1932 The new German government

June 1932. Even though Chancellor Dr. Heinrich Brüning had fought hard to ensure President Paul von Hindenburg's re-election in the April run-off election against Adolf Hitler, he had earned the enmity of many in Hindenburg's inner circle - including General Kurt von Schleicher. Schleicher became a major figure behind the scenes in the presidential cabinet government of Heinrich Brüning between 1930 and 1932, serving as an aide to General Wilhelm Groener, the Minister of Defence. Eventually, Schleicher, who established a close relationship with President Paul von Hindenburg, came into conflict with Brüning and Groener, and his intrigues were largely responsible for their fall in May 1932. After the presidential elections had ended, Schleicher held a series of secret meetings with Hitler in May 1932, and thought that he had obtained a "gentleman's agreement" in which Hitler had agreed to support a new "presidential government" that Schleicher was building. At the same time, Schleicher, with Hindenburg's complicit consent, had set about undermining Brüning's government. The first blow occurred in May 1932, when Schleicher had Hindenburg sack Groener as Defense Minister in a way that was designed to humiliate both Groener and Brüning. On 31 May 1932, Hindenburg sacked Brüning as Chancellor and replaced him with the man that Schleicher had suggested, Franz von Papen. "The Government of Barons" as von Papen's government was known, openly had as its objective the destruction of German democracy. Like Brüning's government, von Papen's government was a "presidential government" that governed through the use of Article 48.