Kurt Ferdinand Friedrich Hermann von Schleicher ( listen ; 7 April 1882 – 30 June 1934) was a German general and the second to last Chancellor of Germany during the era of the Weimar Republic. An important player in the German Army's efforts to avoid the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles, Schleicher rose to power as a close advisor to President Paul von Hindenburg. Seventeen months after his resignation, he was assassinated by order of his successor, Adolf Hitler, in the Night of the Long Knives.

Early life

Schleicher was born in Brandenburg an der Havel, the son of a Prussian officer and a shipowner's daughter. He entered the Prussian Army in 1900 as a Leutnant after graduating from a cadet training school. Assigned to the 3rd Foot Guards, he befriended fellow junior officers Oskar von Hindenburg and Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord. In 1909 he attended the Prussian Military Academy, where he met Franz von Papen, and subsequently joined the Railway Department of the Prussian General Staff. Schleicher soon became a protégé of his immediate superior, Wilhelm Groener.