Alfred Ernst Christian Alexander Hugenberg (19 June 1865 – 12 March 1951) was an influential German businessman and politician. Hugenberg, a leading figure within nationalist politics in Germany for the first few decades of the twentieth century, became the country's leading media proprietor within the inter-war period. As leader of the German National People's Party Hugenberg was instrumental in helping Adolf Hitler become Chancellor of Germany and served in his first cabinet in 1933. Hugenberg had hoped to control Hitler and use him as his "tool" but ultimately he had little to no influence in the Third Reich. He openly envisioned annihilation of Polish population in 1899, decades before Hitler came to power.