The decision to rename he place from Zabrze to Hindenburg in 1914/15 was not unique to this "big village".
WP: Belomorskoje:
Belomorskoje (russisch Беломорское, deutsch Hindenburg, bis 1918 Groß Friedrichsgraben I)
was renamed in 1918 for exactly he same reason, nationalistic proud and fervour, making it necessary to rename Zabrze once more from Hindenburg to "Hindenburg/Oberschlesien" to avoid mixups. The whole place only got the full rights of a real city in 1922. Although older, genuine Hindenburg place names might have been additional factors complicating addresses:
Hindenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Hindenburg in Templin, Lindenhagen in Nordwestuckermark (formerly Hindenburg until 1949).
Just looking at the pronunciation cannot reveal the sole reason. It was of Slavic foundation but became thoroughly German dominated for the last centuries before the name change. Silesian Germans were not always as nationalist and quite capable of pronouncing at least some words of their neighbours near correctly, if they weren't bilingual…
Name changes were not totally unheard of for German cities either (Long list on Wikipedia, though not all 'pure' name changes)
But when you compare other things named after Paul von Hindenburg, like bridges:
Hindenburgbrücke (Begriffsklärung):
Nach dem Reichspräsidenten Paul von Hindenburg wurden mehrere Brücken Hindenburgbrücke genannt:
Hindenburgbrücke, zerstörte Eisenbahnbrücke bei Bingen über den Rhein (1915–1945)
Hindenburgbrücke (Mosel), zerstörte Eisenbahnbrücke bei Igel über die Mosel (1912–1945)
Hindenburgbrücke (Hamburg), Brücke der Hindenburgstraße über die Alster
Darüber hinaus gibt es mehrere Brücken, die ehemals den Namen Hindenburgbrücke getragen haben:
Berliner Brücke in Halle (Saale) (bis 1945)
Bösebrücke in Berlin (1916−1948)
Brücke der Jugend über die Seltenrein in Löbau
Deutzer Brücke in Köln (1935−1945)
Ernst-Walz-Brücke in Heidelberg
Jerusalembrücke (Südbrücke) in Magdeburg (1927–1945)
Jungbuschbrücke in Mannheim (Name zwischen 1933 und 1945)
Kallhardtbrücke, Straßenbrücke über die Nagold in Pforzheim (1928–1946)
Landauerbrücke über das Elsterbecken in Leipzig (bis 1945)
Most Tolerancji in Głogów (Polen)
Mosty Warszawskie, Brücke der Matthiasstraße über die Alte Oder und den Schiffahrtskanal in Breslau
or damms like Hindenburgdamm or towers, especially in the East (Hindenburgturm), or just houses (Haus Hindenburg, Villa Hindenburg) you might start to see a certain pattern.
The most notable predecessor for this pattern in Germany was of course Bismarck. Bismarck (Begriffsklärung), who had apples, fish, pastries, trains and trees etc named after him and most prominently some memorials like Bismarck towers built in his memory.