succeeded except for the influence of Oskar on his father. 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. William Shirer, in his book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, stated that Oskar von Hindenburg was promoted to Major General after the plebiscite unifying the offices of President and Reich Chancellor and that he remained a loyal Nazi. He faded from the history of the Third Reich after the plebiscite, but Shirer argued that the final act in Hitler's consolidation of power was vital, and without Oskar von Hindenburg's earlier influence with his father on behalf of Hitler's bid to be invited to form a government after the fall of Chancellor von Schleicher on 28 January 1933, Hitler might not have ascended to power 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). That almost fell apart at the last minute as well since the coalition partners were so intent arguing over prospective cabinet appointments (the Nazis were ultimately outnumbered in the Cabinet 8–3) that they left President Hindenburg waiting well past the appointed time for the meeting at which Hitler was named chancellor. The president almost cancelled the meeting in exasperation. Hitler being named chancellor was not certain until it was announced, and it was Oskar von Hindenburg and his work with his father that in Shirer's view tipped the balance in Hitler's favour. Shirer also claimed that Oskar received 5,000 additional acres to his estates at Neudeck in addition to rapid advancement in the German Armed Forces. According to Günther von Tschirschky und Bögendorff, a interwar German diplomat and associate of the elder Hindenburg who later defected to the UK, President Paul Von Hindenburg's last will and testament had criticised the Nazis and supported democracy. Oscar Von Hindenberg, as a Nazi supporter, was alleged to have handed this document over on Hitler's request. The defector said in 1947 that “Hitler would never have come into power, and there would have been no war, if the wishes of Hindenburg had been known to the German people.” By contrast, Wolfram Pyta argues that Oskar's influence on his