General Ludendorff then entered the pub announcing to everyone that he would support Hitler in his plans. Hitler then made a speech to the cheering, supportive audience that he had and said that he was going to carry out the vow that he made years ago, he promised to make Germany a much more powerful and greater country. As he spoke, Storm Troopers were already taking control of government offices and arresting officials.
That following day, November 9th, the 3 Bavarian leaders changed their minds to support Hitler and ordered him to be stopped. The Army was sent attack Ernst Rohm and the S.A. In hearing this, Hitler, General Ludendorff and 2000 other Nazis marched towards the centre of Berlin to save Ernst Rohm. But as they got closer, they came up against armed police who started firing at them. Sixteen Nazis were shot and killed, General Ludendorff was unharmed and Hitler escaped with a dislocated shoulder. There are many stories to how he actually dislocated his shoulder, one is that while being fired at, he grabbed a small boy to cover him from the hail of gunfire being shot at him, killing the boy, but still managing to fall over and dislocate his shoulder. Another version of this story is that instead of using the small boy for protection, he tried to ‘save’ the boy from being shot and still managed to slip and dislocate his shoulder. The boy was still killed. Nazis usually tell this version.
That day Hitler and Ludendorff were both arrested and put on trial.
The Munich Putsch was over. Hitler was charged with high treason and the trial consisted for 24 days. Although Hitler was going to be sent to prison, this failed attempt to overthrow the government was good for him as it gave him huge publicity. He was on the front page of every newspaper and finally, people knew who Adolf Hitler was.
When put on the stand to explain his actions, Hitler recited a long speech, impressing the judges and decreasing his sentence.
General Ludendorff was set free and Hitler was sentenced to 5 years in prison with the change of parole after six months.
Hitler was sent to the Landsberg Fortress, 80 kilometres west of Munich. The conditions there were not prison-like. Infact, Hitler was allowed as many visitors he wanted, there were newspapers and books and he had plenty of food.
Most of Hitler’s time was spent writing ‘Mein Kampf’, which meant, ‘My Struggle’. This was a long, rambling book explaining Hitler’s views and opinions on history, politics, race and the future of Germany. Many Nazis later referred to this book as their own Bible.
His time to finish this book in prison was not long though, as he was released after serving only 9 months.
The Munich Putsch was not the first and last attempt for Hitler to overthrow the government, it was one of many and he was soon to succeed.
Question 3a
There were many reasons why Hitler wanted to overthrow the Government one of them was ‘The Stab in the Back’ theory in 1918. This was a main cause because Hitler (and the rest of Germany) was lead to believe that the German Government (the Weimar Republic) had surrendered the First World War, even though they were ‘winning’. The truth was that Germany were loosing, badly. The Government had no choice but to surrender and were even encouraged by the German Generals. Later these same Generals, General Hindenburg and General Lundendorff, told the German people that the Weimar Republic had ‘Stabbed them in the back’ and surrendered the war. The Generals did this because they didn’t want to be put to blame for the loss of the war.
The people of Germany believed this and turned against the Government. Hitler was especially hit hard by the news of Germanys surrender and the cause for it. Hitler was very patriotic and this was a crucial factor leading to his plans to overthrow the Government.
Another reason why Hitler wanted to overthrow the Government was because of the Treaty of Versailles. This was an agreement to repair the damage of the war and only France, England and the USA were invited to decide the fate of this Treaty. This was another event that Hitler despised and made him want to overthrow the government. Germany was blamed 100% for the war and was made to pay huge reparations, which was impossible for them to do. Also, certain parts of Germany was split up and given to other countries. Altogether, the Treaty of Versailles completely destroyed Germany and the Weimar Republic were the ones to sign it. Hitler resented this and would have rather they went back to war than for them to of signed the treaty.
Question 3b
There are multiple reasons why Hitler wanted to overthrow the Government. The main six of these reasons are listed and explained below. This answer will explain which cause I think was the most important and why.
One of the important causes was the ‘Stab in the Back’ theory. The German Government surrendered from the war as they were losing badly.
Although the German Generals told a different story to the German people. They said that the Government had ‘Stabbed them in the Back’ and surrendered the war even though Germany were ‘winning’. They did this so that the military would not be put to blame for the loss of the war. This was an important reason because it started Hitler’s ambitions to overthrow the Government and take over Germany.
Following on from the ‘Stab in the back’ theory, to pursue Hitler’s hatred towards the Government, the Treaty of Versailles was signed by them. This treaty blamed Germany 100% for the cause of the war, gave demands of huge reparations to other countries and divided parts of Germany up. Hitler felt the Government had ‘betrayed Germany’ by signing this treaty and would have rather gone back to war than to of signed the treaty. Like the ‘Stab in the back’ theory this was another one of the reasons that started Hitler’s Ambitions.
This showed not just to Hitler, but also to the rest of Germany that the Government was a weak one. There were 35 political parties and out of them there were 8 main parties. This didn’t help either when decisions were to be made, as there were so many politicians they couldn’t agree on one thing. German people didn’t take kindly to this, as Germany had always been accustomed one strong leader. Hitler wanted this to be changed, he wanted 1 strong leader again, and he was planning to make that leader himself.
Another one of the important causes was the French invasion of the Ruhr. The French didn’t believe Germany when they told them they couldn’t pay the 2nd reparation, so the French invaded and took over the Ruhr. They took over the German factories and made the German workers work for the French so any money was being paid straight into France. Because of this invasion, 132 people were killed and 150,000 were made homeless. This made Hitler resent the Government even more. He felt that the Government should have fought back against France and were letting Germany down.
Another crucial cause was Hyperinflation. The Government told the German workers to go on strike so the French couldn’t make any more money out of them from the Ruhr invasion. This resulted in the German workers having to be paid for their strike. The Government didn’t have any money to pay these workers with so they decided to print more to pay them back. But this was useless as shop prices rose 300% a day making it impossible to buy the simplest things.
For example…
Price of 1 egg (in marks)
July 1914: 0.09
July 1921: 1.60
July 1922: 7.00
July 1923: 5,000.
Sept 1923: 4,000,000.
Nov 1923: 320,000,000,000.
People were slowly starving to death, the money they had was useless and couldn’t buy them what the needed most. In November 1923, Hyperinflation had hit its worst. This was the final straw for Hitler. He had had enough, and on the 8-9th of November 1923 the Munich Putsch happens. Hyperinflation was defiantly the trigger for Hitler to try and overthrow the government.
Hitler’s ambitions soon came into full force. He strongly believed that there was a master race and wanted to make Germany all-powerful with this master race. Hitler also set up a Nazi Empire set to last 1000 years called the ‘Third Reich’. Hitler was also very Anti-Semitist, he wanted to wipe out all Jewish people, as well as communists. He wanted to abolish the Treaty of Versailles and also created a 25-point plan, which consisted of his plans for Germany. The Government was the opposite of everything that Hitler wanted, and he was going to make his plans become reality.
Having looked at all these causes, the most important was Hyperinflation. As we have seen, it was vital because this is what triggered Hitler to take action over the Government. It was more important than the ‘Stab in the back’ theory because this only started Hitler’s plans and didn’t give him the final push to pursue them. It was also more important than the French invasion of the Ruhr as this was only yet another act of stupidity of the Government in Hitler’s view, it gave him a bigger push to carry on with his plans but was not the final trigger for his actions. Although without the invasion of the Ruhr, Hyperinflation may never have happened but this would of only been a minor delay until Hitler cracked.
Therefore, although all the causes played an important role, Hyperinflation was the most important.
Question 4
“After the Putsch failed Hitler decided to use democratic methods to become leader of Germany”
Before the Munich Putsch in November 1923. Hitler’s aims were to overthrow the Government, to make Germany a stronger and better country, to create a master race, to destroy the Treaty of Versailles and to become Leader of Germany. His methods in doing this were violent and illegal, not democratic whatsoever.
After the Munich Putsch failing Hitler was sentenced to 5 years in jail but only served 9 months. Prison did not change him though, his aims were still the same and he still wanted to become an all powerful Leader of Germany, therefore his aims did not change since the beginning of the Munich Putsch, but his thinking time in prison made him realise that his method in trying to forfill his aims were wrong and that he had to take a different approach to how he was going to this. Instead of violent, illegal acts, i.e. The Munich Putsch, he realised that if a Democratic approach was taken on his actions then this would help him succeed and instead of seen as trying to rebel against the government, he was seen as trying to make Germany a better place. This shows that Hitler’s methods did change since being arrested and put into Prison.
In order to use this new method, Hitler and the Nazi Party needed to attract votes from the German people.
Hitler did 5 main things to increase his chance in achieving his dream of being Leader of Germany. One of these things was the National Party, this set up many parties around the country making sure that everyone in German knew whom Adolf Hitler was and what he was trying to do. This helped Hitler because he would bribe people into voting for him. Another change he made was the number of Nazi organisations he created. Hitler set up associations for different types of groups like ‘Hitler Youth’, ‘The German Girls League’, ‘The Nazi Students League’, ‘The Nazi Teachers League’ and many more. This made the German people felt like they belonged to a group and that they were contributing into making Germany a better and stronger country.
The propaganda that Hitler produced was everywhere, people couldn’t help but be enthralled by the posters, mass meetings, rallies, newspapers and leaflets that were spread from town to town. This helped Hitler by increasing the amount of people that voted for the Nazis, as they seemed the strongest, most impressive party in Germany.
The propaganda that Hitler had created worked as the membership of the Nazi party had soared to a huge 108,717 people by the end of 1928. This also helped because people were attracted to parties with a large amount of members so more and more people kept joining the Nazi Party.
All of these changes that Hitler had made were both democratic and legal which appealed to many people as their idea of democracy was that they would all be equal, making them feel like Germany was on its way to how it used to be, and better.
The SA/SS were a group of Nazi parties and would protect and even kill people if they didn’t join the Nazi party. Resultantly this scared people for their lives and joined the Nazi party out of terror. This was one thing that excluded itself from Hitler’s new democratic image. This method was also illegal.
To answer the question, it can therefore be seen that Hitler did use democratic methods to become the leader of Germany. However, it is also important to see that although he did use democratic methods, it did not necessarily mean that democracy was one of his strong beliefs. Adolf Hitler did not really believe in democracy and his methods were simply a way of winning the votes of the German people.
It is important to remember that Hitler’s aims were still the same from before the Munich Putsch, its just his methods in forfilling those aims that had changed and had won him the right to finally proceed with his actions, resulting to the Leadership of Germany and what was soon to be, attempted world domination.
Nina Ryner
