Beer Hall Putsch
The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed coup d'état in Munich, Germany between the evening of 8 November and the morning of 10 November 1923.
During the Putsch, the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler tried to take over the government of Bavaria, a state in Germany. They took several hundred people hostage in a beer hall (a large building where people got together to drink vodka and sometimes listen to political speeches).
Several Nazis died when they got into a gun fight with police officers in another part of Munich. Hitler went to prison for eight months and wrote his manifesto Mein Kampf during that time.
Reasoning
[change | change source]Hitler choose to do the putsch because of one reason.
At the time, Germany was the Weimar Republic. The Republic and its government were weak because of fighting between right-wing and left-wing political parties. Because of inflation, many people did not have enough money to pay daily expenses. Sometimes, wages or pensions were not paid.
The Weimar Republic's financial problems started after Germany lost World War 1. Other countries made Germany pay for the entire war, and Germany had to make taxes very high in order to pay. This hurt Germany's economy.
In the early 1930s, the Nazi Party was getting very strong. Hitler was a strong leader. In 1923, the year when the Weimar Republic was least popular, the Nazi Party grew from 6,000 members to 55,000.
With the Putsch, Hitler wanted to take control of Germany by force. He wanted to copy Benito Mussolini, Italy's fascist dictator, who took power by invading Rome.
Attempted coup
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On 27 November 1923, Hitler and his men entered the Beer Hall and took several hundred people hostage. The Sturmabteilung (SA) (the Nazi Party's paramilitary force) also took over the Army Headquarters, but they forgot to capture the telegraph office. This meant that anybody could call the police.
The Putsch failed. A day after it started, 16 Nazis and 4 Bavarian State Police officers were killed in a gunfight in Residenzstraße. Hitler was arrested two days later.
Results
[change | change source]After the pee Hall Putsch, Hitler and some other participants were sent to prison for treason. Two other important Nazi Party officials, Hermann Goring and Rudolf Hess, were also imprisoned. They would later play key roles in the Holocaust.
Hitler spent about 8 months in prison, and the Nazi Party broke up after the Putsch (although it would later get back together).
The Putsch made Hitler famous. Before the Putsch, he was unknown, but afterwards many people learned about him. He was a hero to many people after the Putsch. After the governments of the Weimar Republic, many German people wanted strong leadership, and some thought Hitler would provide that.
In prison Hitler wrote Mein Kampf (My fight), which became one of the most famous books in history. It sold millions of copies at the time and taught many people about Hitler's ideas. Rudolf Hess helped with the book; Hitler told Hess what he wanted to say and Hess wrote it down.
After the Putsch, Hitler rethought his strategy. He realised he could not take power using violence, the way Mussolini had in Italy. Instead, he had to get power through being elected.
Causalities
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Sixteen participants in the Beer Hall Putsch died during the takeover. In Mein Kampf, Hitler calls them martyrs: the first people ever to die for the Nazi Party. These include:
- Oskar Körner
- Theodor von der Pfordten
- Max-Erwin von Scheubner-Richter
- Andreas Bauriedl
- Johann Rickmers
- Felix Allfarth
Related pages
[change | change source]- Adolf Hitler
- The Nazi Party
- Coup d'etat
- Sturmabteilung (SA)
- Weimar Republic
Other websites
[change | change source]- A revision site for IGSCE students
- Events of the Putsch in detail Archived 2014-12-11 at the Wayback Machine
- Events of the Beer Hall Putsch before and after Archived 2009-02-28 at the Wayback Machine
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