The Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 - History Learning Site Home » Modern World History » Weimar Germany » The Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 The Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 Citation: C N Trueman "The Beer Hall Putsch of 1923" historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 22 May 2015. 16 Aug 2016. The Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 The Beer Hall Putsch of November 1923, or the Munich Putsch, was Hitler’s attempt to overthrow the Weimar government of Ebert and establish a right wing nationalistic one in its place. In September 1923, the Chancellor Gustav Stresemann and President Ebert had decided that the only way Germany could proceed after hyperinflation was to agree to work with the French as opposed to against them. Both called for passive resistance to be called off in the Ruhr Valley. In this sense, Stresemann agreed that the only way forward was for Germany to pay reparations as demanded by the Treaty of Versailles .

To the nationalists in Germany, this was an admittance of guilt for starting the First World War. This admittance of guilt brought with it the punishment of reparations. Therefore, the logic of the nationalists was that Ebert and Stresemann were agreeing that Germany was guilty of starting the war – something they could not tolerate. By 1923, many right wing parties had gravitated to southern Germany and primarily Bavaria. Here there were geographically as far away from Berlin without totally isolating themselves from the German people. Their headquarters was essentially Munich. One such group was the fledgling Nazi Party. Lead by Adolf Hitler it had about 35,000 members by 1923. Though this figure appears low in the whole scheme of German politics (in the 1920 election the Nazis had not got one seat in the Reichstag), there were only about 40 members of the Nazi Party in 1920, so its growth rate was relatively quick. However, nationally, the Nazis Party was just one of a number of loud right-wing parties.

On November 8th and 9th1923, Hitler used the anger felt against the Berlin government in Bavaria to attempt an overthrow of the regional government in Munich in prelude to the take-over of the national government. This incident is generally known as the Beer Hall Putsch. The fact that Hitler had only an estimated 35,000 followers to take over Germany’s second city showed his political naivety in 1923. Hitler placed all his hopes on people in Munich following his lead having been angered by the central government’s response to the Ruhr crisis. Such support never materialised. On November 8th 1923, the Bavarian Prime Minister, Gustav Kahr, was addressing a meeting of around 3000 businessmen at a beer hall in Munich. Kahr was joined by some of the most senior men in Bavarian politics including Seisser, Bavaria’s police chief, and Lossow, the local army commander. Gustav Kahr Hitler and 600 of his Stormtroopers (the SA) went into the meeting from the back of the hall.

These SA men, lead by Ernst Rohm, lined the sides of the hall in an attempt to intimidate those in the beer hall. It is said that Hitler, once on the speaker’s platform, shouted out the following: “The national revolution has broken out. The hall is surrounded.” SA men outside of the Beer Hall Kahr, Lossow and Seisser were taken into a side room. Here, threatened by guns, Kahr is said to have agreed to support Hitler in his attempt to take-over the government in Berlin. Hitler promised Kahr that he would get a key position in the new national government and Lossow was promised a senior post in the German Army. However, the historian William Shirer claims that Kahr refused to listen to Hitler and refused to be intimidated. Hitler was so unnerved by his silence that, according to Shirer, he rushed back to the stage about ten minutes later. Karl von Muller, who was at the meeting and was a witness at Hitler’s trial, also states that the group was absent from the stage for about ten minutes. Hitler declared to the waiting audience that Kahr had agreed to support him even though he had not.

When Hitler did return to the main hall, it was in such disarray that he fired a shot from his pistol into the ceiling and threatened to put a machine gun in a gallery if the people in the hall did not settle so that they could hear him. Once the people in the hall had settled Hitler addressed them. Muller said the following at Hitler’s trial: “(When he spoke) it was a rhetorical masterpiece. In fact, in a few sentences he totally transformed the mood of the audience. I have rarely experienced anything like it.” Kahr and then the national war hero Luderndorff addressed those in the hall after Hitler had spoken. Both stated their support for Hitler and his attempt to overthrow the government. Muller stated that Hitler was “radiant with joy”. However, Shirer puts a different slant on this episode. He claims that Luderndorff was furious that Hitler had attempted to do what he did without his prior support. Luderndorff had retired to Bavaria after the war and had been taken in by the early rhetoric of Hitler. But he did expect that his national status entitled him to be more involved with decisions made within the party.

In this case, Hitler had not consulted the general about the putsch. Shirer claims that Luderndorff was pale and ashen faced when he spoke to the audience about the “great national cause” and that this was because he was so angered by what Hitler had done. Luderndorff’s demeanour and facial appearance is also supported by Muller who said the same at Hitler’s trial. Once it became clear that Luderndorff supported Hitler, it seems that Kahr then agreed to publicly declare his support for Hitler. Once this happened the meeting started to break-up and the SA allowed people to leave. We may never know what exactly took place that evening but the end result is that Hitler gained the support he had wanted from Bavaria’s senior politicians. Once the beer hall meeting was over, Hitler started to plan his take-over of Munich. But Hitler had made one major error. He had let Kahr and his colleagues go. They reported what had happened to Berlin and the central government ordered that the army and police should put down the Nazis once they started their march. After his experience in the beer hall, Kahr was in no mood to disagree. On November 9th, Hitler started his march with his followers.

By the morning he knew that the army and police had been alerted that the Nazis would try to take over vital buildings in Munich. However, rather than call off the venture and lose any form of credibility, Hitler placed in faith in two things: He would appeal to the army and police to support him and the Nazis in their national crusade against a dishonourable government. With Luderndorff leading the march, he was confident that no one would fire on them, as they were lead by such a famous war hero. Hitler started the march to the centre of Munich with 3000 men. At the centre of the city they were faced by 100 armed police and soldiers who blocked them from going down a narrow street called the Residenzstrasse. What happened next is not clear but shots were fired. The firing continued for just one minute but in that time sixteen Nazis and three policemen were killed. Hitler had a dislocated shoulder. Some say this is was caused by his attempts to seek cover once the firing started.

Hitler, (and the official biography of Hitler published after 1933) claimed that it was because he had caught a colleague as he fell who had been mortally wounded and the stress on his shoulder had dislocated it. Hitler is said to have been driven away from the scene in a yellow car that was waiting for him. He was arrested two days later and was charged with treason. Luderndorff marched to a nearby square where he was arrested. Why did Hitler do what he did? There was always the possibility that he would be killed or severely wounded as he knew that he would have been at the front of his followers. However, fours years on the Western Front may have dulled his fear of danger. There is always the possibility that Hitler was forced into taking this action because members of the SA in Munich were becoming very restless. Their leader, Wilhelm Brucker, claimed that they wanted action. “I said to Hitler personally: “The day is coming when I can no longer hold my people. If nothing happens now the men will melt away. We had very many unemployed men among us, men who had spent their last few pence on training, because, as they said, we will strike soon.

Then we will be taken into the army and we will be out of the entire mess.” Faced with the potential loss of men, was Hitler pushed into an action that he may not have wanted to get involved with? Was it rushed so much that Hitler did not have time to seek the advice and support of Luderndorff – hence the generals anger on November 8th? In later years, Hitler portrayed the Beer Hall Putsch as a great example of bravery but such was the control of information from 1933 to 1945, we may never know the full truth. What actually did happen did not come out in his trial. What was Hitler’s assessment of the Beer Hall Putsch? In later years, he stated that it had been a success because it had not succeeded. In 1933, Hitler claimed that if they had succeeded in taking over Germany, they would have been faced with a national situation which the Nazis would not have been able to control. The Nazi Party was less than four years old and the depth of political experience was simply not there for the party to run the country.

However, Hitler did state that its outcome was to give the party its first martyrs and these deaths were used to great success when it came to Nazi propaganda. Adolf Hitler Attempts a Coup, 1923 Adolf Hitler Attempts a Coup, 1923 Adolf Hitler Attempts a Coup, 1923 The "Beer Hall Putsch" Printer Friendly Version >>> On November 8, 1923 Adolph Hitler led his Nazi followers in an abortive attempt to seize power in Munich in what became known as the "Beer Hall Putsch". Although the plan failed, and Hitler imprisoned, the notoriety the Nazi leader gained laid the groundwork for his rise to the dictatorship of Germany. While in prison, Hitler wrote Mein Kamp, the book that described his political philosophy and planned conquest of Europe. At the time of Hitler's attempted coup, Germany's Weimar Republic - which had been established at the end of World War I - was in chaos. Gangs of opposing political groups fought each other in the streets - Communists, Socialists, Nazis, and others resorted to violence in order to promote their political agenda and silence their opponents. Assassinations of unpopular political leaders were a common occurrence.

Germany's economy was a shambles. Uncontrollable inflation reduced the value of the money in a worker's Adolph Hitler at the time of the putsch wallet to next to nothing. Before the start of World War I, just over four German Reichmarks were equivalent to one U.S. dollar. At the beginning of 1923, the exchange rate had risen to 18,000 marks per dollar by July it had reached 350,000 marks and by September, a staggering one hundred million marks per dollar. In the midst of this turmoil, Hitler saw an opportunity to grab political power in Munich, rally popular support behind him and topple the German national government through a march on Berlin. The Nazi leader was inspired by the success the previous year of Mussolini's March on Rome which installed a Fascist government in Italy. On the evening of November 8, 1923 leaders of the Bavarian government were holding a rally at a Munich beer hall before 3000 spectators. Suddenly, Hitler burst into the hall, fired a pistol in the air and announced that the building was surrounded by 600 of his stormtroppers.

The Nazi leader whisked the stunned Bavarian officials off the stage and into a back room where he vowed to hold them hostage until they expressed support for his revolution. The hostages soon acquiesced. Unfortunately, the spontaneous enthusiasm Hitler expected from the local population was not immediately forthcoming. By dawn the following day, the coup attempt was running out of steam, riddled with confusion and lack of direction. However, Hitler had promised a march on Berlin and despite the dwindling chance of success, he led a column of approximately 2,000 armed followers through the streets of Munich. Entering a city square, the marching rebels were confronted by a police unit. Shots rang out and fourteen Nazis were killed in the ensuing bedlam. Hitler escaped only to be arrested two days later. Tried and convicted of treason, the Nazi leader was sentenced to five years of confinement under reasonably comfortable conditions, but actually served only eight months. The experience taught Hitler that power was to be achieved not through armed conflict but through manipulation of the existing political system. ADVERTISMENT "The national revolution has started." Egon Larsend was a young man living in Munich.

We join his account as Adolph Hitler sits nervously nursing a beer at a bar just outside the entrance to the hall where the rally is taking place. He is awaiting word that his stormtroopers have been deployed around the building: "A look-out man rushed to Hitler, reporting that the storm trooper lorries were just arriving. With a ham-actor's gesture, Hitler swept his beer glass aside, took out his Browning, and signalled the group of men around him to follow him into the hall. These men were a motley crowd. Among them were Hitler's bodyguard, a primitive and brutal butcher's apprentice; his former sergeant in the army; Rudolf Hess, who was to become his second-in-command in the party; 'Putzi' Hanfstaengl, the son of Munich's most famous art publisher, who had studied at Harvard together with F.D. Roosevelt, and who would have felt more comfortable at home playing the piano than handling the pistol that had been pushed into his hand. The planned dramatic effect of the group's march into the hall was somewhat marred by the difficulty of pushing through the perplexed crowd to the platform.

Kahr [one of the Bavarian leaders] had stopped speaking, and saw with dismay that a heavy machine-gun was being wheeled into the entrance by uniformed stormtroopers. Some people panicked and tried to leave, but every exit was now guarded, no one was allowed out, and a few who tried were kicked and beaten back. At last Hitler arrived below the platform, grabbed a chair, mounted it, and fired a pistol shot at the ceiling. There was a sudden silence in the hall. He jumped from the chair and leapt up the steps to the platform. A police major, hand in pocket, tried to bar the way. Hitler put his pistol at the officer's head and shouted, 'Take your hand out of your pocket!' The man obeyed. Hitler was now in front of the triumvirate Kahr, Lossow, and Seisser [the three Bavarian leaders]. He turned to the audience and declared in a hoarse, excited voice: 'The national revolution has started. The building is guarded by six hundred heavily armed men. The barracks of the Reichswehr [army forces] and police have been occupied.

Reichswehr and police are now on the march under the swastika banner!'" "If I am not victorious by tomorrow, I shall be a dead man." Hitler was bluffing. The Nazis did not have control of the local army nor the police. Hitler forced the three political leaders into a small room behind the stage where he attempted to extort their allegiance to his plot: "The three listened in silence, anxiously watching the excited man with his pistol and the armed guards barring the way out. Hitler ended with the threat: 'Anyone who refuses to collaborate with me has no right to live. I have four bullets in my gun three for my collaborators if they abandon me and the last for myself.' He put the barrel to his temple: 'If I am not victorious by tomorrow, I shall be a dead man.' Kahr was the first to answer. 'You can have me shot or shoot me yourself,' he said calmly, 'or just lock me up. A life more or less makes no difference.' Seisser: 'But Herr Hitler, you promised me a few days ago that you wouldn't stage a putsch!' Hitler: 'Yes, I promised.

But I had to do it, for the good of the fatherland.' He called his bodyguard to get him another glass of beer. Suddenly he seemed to get rattled as his prisoners did not declare their enthusiastic allegiance. He jumped up and ran out on to the platform. Here, during the quarter of an hour of his absence, the scene had changed. Hermann Goering, at that time commander of the SA, had arrived, and occupied the deserted speaker's rostrum. He was in full gala uniform, with medals pinned to his chest - awarded to him during the war as a pilot, squadron leader, and eventually commander of Richthofen's famous 'air circus'. He had joined Hitler's party only a year earlier. Some of Hitler's storm troopers mingle outside the beer hall. November 9, 1923 Goering appeared just in time to tame the three thousand people in the hall who were getting restless, despite the threatening machine-guns and pistols around them. What, they wanted to know, was happening in that back room? 'Don't worry,' Goering told them. 'No harm will come to Herr von Kahr, to Lossow and Seisser.

They are holding preliminary discussions for the formation of a national government which all of you want.' 'You don't need machine-guns and hundreds of armed men for that,' cried someone, and there was a roar of applause. 'Shut up!' Goering snarled arrogantly. 'You've got your beer, haven't you?' Now Hitler came dashing back. The excitement in the hall, far from abating, heightened. He seemed to have lost. Again he drew his pistol and fired a shot at the ceiling. 'If you don't keep quiet,' he shouted, 'I'll have another machine-gun put in the gallery!' At last there was silence, and he started anew, calmly and without his usual melodramatic gimmicks. What was happening, he said, was in no way directed against Kahr, who would remain in control of Bavaria. But a new Reichs government had to be formed, with Ludendorff, Lossow, Seisser and himself. 'There are these three men in the back room, wrestling with their conscience,' he said, putting on a touch of emotion. 'Can' I tell them that all of you will be behind them?' 'Ja, ja,' came the thunderous answer.

He had succeeded in swinging the mood of the crowd on his side in a matter of minutes - it was a demagogue's masterstroke. 'In a free Germany,' he went on, now with passion, 'there will be a place for an independent Bavaria!' And he ended on his favourite heroic note; here was the man of destiny pleading for the hearts and souls of the people: 'This I can tell you, either the German revolution begins tonight, or we shall all be dead by tomorrow morning.'" At this point General Ludendorff, commander of the German forces on the Western Front at the end of World War I and a German national hero, arrived at the beer hall. Ludendorff had lent his support to Hitler's coup attempt and had been brought to the hall to persuade the three Bavarian leaders to give in to Hitler's demands. The effort was successful as the Bavarian politicians voiced their support and were released. Once free, however, they recanted and the local army garrisons were ordered to halt the coup attempt.

References: Egon Larsen's account appears in: Larsen, Egon, Weimar Eyewitness (1976); Bullock, Alan, Hitler, a Study in Tyranny (1960); Gordon, Harold, Hitler and the Beer Hall Putsch (1972). How To Cite This Article: "Adolf Hitler Attempts a Coup, 1923," EyeWitness to History, (2005). The History Place - World War II in Europe Timeline: November 8/9, 1923 - Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch The Beer Hall Putsch In April of 1921, the victorious European Allies of World War One, notably France and England, presented a bill to Germany demanding payment for damages caused in the war which Germany had started. This bill (33 billion dollars) for war reparations had the immediate effect of causing ruinous inflation in Germany. The German currency, the mark, slipped drastically in value. It had been four marks to the US dollar until the war reparations were announced. Then it became 75 to the dollar and in 1922 sank to 400 to the dollar.

The German government asked for a postponement of payments. The French refused. The Germans defied them by defaulting on their payments. In response to this, in January of 1923, the French Army occupied the industrial part of Germany known as the Ruhr. The German mark fell to 18,000 to the dollar. By July, 1923, it sank to 160,000. By August, 1,000,000. And by November, 1923, it took 4,000,000,000 marks to buy a dollar. Germans lost their life savings. Salaries were paid in worthless money. Groceries cost billions. Hunger riots broke out. For the moment, the people stood by their government, admiring its defiance of the French. But in September of 1923, the German government made a fateful decision to resume making payments. Bitter resentment and unrest swelled among the people, inciting extremist political groups to action and quickly bringing Germany to the brink of chaos. The Nazis and other similar groups now felt the time was right to strike.

The German state of Bavaria where the Nazis were based was a hotbed of groups opposed to the democratic government in Berlin. By now, November 1923, the Nazis, with 55,000 followers, were the biggest and best organized. With Nazi members demanding action, Hitler knew he had to act or risk losing the leadership of his Party. Hitler and the Nazis hatched a plot in which they would kidnap the leaders of the Bavarian government and force them at gunpoint to accept Hitler as their leader. Then, according to their plan, with the aid of famous World War One General Erich Ludendorff, they would win over the German army, proclaim a nationwide revolt and bring down the German democratic government in Berlin. They put this plan into action when they learned there would be a large gathering of businessmen in a Munich beer hall and the guests of honor were to be the Bavarian leaders they wanted to kidnap. On November 8, 1923, SA troops under the direction of Hermann Göring surrounded the place. At 8:30 p.m. Hitler and his storm troopers burst into the beer hall causing instant panic. Hitler fired a pistol shot into the ceiling.

"Silence!" he yelled at the stunned crowd. Hitler and Göring forced their way to the podium as armed SA men continued to file into the hall. State Commissioner Gustav von Kahr, whose speech had been interrupted by all this, yielded the podium to Hitler. "The National Revolution has begun!" Hitler shouted. "...No one may leave the hall. Unless there is immediate quiet I shall have a machine gun posted in the gallery. The Bavarian and Reich governments have been removed and a provisional national government formed. The barracks of the Reichswehr and police are occupied. The Army and the police are marching on the city under the swastika banner!" None of that was true, but those in the beer hall could not know otherwise. Hitler then ordered the three highest officials of the Bavarian government into a back room. State Commissioner Kahr, along with the head of the state police, Colonel Hans von Seisser, and commander of the German Army in Bavaria, General Otto von Lossow, did as they were told and went into the room where Hitler informed them they were to join him in proclaiming a Nazi revolution and would become part of the new government.

But to Hitler's great surprise, his three captives simply glared at him and at first even refused to talk to him. Hitler responded by waving his pistol at them, yelling, "I have four shots in my pistol! Three for you, gentlemen. The last bullet for myself!" The revolution in the back room continued to go poorly for Hitler. On a sudden emotional impulse, Hitler dashed out of the room and went back out to the podium and shouted... "... The government of the November criminals and the Reich President are declared to be removed. A new national government will be named this very day in Munich. A new German National Army will be formed immediately. ...The task of the provisional German National Government is to organize the march on that sinful Babel, Berlin, and save the German people! Tomorrow will find either a National Government in Germany or us dead!" This led everyone in the beer hall to believe the men in the back room had given in to Hitler and were joining in with the Nazis. There was wild cheering for Hitler. General Ludendorff now arrived. Hitler knew the three government leaders in the back room would listen to him.

At Hitler's urging, Ludendorff spoke to the men in the back room and advised them to go along with the Nazi revolution. They reluctantly agreed, then went out to the podium and faced the crowd, showing their support for Hitler and pledging loyalty to the new regime. An emotional Hitler spoke to the crowd. "I am going to fulfill the vow I made to myself five years ago when I was a blind cripple in the military hospital - to know neither rest nor peace until the November criminals had been overthrown, until on the ruins of the wretched Germany of today there should have arisen once more a Germany of power and greatness, of freedom and splendor." The crowd in the beer hall roared their approval and sang "Deutschland über Alles." Hitler was euphoric. This was turning into a night of triumph for him. Tomorrow he might actually be dictator of Germany. But then word came that attempts to take over several military barracks had failed and that German soldiers inside the barracks were holding out against Hitler's storm troopers. Hitler decided to leave the beer hall and go to the scene to personally resolve the problem. Leaving the beer hall was a fateful error. In his absence the Nazi revolution quickly began to unravel.

The three Bavarian government leaders, Kahr, Lossow, and Seisser, slipped out of the beer hall after falsely promising Ludendorff they would remain loyal to Hitler. Meanwhile, Hitler had no luck in getting the German soldiers who were holding out in the barracks to surrender. Having failed at that, he went back to the beer hall. When he arrived back at the beer hall he was aghast to find the revolution fizzling. There were no plans for tomorrow's march on Berlin. Munich wasn't even being occupied. Nothing was happening. In fact, only one building, Army headquarters at the War Ministry had been occupied, by Ernst Röhm and his SA troopers. Elsewhere, rogue bands of Nazi thugs roamed the city of Munich rounding up some political opponents and harassing Jews. In the early morning hours of November 9, State Commissioner Kahr broke his promise to Hitler and Ludendorff and issued a strong statement against Hitler saying, "...Declarations extorted from me, Gen. Lassow and Colonel von Seisser by pistol point are null and void.

Had the senseless and purposeless attempt at revolt succeeded, Germany would have been plunged into the abyss and Bavaria with it." Kahr also ordered the breakup of the Nazi party and its fighting forces. Gen. Lossow also abandoned Hitler and ordered Army reinforcements into Munich to put down the Nazi putsch. Troops were rushed in and by dawn the War Ministry building containing Röhm and his SA troops was surrounded. Hitler was up all night frantically trying to decide what to do. General Ludendorff then gave him an idea. The Nazis would simply march into the middle of Munich and take it over. Because of his World War One fame, Ludendorff reasoned, no one would dare fire on him. He even assured Hitler the police and the Army would likely join them. Hitler went for the idea. Around 11 a.m., a column of three thousand Nazis, led by Hitler, Göring and Ludendorff marched toward the center of Munich. Carrying one of the flags was a young party member named Heinrich Himmler. After reaching the center of Munich, the Nazis headed toward the War Ministry building but they encountered a police blockade along the route.

As they stood face to face with a hundred armed policemen, Hitler yelled out to them to surrender. They didn't. Shots rang out. Both sides fired. It lasted about a minute. Sixteen Nazis and three police were killed. Göring was hit in the groin. Hitler suffered a dislocated shoulder when the man he had locked arms with was shot and dragged Hitler down to the pavement. Hitler's bodyguard, Ulrich Graf, jumped onto Hitler to shield him and took several bullets, probably saving Hitler's life. Hitler then crawled along the sidewalk out of the line of fire and scooted away into a waiting car, leaving his comrades behind. The rest of the Nazis scattered or were arrested. Ludendorff, true to his heroic form, walked right through the line of fire to the police and was then arrested. Hitler wound up at the home his friends, the Hanfstaengls, where he was reportedly talked out of suicide. He had become deeply despondent and expected to be shot by the authorities. He spent two nights in the Hanfstaengl's attic. On the third night, police arrived and arrested him.

He was taken to the prison at Landsberg where his spirits lifted somewhat after he was told he was going to get a public trial. With the collapse of the Nazi beer hall putsch, it now appeared to most observers that Hitler's political career and the Nazi movement had come to a crashing, almost laughable end. Copyright © 1997 The History Place™ All Rights Reserved (Photo Credit: William O. McWorkman, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives) Beer Hall Putsch - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com Beer Hall Putsch A+E Networks Introduction From November 8 to November 9, 1923, Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and his followers staged the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, a failed takeover of the government in Bavaria, a state in southern Germany. Since 1921, Hitler had led the Nazi Party, a fledgling political group that promoted German pride and anti-Semitism and was unhappy with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the peace settlement that ended World War I (1914-18) and required many concessions and reparations from Germany.

In the aftermath of the failed “putsch,” or coup d’état, Hitler was convicted of treason and sentenced to five years in prison. He spent less than a year behind bars, during which time he dictated “Mein Kampf,” his political autobiography. The putsch and Hitler’s subsequent trial turned him into a national figure. After prison, he worked to rebuild the Nazi Party and gain power via legal political methods. Google Before the Beer Hall Putsch In 1923, Adolf Hitler was 34, an age when most people have finished school and settled into an occupation. He was a high-school dropout, however, and a failed artist whose military service during World War I (1914-18) had been the high point of his life. Injured by a British mustard gas attack in October 1918, Hitler was recuperating in a field hospital when the war ended in November 1918. He became convinced that his life’s mission was to “save Germany,” as he later put it.

Frustrated by Germany’s defeat in World War I, which left the nation economically depressed and politically unstable, Hitler returned to Munich, where he had lived before the war, and found employment as a police spy. Told to infiltrate a small group called the German Workers’ Party, Hitler was attracted to the group’s nationalistic and anti-Semitic ideology. He joined the party in 1919 and soon became one of its early leaders. He also met Dietrich Eckart (1868-1923), co-founder of the party and a member of the Thule Society, an occultist group devoted to theories of racial purity and the origins of Germanic culture. Eckart became Hitler’s mentor, introducing him to influential people and teaching him to be an effective public speaker. By 1921, Hitler was addressing crowds of several thousand people in local beer halls, which were common places for Bavarians to gather for political meetings. The German Workers’ Party changed its name to the National German Socialist Workers’ Party, or Nazi Party , and elected Hitler as its leader in July 1921.

In the two years that followed, the Nazi Party grew as people in southern Germany lost respect for the leadership of the Weimar Republic in Berlin. Germany’s payment of reparations to the Allies, required by the Treaty of Versailles , the 1919 peace settlement that ended World War I, had triggered runaway inflation that wiped out people’s savings. Additionally, starting in January 1923, French and Belgian forces occupied the Ruhr, the center of German heavy industry, an act that contributed to a sense of national humiliation. The Putsch By November 1923, Hitler and his associates had concocted a plot to seize power of the Bavarian state government (and thereby launch a larger revolution against the Weimar Republic) by kidnapping Gustav von Kahr (1862-1934), the state commissioner of Bavaria, and two other conservative politicians. Hitler’s plan involved using Erich Ludendorff (1865-1937), the right-wing World War I general, as a figurehead to lead a march on Berlin to overthrow the Weimar Republic.

Hitler’s proposed putsch was inspired by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), whose march on Rome in October 1922 had been successful in ousting the liberal Italian government. Hitler had initially approached von Kahr to lead the march on Berlin, but when von Kahr began to back away from the plan, Hitler moved ahead without him. Hearing that von Kahr was scheduled to address a large crowd in the Bürgerbräukeller, one of the biggest beer halls in Munich, on November 8, 1923, Hitler took hundreds of his followers and surrounded the hall that evening. The Nazi Party leader and about 20 of his associates burst into the hall, and Hitler fired a shot into the ceiling and declared a “national revolution.” Von Kahr and two colleagues were herded into a back room while one of Hitler’s associates telephoned Ludendorff. When the general arrived at the hall, he convinced the three Bavarian leaders to give in to Hitler’s demands for the march on Berlin. Hitler made the mistake of leaving the beer hall later that night to deal with crises elsewhere in the city.

His followers were supposed to take over government buildings throughout Munich but their attempts were largely foiled by the city’s military troops. Meanwhile, Ludendorff had allowed von Kahr and the other two leaders to leave the beer hall after Hitler’s departure. By the next morning, the putsch had fizzled. Ludendorff attempted to salvage the situation by calling on Hitler’s followers for a spontaneous march on the city center. He led about 2,500-3,000 supporters in the direction of the Bavarian Defense Ministry. On their way, the marchers were blocked by a group of state police officers. The two groups exchanged fire, and four police officers were killed along with 16 Nazis. Hitler suffered a dislocated shoulder when he fell to the ground. He crawled along the pavement and was taken away in a waiting car, leaving his comrades behind. Ludendorff walked straight ahead into the ranks of the police, who refused to fire on him. Hitler’s Trial and Imprisonment Hitler fled to the nearby house of a friend, Ernst Hanfstaengl (1887-1975), where he was reportedly talked out of committing suicide.

He hid in Hanfstaengl’s attic for two days but was arrested on November 11, 1923. Accused of high treason, Hitler was tried on February 26, 1924, and sentenced to five years in the Landsberg prison. Hitler’s popularity increased during his trial, as his defense speeches were printed in the newspapers. He served less than a year of his sentence, obtaining a pardon and early release on December 20, 1924. Landsberg was a relatively comfortable prison, intended for inmates who were considered misguided rather than dangerous. Hitler was allowed to receive visitors as well as fan mail from admirers. Assisted by his deputy Rudolf Hess (1894-1987), Hitler produced the first volume of his political autobiography, “Mein Kampf” (“My Struggle”), in Landsberg. The book, first published in 1925, was dedicated to his early mentor Dietrich Eckart. Aftermath The Beer Hall Putsch had several significant consequences. First, it led to a split between Hitler and Ludendorff; the general considered Hitler a coward for sneaking away after the police had begun to fire.

Second, Hitler decided that armed revolution was not the way to obtain power in Weimar Germany. After the failure of the putsch, he and the Nazi Party worked to manipulate the political system rather than plan another violent seizure of power. Third, the putsch brought the Nazi Party to national attention in Germany. The deaths of the 16 party members were also a propaganda victory for the Nazis. The men became martyrs, remembered in the foreword to “Mein Kampf” and entombed in two “temples of honor” in downtown Munich. Hitler held an elaborate march every year on the anniversary of the putsch, retracing the route from the Bürgerbräukeller to the spot where the shots had been fired in 1923. A flag that had been stained with blood from the putsch became a symbol of Nazi ideology. Hitler used this so-called “Blutfahne,” or blood flag, to consecrate all new Nazi banners and flags. In 1933, a decade after the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler became chancellor of Germany.

He went on to lead his country into World War II (1939-45) and mastermind the Holocaust, the systematic, state-sponsored murder of some 6 million European Jews, along with an estimated 4 million to 6 million non-Jews. On November 8, 1939, Georg Elser (1903-45), a Nazi opponent, planted a bomb at the Bürgerbräukeller, where Adolf Hitler was delivering a speech commemorating the Beer Hall Putsch. However, Hitler left the beer hall shortly before the bomb detonated, killing seven people and injuring dozens more. Tags The Munich putsch - Weimar Germany Search for: The Munich putsch The Munich Putsch – also known as the Beer Hall Putsch – was an attempt to seize control of the government of Bavaria in 1923. This was by no means the first coup attempt launched by right-wing nationalists in Weimar Germany. In March 1920, groups of regular soldiers and Freikorps, angered by the government’s disbanding of military units, marched on Berlin.

They occupied the capital for several days, demanding the resignation of the government and the installment of Wolfgang Kapp, a Prussian nationalist, as Reich president. The Kapp putsch, as it became known, ultimately failed because it was not supported by either Reichswehr generals or German workers. By late 1923, Germany had been paralysed by the French occupation of the Ruhr, a series of general strikes, the economic disaster of hyperinflation, and political violence and turmoil. Many pundits expected the government to be challenged, if not replaced, by either a right-wing putsch, a left-wing revolution or a military coup d’etat. Hitler and the NSDAP – still comparative small and confined largely to southern Germany – were in no position to move directly against the German government. But if they controlled Bavaria, Hitler believed he could instigate, build and mobilise a national movement that could take control of Germany. The Nazi leader drew inspiration from the Italian fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, who in 1922 marched from Naples to Rome; he gathered supporters along the way and was handed the prime ministership on reaching his destination.

The trigger for Hitler’s putsch came in September 1923, when the Bavarian government attempted to ban a series of NSDAP-organised public rallies. On November 8th 1923, Hitler led around 600 armed Sturmabteilung (SA) troopers into the Burgerbraukeller beer hall, where a meeting of the Bavarian government was taking place. Interrupting a speech by provincial premier Gustav von Kahr, Hitler climbed onto a bench and fired a pistol. He announced the overthrow of the Bavarian government and an imminent takeover of the national government. Hitler then took aside von Kahr and Bavarian military leaders, hectoring them to agree to a ‘revolutionary alliance’. As Hitler was holding the government to ransom in the beer hall, Ernst Rohm and Rudolf Hess, along with more SA troops, occupied government buildings in Munich. They did not seize control of radio or telegraph facilities, however, so news of the putsch soon reached Berlin. The following day, November 9th, around 3,000 NSDAP and SA members began marching through Munich, intending to link up with Ernst Rohm and his men.

By this stage Munich had been reinforced by extra police, who had set up road blocks on key routes around the city. The Nazi procession encountered one of these road blocks at the Odensplatz, manned by about 100 men. A gunfight ensued and several men were hit. Though they heavily outnumbered the police, almost all of the marchers, including Hitler himself, dispersed and left. By nightfall, Munich had been swamped by additional Reichswehr, to deal with any Nazi counter-attack. The putsch was an irrefutable failure. Twenty people were killed, 16 of them SA troopers. Hermann Goering was seriously wounded, shot in the groin (an injury which left him reliant on drugs for the rest of his life). Hitler himself suffered a dislocated shoulder while being bundled into a car; worse than that, he was exposed as a coward who fled the Odensplatz rather than fight for control of the city. The NSDAP leader took refuge in a private house but was arrested two days later and charged with treason. But if the battle for Munich had been a disaster, Hitler’s trial was a triumph.

Treating the courtroom as a political rally and the witness stand as a podium, Hitler gave long impassioned speeches, attacking the government and unfurling his own nationalist vision. The press attention his tirades received caused NSDAP membership to grow and helped the party transform from a Bavarian fringe group into a national movement. 1. The Beer Hall putsch was a Nazi attempt to overthrow the government of Bavaria and incite a national revolution. 2. It came at the end of 1923, a year of social unrest and economic disaster that threatened the Weimar regime. 3. On November 8th, Hitler and 600 armed SA troopers took over a provincial government meeting in a Munich beer hall. 4. The following day they attempted to link up with SA troops elsewhere in Munich, but became involved in a gunfight at a police roadblock. 5. Though the putsch was a logistical disaster, Hitler’s subsequent treason trial allowed him to outline his political vision to a much larger audience. 1000+ images about Hitler Putsch 1923 on Pinterest | Munich germany, Julius streicher and Anne frank Forward The image from the Nazi Propaganda!

shows Adolf Hitler among his supporters during the consecration of the Memorial for the victims of the Beer Hall Putsch of 9 November 1923 on the Feldherrenhalle in Munich, Germany, on 9 November 1933. To Hitler's left: Hermann Göring. To the very right, Reichsführer SS Heinrich HImmler. See More Putsch - definition of putsch by The Free Dictionary Putsch - definition of putsch by The Free Dictionary A sudden attempt by a group to overthrow a government. [German, from German dialectal, from Middle High German, thrust, of imitative origin.] putsch′ist n. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a violent and sudden uprising; political revolt, esp a coup d'état [C20: from German: from Swiss German: a push, of imitative origin] putsch n. a sudden political revolt or uprising. [1915–20; < German Putsch, orig.

Swiss German: literally, violent blow, clash, shock; introduced into standard German through reports of Swiss popular uprisings of the 1830s, especially the Zurich revolt of Sept., 1839] putsch 1. A German word meaning push, used to mean an attempt to overthrow a government by force. 2. A German word for thrust, meaning an attempt to overthrow a government, such as that led by Hitler from a Munich beer-hall in 1923, which failed ignominiously. ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend: Beer Hall Putsch (Munich Putsch) Beer Hall Putsch (Munich Putsch) A large crowd gathers in front of the Rathaus to hear the exhortations of Julius Streicher during the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler's early unsuccessful attempt to seize power. Munich, Germany, November 1923.  US Holocaust Memorial Museum View Photographs On November 8–9, 1923, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party led a coalition group in an attempt to overthrow the German government. This attempted coup d'état came to be known as the Beer Hall Putsch.

They began at the Bürgerbräu Keller in the Bavarian city of Munich, aiming to seize control of the state government, march on Berlin, and overthrow the German federal government. In its place, they sought to establish a new government to oversee the creation of a unified Greater German Reich where citizenship would be based on race. Although the putsch failed—and Bavarian authorities were able to prosecute nine participants, including Hitler—the leaders ultimately redefined it as a heroic effort to save the nation and integrated it into the mythos of Hitler and the Nazis' rise to power. A Climate of National Instability Throughout Germany, the first four years of the Weimar Republic were marred by economic woes, trauma at the loss of World War I , and humiliation at what many considered to be the excessively punitive terms of the Versailles Treaty . In this climate of national instability, both left and right wing political movements, whose paramilitary formations swelled with unemployed veterans and rebellious youths, had attempted and failed to overthrow the fledgling democracy. By the time Hitler and the Nazis prepared their coup attempt in 1923, the movement counted over 50,000 members.

The majority of these members had joined with the hope that the party would take action against the democratic republic. Inspired by Mussolini's successful “march on Rome” that brought the Fascists to power in Italy in October 1922, Hitler planned to make his move with a parallel “March on Berlin” to seize control of the national government. At the same time, members of the Bavarian state government were agitating for change. Protesting Berlin's decision to halt passive resistance against Franco-Belgian occupation troops in the Rhineland and the Ruhr, the Bavarian government had declared a state of emergency. It put Minister President Gustav Ritter von Kahr in charge as a General State Commissar together with his associates Armed Forces General Otto von Lossow and State Police Chief Hans Ritter von Seisser. This “triumvirate” publicly advocated a nationalist march on Berlin but secretly calculated that others in the military and civil service in Berlin would do the dirty work, sweeping away the hated Republic and establishing an authoritarian regime. The Bavarians could then enjoy the fruits of the putsch without taking its risks and simultaneously maintain their autonomy in Bavaria.

However, as it became clear to the triumvirate that they had miscalculated, they contemplated taking action against Berlin on their own. They met on the evening of November 8, 1923, in the Bürgerbräu Keller on the east side of Munich to discuss strategy. Meanwhile, the radical and völkisch nationalist coalition, including the Nazis, had united in a formation that they called the Kampfbund (Combat League). The völkisch leaders grew increasingly impatient and pushed for a violent overthrow of the government in Berlin. Hitler, who had dubbed himself the “drummer” for the movements associated with the Kampfbund, feared Bavarian Minister-President Kahr more than any other leader as a potential rival. Having heard of the November 8 meeting, to which he was not invited, Hitler and his fellow conspirators planned to crash it. They planned to then announce the Bavarian and federal government as deposed, forcing the triumvirate to legitimize his movement.

Von Lossow and von Seisser would be made to order Bavarian troops out on to the street in support of the government of “national renewal,” and, in conjunction with the paramilitary units in the Kampfbund coalition, to seize crucial administrative and military buildings. Once the coalition had secured Bavaria, its leaders would march on Berlin under Hitler's inspiration and leadership. The Putsch At about 8:30 in the evening on November 8, Hitler's personal bodyguard detachment, the Stoßtrupp Adolf Hitler, arrived at the Bürgerbräu Keller to join the Storm Trooper units which were preparing to surround the beer hall. Having slipped inside the facility, Hitler took the arrival of the Stoßtrupp as the signal to begin the putsch. He fired his pistol into the ceiling, interrupting Kahr's rally, and declared that the “national revolution” had begun. Surrounded by armed guards, Hitler pushed his way to the front and briefly addressed the crowd. He then ordered the Bavarian triumvirate—von Lossow, von Seisser, and von Kahr—into an adjoining room, where he bullied them at gunpoint into backing his putsch.

Believing he had secured their support, Hitler and the three Bavarian leaders returned to the main hall and addressed the crowd. They declared their solidarity in Hitler's movement and announced the new government's key appointments. Once they launched the putsch, however, the conspirators made a series of crucial mistakes. First, its overall success depended upon the seizure of state offices and communications centers and the use of the triumvirate's authority to bring in the military and police. While the rebels temporarily took over some offices, including the municipal headquarters of the Reichswehr and Munich police headquarters, they failed to secure other key centers. Further, Hitler left the triumvirate in the custody of von Ludendorff, who yielded to their entreaties to leave the Bürgerbräu Keller, supposedly to take up their designated roles in the putsch. Once free, however, they promptly denounced the overthrow and ordered police and military units to suppress it. As the conspirators had failed to secure communications in the city, the triumvirate was able to call upon suburban police forces and troops from nearby bases. The conspirators were too disorganized to take advantage of this short window of confusion.

After he heard of the triumvirate's betrayal, Hitler equivocated for several hours before deciding to go ahead with the march on Berlin anyway. The indecision gave the Bavarian authorities time to organize and defend Munich. In a last ditch effort to rally citizens and soldiers, Hitler led around 2,000 Nazis and other Kampfbund members in a march to the Feldherrnhalle on the Ludwigsstrasse. Munich law enforcement clashed with the marchers as they reached the Odeonsplatz. The shootout left 14 Nazis and four police officers dead and put a final end to the coup in the city. Two other Nazis would die in other localities. Hitler had relied on the paramilitary Kampfbund, but the lack of support from the police and locally stationed military units doomed the attempt. Trial A five-judge panel chaired by Georg Neithardt presided over the trial of Hitler and the other putsch leaders in March 1924. Like the majority of judges during the Weimar period, Neithardt tended, in cases of high treason, to show leniency towards right-wing defendants who claimed to have acted out of sincere, patriotic motives.

Wearing his Iron Cross, awarded for bravery during World War I, Hitler took helf forth against the Weimar Republic. He claimed the federal government in Berlin had betrayed Germany by signing the Versailles Treaty , and justified his actions by suggesting that there was a clear and imminent communist threat to Germany. Although the judges convicted Hitler on the charge of high treason, they gave him the lightest allowable sentence of five years in a minimum security prison at Landsberg am Lech. He served only eight months. While Hitler did have a base of support, left and right-wing newspapers criticized the leniency of his sentence, and a prominent legal professor published a paper outlining many of the trial's worst errors. Bavarian government officials were equally displeased with the verdict and the sentence but acted with restraint to avoid giving the impression of trying to influence the affairs of the Bavarian Justice Ministry. During his short time in prison, Hitler led a pleasant lifestyle for an inmate. Prison authorities allowed him to wear his civilian clothes, to meet with other inmates as he pleased, and to send and receive many letters. Prison authorities also permitted Hitler to use the services of his personal secretary, Rudolf Hess , a fellow inmate, also convicted of high treason.

While in prison, Hitler dictated to Hess the first volume of his infamous autobiography, Mein Kampf . The Legacy of the Beer Hall Putsch The Beer Hall putsch had several ominous legacies. Among those who marched with Hitler to the Odeonsplatz on November 9, 1923, were men who would later hold key positions in Nazi Germany: Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler , Rudolf Hess, Julius Streicher , and Wilhelm Frick . Four out of these five men would stand in the defendants' dock at the trial of the major war criminals in Nuremberg in 1945; the fifth only escaped that fate by committing suicide. The aims of the putsch leaders were equally foreboding.

They sought to smash internal political opposition and annihilate those who resisted, to establish a dictatorial state with citizenship restricted to Germans of “Nordic” stock, to exclude Jews from political life, and to pass emergency legislation that would allow the “removal of all persons dangerous to security and useless eaters” who would be incarcerated “in concentration camps [Sammellager] and, where possible, turned to labor productive to the community.” When Hitler and the Nazis seized power in 1933 , they achieved each of these goals within two years. Hitler drew important practical lessons from the failed putsch. First, he understood that the Nazi movement could not destroy the Republic by direct assault without support from the Army and police. Second, he understood that success depended upon the Nazi Party as the undisputed leader of the völkisch movement and Hitler as the unequivocal leader of the Nazis. Finally, the experience taught Hitler that an attempt to overthrow the state by force would bring forth a military response in its defense. From that time on, he was committed to taking advantage of the Weimar democracy to subvert the state from within.

He sought to come to power by means of the popular vote and by using the freedoms of speech and assembly guaranteed by the Weimar Republic to influence that vote. In the wake of the putsch, the federal and Bavarian government banned the Nazi Party, its formations, and its newspaper. But Hitler's public commitment to coming to power legally induced the authorities to lift the ban in 1925. A careful organizational restructuring of the Nazi Party under Hitler's absolute control between 1925-1929, necessitated by the dissolution of the Party in 1924, would show its first significant result in the Nazi electoral breakthrough in the Reichstag elections of 1930. Hitler and the Nazi Party leadership cultivated the memory of the putsch. They gave it a special place in the narrative of the Nazi movement, and eventually in that of the German state. After Hitler consolidated power, Nazi Germany celebrated November 9 as Reich Day of Mourning (Reichstrauertag). The Odeonsplatz, the city square where the conspirators had clashed with police, became an important memorial for the Nazi Party.

Only after World War II did authorities of the German Federal Republic dedicate a plaque memorializing the four police officers killed on duty in defense of the Weimar Republic. Further Reading Gordon, Harold J., Jr. Hitler and the Beer Hall Putsch. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1972. Kershaw, Ian. Hitler: 1889-1936: Hubris. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1998. Pappert, Lars. Der Hitlerputsch und seine Mythologisierung im Dritten Reich. Neuried: Ars Una, 2001. Willms, Johannes, ed. Der 9. November: Fünf Essays zur Deutschen Geschichte. Munich: Beck, 1994. Related Articles The History Place - Rise of Hitler: The Beer Hall Putsch The Beer Hall Putsch A series of financial events unfolded in the years 1921 through 1923 that would propel the Nazis to new heights of daring and would even prompt Hitler into attempting to take over Germany.

In April of 1921, the victorious European Allies of World War I, notably France and Britain, presented a bill to Germany demanding payment for damages caused in the war which Germany had started. This bill (33 billion dollars) for war reparations had the immediate effect of causing ruinous inflation in Germany. ADVERTISEMENT The German currency, the mark, slipped drastically in value. It had been four marks to the U.S. dollar until the war reparations were announced. Then it became 75 to the dollar and in 1922 sank to 400 to the dollar. The German government asked for a postponement of payments. The French refused. The Germans defied them by defaulting on their payments. In response to this, in January 1923, the French Army occupied the industrial part of Germany known as the Ruhr. The German mark fell to 18,000 to the dollar. By July 1923, it sank to 160,000. By August, 1,000,000.

And by November 1923, it took 4,000,000,000 marks to obtain a dollar. Germans lost their life savings. Salaries were paid in worthless money. Groceries cost billions. Hunger riots broke out. For the moment, the people stood by their government, admiring its defiance of the French. But in September of 1923, the German government made the fateful decision to resume making payments. Bitter resentment and unrest swelled among the people, inciting extremist political groups to action and quickly bringing Germany to the brink of chaos. The Nazis and other similar groups now felt the time was right to strike. The German state of Bavaria where the Nazis were based was a hotbed of groups opposed to the democratic government in Berlin. By now, November 1923, the Nazis, with 55,000 followers, were the biggest and best organized. With Nazi members demanding action, Hitler knew he had to act or risk losing the leadership of his Party. And so Hitler and the Nazis hatched a plot in which they would kidnap the leaders of the Bavarian government and force them at gunpoint to accept Hitler as their leader.

Then, according to their plan, with the aid of famous World War I General, Erich Ludendorff, they would win over the German Army, proclaim a nationwide revolt and bring down the German democratic government in Berlin. They put this plan into action when they learned there was going to be a large gathering of businessmen in a Munich beer hall and the guests of honor were scheduled to be the Bavarian leaders they now wanted to kidnap. On November 8, 1923, Nazi troops under the direction of Hermann Göring surrounded the place. At 8:30 p.m., Hitler and his storm troopers burst into the beer hall causing instant panic. Hitler fired a pistol shot into the ceiling. "Silence!" he yelled at the stunned crowd. Hitler and Göring forced their way to the podium as armed storm troops continued to file into the hall. State Commissioner Gustav von Kahr, whose speech had been interrupted by all this, yielded the podium to Hitler. "The National Revolution has begun!" Hitler shouted. "No one may leave the hall. Unless there is immediate quiet I shall have a machine gun posted in the gallery. The Bavarian and Reich governments have been removed and a provisional national government formed.

The barracks of the Reichswehr and police are occupied. The Army and the police are marching on the city under the swastika banner!" None of that was true, but those in the beer hall could not know otherwise. Hitler then ordered the three highest officials of the Bavarian government into a back room. State Commissioner Kahr, along with the head of the state police, Colonel Hans von Seisser, and commander of the German Army in Bavaria, General Otto von Lossow, did as they were told and went into the room where Hitler informed them they were to join him in proclaiming a Nazi revolution and would become part of the new government. But to Hitler's great surprise, his three captives simply glared at him and at first even refused to talk to him. Hitler responded by waving his pistol at them, yelling: "I have four shots in my pistol! Three for you, gentlemen. The last bullet for myself!" However, the revolution in the back room continued to go poorly for Hitler. Then, on a sudden impulse, Hitler dashed out of the room and went back out to the podium and shouted: "The government of the November criminals and the Reich President are declared to be removed.

A new national government will be named this very day in Munich. A new German National Army will be formed immediately...The task of the provisional German National Government is to organize the march on that sinful Babel, Berlin, and save the German people! Tomorrow will find either a National Government in Germany or us dead!" This led everyone in the beer hall to believe the men in the back room had given in to Hitler and were joining with the Nazis. There was now wild cheering for Hitler. General Ludendorff then arrived. Hitler knew the three government leaders still in the back room would actually listen to him. At Hitler's urging, Ludendorff spoke to the men in the back room and advised them to go along with the Nazi revolution. They reluctantly agreed, then went out to the podium and faced the crowd, showing their support for Hitler and pledging loyalty to the new regime.

An emotional Hitler spoke to the crowd: "I am going to fulfill the vow I made to myself five years ago when I was a blind cripple in the military hospital – to know neither rest nor peace until the November criminals had been overthrown, until on the ruins of the wretched Germany of today there should have arisen once more a Germany of power and greatness, of freedom and splendor." The crowd in the beer hall roared their approval and sang "Deutschland Über Alles." Hitler was euphoric. This was turning into a night of triumph for him. Tomorrow he might actually be the new leader of Germany. But then word came that attempts to take over several Army barracks had failed and that German soldiers inside those barracks were holding out against the Nazi storm troopers. Hitler decided to leave the beer hall and go to the scene to personally resolve the problem. During the Putsch, Hitler's storm troopers are seen with socialist politicians they have arrested in Munich. Below: Chaotic scene at the Marienplatz as Nazi storm troopers arrive amid onlookers. Below: Bewildered citizens linger at the Odeonplatz following the failure of the Putsch. Leaving the beer hall was a fateful error.

In his absence the Nazi revolution quickly began to unravel. The three Bavarian government leaders, Kahr, Lossow, and Seisser, slipped out of the beer hall after falsely promising Ludendorff they would remain loyal to Hitler. Meanwhile, Hitler had no luck in getting the German soldiers who were holding out in the barracks to surrender. Having failed at that, he went back to the beer hall. When he arrived back at the beer hall he was aghast to find his revolution fizzling. There were no plans for tomorrow's march on Berlin. Munich wasn't even being occupied. Nothing was happening. In fact, only one building, Army headquarters at the War Ministry had been occupied by Ernst Röhm and his troopers. Elsewhere, rogue bands of Nazi thugs roamed the city of Munich rounding up some political opponents and harassing Jews. In the early morning hours of November 9th, State Commissioner Kahr broke his promise to Hitler and Ludendorff and issued a statement blasting Hitler: "Declarations extorted from me, General Lossow and Colonel von Seisser by pistol point are null and void.

Had the senseless and purposeless attempt at revolt succeeded, Germany would have been plunged into the abyss and Bavaria with it." Kahr also ordered the breakup of the Nazi Party and its fighting forces. General Lossow also abandoned Hitler and ordered German Army reinforcements into Munich to put down the Nazi Putsch. Troops were rushed in and by dawn the War Ministry building containing Röhm and his troops was surrounded. Hitler was up all night frantically trying to decide what to do. General Ludendorff then gave him an idea. The Nazis would simply march into the middle of Munich and take it over. Because of his World War I fame, Ludendorff reasoned, no one would dare fire on him. He even assured Hitler the police and the Army would likely join them. The now-desperate Hitler went for the idea. Around 11 a.m. on the morning of November 9th, a column of three thousand Nazis, led by Hitler, Göring and Ludendorff marched toward the center of Munich. Carrying one of the flags was a young party member named Heinrich Himmler. After reaching the center of Munich, the Nazis headed toward the War Ministry building but they encountered a police blockade.

As they stood face to face with about a hundred armed policemen, Hitler yelled out to them to surrender. They didn't. Shots rang out. Both sides fired. It lasted about a minute. Sixteen Nazis and three police were killed. Göring was hit in the groin. Hitler suffered a dislocated shoulder when the man he had locked arms with was shot and pulled him down onto the pavement. Hitler's bodyguard, Ulrich Graf, jumped onto Hitler to shield him and took several bullets, probably saving Hitler's life. Hitler then crawled along the sidewalk out of the line of fire and scooted away into a waiting car, leaving his comrades behind. The rest of the Nazis scattered or were arrested. Ludendorff, true to his heroic form, walked right through the line of fire to the police and was then arrested. Hitler wound up at the home his friends, the Hanfstaengls, where he was reportedly talked out of suicide. He had become deeply despondent and expected to be shot by the authorities. He spent two nights hiding in the Hanfstaengl's attic. On the third night, police arrived and arrested him.

He was taken to the prison at Landsberg where his spirits lifted somewhat after he was told he was going to get a public trial. With the collapse of the Nazi revolution, it now appeared to most observers that Hitler's political career and the Nazi movement itself had come to a crashing, almost laughable end. Copyright © 1996 The History Place All Rights Reserved putsch - Gold Ore Crusher putsch Beer Hall Putsch – Wikipedia The Beer Hall Putsch (also known as the Munich Putsch. The History Place – World War II in Europe Timeline – November 8/9, 1923 – Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch In April of 1921, the victorious European Allies of World War One, notably France and England, presented a bill to Germany demanding payment for damages caused in the war which Germany had started. This bill (33 billion dollars) for war reparations had the immediate effect of causing ruinous inflation in Germany. The Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 The Beer Hall Putsch of November 1923, or the Munich Putsch, was Hitler's attempt to overthrow the Weimar government of Ebert and establish a right wing nationalistic one in its place.

Beer Hall Putsch — History.com Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts Before the Beer Hall Putsch. Hitler's Trial and Imprisonment. The History Channel. From November 8 to November 9, 1923, Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and his followers staged the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, a failed takeover of the government in Bavaria, a state in southern Germany. Beer Hall Putsch – American History Lives at American Heritage Collections, Travel, and Great Writing On History. W hy do we need a national nonprofit membership society for American history. Martha Dodd's Shining Season. A merican H eritage. American Heritage is proud to host the National Portal to Historic Collections. Eyewitness to History – Adolf Hitler Attempts a Coup, 1923 O n November 8, 1923 Adolph Hitler led his Nazi followers in an abortive attempt to seize power in Munich in what became known as the "Beer Hall Putsch". Adolph Hitler at the time of the putsch. 'But Herr Hitler, you promised me a few days ago that you wouldn't stage a putsch'.

Turbine Powered Bat Car – Putsch Racing Click on logo for video. Casey Putsch has taken on a lofty design exercise to create and build the world's only turbine powered Bat Car. Taking the the fantasy of the late 80′s that we all know and love, and making it reality is just the start. There is one catch. No sound effects or audio overlays. Putsch – Wiktionary Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary. See also putsch. From Alemannic German, literally meaning "blow". ( genitive Putsches, plural Putsche ). In other languages. Beer Hall Putsch (Munich Putsch) A large crowd gathers in front of the Rathaus to hear the exhortations of Julius Streicher during the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler's early unsuccessful attempt to seize power. Munich, Germany, November 1923. US Holocaust Memorial Museum. putsch – Definition of putsch This word is worth. 13 Scrabble® pts. A sudden political uprising or rebellion. See putsch in American Heritage Dictionary 4. A sudden attempt by a group to overthrow a government.

Question: Who was behind the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, a failed attempt to overthrow the government?
Answer: Adolf Hitler