Theodor Duesterberg (; 19 October 1875 – 4 November 1950) was a leader of Der Stahlhelm in Germany prior to the Nazi seizure of power. Background Born the son of an army surgeon in Darmstadt, Duesterberg entered the Prussian Army in 1893 after training in the cadet corps. In 1900, Duesterberg was part of the East Asian Expedition Corps that saw action in China during the Boxer Rebellion. Two years later, Duesterberg became an officer and held a variety of army commands prior to World War I. During the war, Duesterberg served in the Prussian War Ministry and eventually attained the rank of Oberstleutnant. Following the war, Duesterberg retired from the army in protest over the Versailles Treaty, which Duesterberg viewed as being extremely unfair to Germany. Duesterberg subsequently decided to enter politics and joined the German National People's Party (DNVP) in 1919. Der Stahlhelm After various disagreements with the party leadership, however, Duesterberg left the DNVP in 1923 and joined the nationalistic and pro-monarchy Der Stahlhelm, which largely consisted of ex-servicemen disgruntled with the Weimar Republic. Duesterberg quickly moved through its hierarchy and by 1924 was one of two of its federal leaders (the other being Franz Seldte). Together with General Georg Ludwig Rudolf Maercker, Duesterberg was one of the leaders of the extreme anti-Semitic fraction within Der Stahlhelm who wanted to ban Jews from joining, and expel all of the current Jewish members. In March 1924, Maercker and Duesterberg forced Seldte to adopt the "Aryan clause" and expel all Jews from Der Stahlhelm. The "Aryan clause" of 1924 was later to serve as the inspiration for similar "Aryan clauses" under the Third Reich, and in particular influenced the War Minister, General Werner von Blomberg in his attempts to keep the Wehrmacht "racially clean". Under Duesterberg's leadership, Der Stahlhelm became Germany's largest para-military group. In the late 1920s, Duesterberg allied Der Stahlhelm with the Nazi Party and other right wing groups. In 1929 Duesterberg campaigned against the Young Plan in the referendum held in November 1929. In 1931, Duesterberg played a key role in forcing the referendum on early elections in Prussia, believing this would help polarize German politics by incorporating the moderate right into the "national" camp. The leader of the German National People's Party Alfred Hugenberg had starting in 1929 embarked upon a strategy of polarization aimed at the destruction of the political center in Germany, so