostensibly to avoid payment of inheritance taxes.

Discharged from active military service in the rank of major general in 1934, Oskar von Hindenburg had retired to Neudeck manor.

As a member of the Führerreserve, he lived in Neudeck until the advance of Red Army troops late in the war forced him to flee to his brother-in-law in Medingen.

Memories of a Bavarian Nobleman alleging that in 1930 Oskar von Hindenburg had obtained illegal funding from the Eastern Aid programme.

Other factors are important, but, in the view of Klaus Fischer, without Oskar and State Secretary Meissner's behind-the-scenes influence Papen would have had a much tougher time convincing President Hindenburg to invite "that Bohemian corporal" and the Nazi Party to form a government at all.

The other obvious influence in Hitler's favour was the likelihood of a coalition government with the conservative German National People's Party (DNVP).