2) How did the putsch take place?
The Putsch took place in 1923. It was not however just the Nazi’s involved in the putsch, they could not pull of a coup that big on there own, they would need support. Hitler found his main support in the form of a retired army chief named Ludendorff, Ludendorff held the respect of the army and he thought that the army would join him in an attempt on Munich. Hitler also had support from the most powerful men in Bavaria, Kahr, Lossow and Seissar, the head of the local government, the army commander and the police chief respectively. All of these men like Hitler were right wing extremists however there heads were not ruled by there hearts and they knew that the time would have to be right if they were to succeed in gaining control of Munich.
Hitler decided that he could not wait any longer, that there chance of victory was slowly diminishing, he would have to force the others to act. The three of them were at a meeting in a Beer Hall Hitler surrounded it with brown shirts and demanded support. The local leaders agreed, however they were allowed to escape.
Nethertheless, Hitler and Ludendorff marched into Munich, Hitler thought that he would be greeted by waves of people begging to join his cause, however they were greeted by armed police, 16 of Hitler’s men were shot. Hitler was captured and put on trial, his putsch was a failure, it did though provide him with heroes who had died for his cause.
3) What was the Outcome of the Putsch?
The Putsch itself had many outcomes. First of all it gave an ailing Germany hope, they were in there lowest year and the failure of an attempted seizure, would have probably brightened the spirits of many German People. Another outcome was that Hitler was put in a place he could seemingly cause no harm, jail. The putsch also had negative outcomes, whilst Hitler was imprisoned he wrote ‘Mein Kampf’ the Nazi bible, it gave him time to organize his thoughts that would bring pain and suffering to millions of people the world over, he had learnt from his mistakes. Also the trial of Adolf Hitler was given much publicity, he knew this and he used it to promote his Nazi party.
4) Using the sources analyze whether Hitler was a coward or a hero.
The story goes that Hitler ‘threaded his way among the dead bodies while the bullets were still flying, he saw a little boy, who had somehow wandered into the line of fire. The F(hrer, without hesitation and despite the excruciating pain of his shoulder, picked up the lad and wrapped his arms around him protectively (not an easy thing to do with only one arm in working order. He then carried the child to safety before he thought of his own.’ This is surely the act of a great hero, this is Hitler’s account of what happened when the Munich Putsch failed, his story is also confirmed by many other sources all-be-it with slight differences. John Toland in his Book Hitler wrote that Hitler wanted to take the boy but he was taken by someone else.
This source is saying that Hitler was hero, or is it, The important thing to look at is the phrase in brackets ‘not an easy thing to do with only one arm in working order.’ This can be perceived in two ways firstly as making Hitler’s feat seem even greater, or it can make the source seem false and a lie, it does that by saying if Hitler’s arm was injured how could he protect this boy.
At the time when Hitler’s NAZI party was campaigning for control of Germany, a rival party published a poster saying that Hitler was a coward and he ‘Lay flat on his belly in front of the Feldherrnehalle’ this source however is biased as they would want Hitler to seem as weak and as unworthy of leading Germany as possible.
Before Hitler came to prominence in the NAZI party he served as a runner in the German Army, the average life-span for a runner was only about a day, with many only lasting hours. Hitler survived the whole war and was awarded the Iron Cross, first and second class, the highest award for military bravery in Germany. Here he was a hero, he was doing a very brave thing and doing it well.
When he was in charge of the Nazi party, however, he was not however a hero, nor was he a coward, the fact it is, it is impossible to judge Hitler as the sources available are all biased in some form or another, to some people he was a hero, brave enough to say what they were to afraid to, and to others he was a evil coward who had no sense of moral justice.
