Franz Von Papen

Franz Von Papen

Lieutenant-Colonel Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Köningen ( ) (29 October 1879 – 2 May 1969) was a German nobleman, General Staff officer and right-wing politician. He served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor under Adolf Hitler in 1933–1934. He belonged to the group of close advisers to President Paul von Hindenburg in the late Weimar Republic. It was largely Papen, believing that Hitler could be controlled once he was in the government, who persuaded Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as Chancellor in a cabinet not under Nazi Party domination. However, Papen and his allies were quickly marginalized by Hitler and he left the government after the Night of the Long Knives, during which some of his confidants were killed by the Nazis.