“Brüning was replaced as Chancellor by a man few Germans had heard of, Franz von Papen. Though he was a member of the Catholic Centre Party, his political experience had been largely confined to the Prussian Landtag. Far from being a typical Weimar deputy, he was a wealthy aristocrat and retired cavalry major who believed that government should revert to being the preserve of gentlemen, reserve officers, barons and great landowners. His cabinet therefore did not contain a single member of the middle class, let alone a working man, and none of its members was a Reichstag deputy. All ministers ostentatiously renounced their party memberships on taking office to emphasise that their appointments transcended party politics and that their power derived from the President and from the state, not from the people.”