Narrator: By the end of 1923, Hitler sees it as
his chance to seize power in Germany.
He's getting this popularity, the Nazis are getting
this follower-ship because the Weimar Republic
is falling apart.
You have the hyperinflation, the German people feel
insulted by this French occupation of the Ruhr region.
It isn't just regular people who are starting to support
the Nazis, it's very notable people as well.
This right over here is General Ludendorff,
we've already talked about him, he's one of the
believers in the 'stab-in-the-back' theory
that Germany would have won World War I
if it wasn't stabbed in the back by
the November Criminals who had taken control
of the government during the revolution in October
and November.
He becomes a supporter of Hitler as well.
In 1922 you have Mussolini come to power,
this inspires Hitler.
So, as we get in to November, Hitler sees this as
his chance and the way that he wants to take control,
is he wants to abduct or kidnap the leaders
of the Bavarian region, and there's three of them,
in particular at this time.
Then from there, try to take control of the nation
as a whole.
So, in November of 1923 you have a gathering
of the three gentlemen who are essentially
in charge of Bavaria, a gathering of them
and several thousand officials in Bavaria
at a local beer hall in Munich.
(writing) at a beer hall.
Hitler sees this as the opportunity to take control.
This is where he launches his Beer Hall Putsch,
and I know I'm mispronouncing it,
but Putsch literally means coup d'état,
to try to overthrow the government.
So, Hitler and his Nazi's the go to that Beer Hall
meeting of the government officials,
they surround it with their paramilitary group,
their storm troopers, Hitler enters into the hall,
gets on stage, shoots into the air twice
and says, look this is the revolution,
it is beginning.
He forces the three leaders of Bavaria at gunpoint
to pledge allegiance to the Nazi party
and to this Putsch and to Hitler, in particular.
Then things start to go a little bit ...
get a little bit ... start to dissolve.
As Hitler tries to address some issues that are
going on outside, the members who they were going
to kidnap are allowed to leave, you have chaos
in the area amongst the Nazi's
and, frankly, amongst the government
throughout that evening, into that morning,
at which point Hitler and his followers,
and Ludendorff is one of them, decide to march
(writing) decide to march
into central Munich.
All of this is happening ... all of this is happening
in Munich, which is in Bavaria.
They decide to march, and it's during that march
that they have a confrontation with the official
government troops.
It's unclear who fired the first shot,
but you do have an exchange of fire
and during that exchange of fire,
I've seen estimates of about 14-16 Nazi's are shot.
A few days later ... and a few policemen,
or a few soldiers are shot as well,
and then a few days later Hitler is arrested.
(writing) Hitler, Hitler is arrested.
He's tried in early 1924 and then he is sentenced
to jail, so all of his ambitions were lead to nothing.
In jail, he still continued to develop his philosophy.
He actually continued to develop his following.
He spent roughly the second two-thirds of 1924,
in 1924, he spent it in jail.
(writing) 1924 was spent primarily in jail,
but while he was in jail he had dictated
his autobiography and his, frankly,
his belief system in Mein Kampf, which literally means
'My struggle.'
It's actually banned in many countries,
it's not banned in the U.S.
It does make for interesting reading because you get
a sense for, on one level, how bizarre Hitler's brain
was and how disturbed Hitler's brain was,
but on the other side, you can appreciate that he was
a very, he was a strong communicator.
Even before any of this people would talk about
how transfixing his eyes were, how much attention
people paid to him when he would give a speech.
You can even see this in his writing,
and you can do a web search on it
and you can get the entire text of Mein Kampf.
It's disturbing and fascinating at the same time,
but this is a little passage.
In this passage, it gives you an idea of Hitler's
view of why Germany was having these failures
and what he, in his bizarrely disturbed mind,
thought what the solution was.
"If we pass all the causes of the German collapse
"in review, the ultimate and most decisive
"remains the failure to recognize the racial problem,
"and especially the Jewish menace."
He's blaming all of Hitler's difficulty on a
racial problem and in particular on Jews.
"The defeats on the battlefield in August 1918
"would have been child's play to bear.
"They stood in no proportion to the victories
"of our people.
"It was not they that cause our downfall,
"no, it was brought about by that power which
"prepared these defeats by systematically,
"over many decades, robbing our people of
"the political and moral instincts and forces
"which alone make nations capable,
"and hence worthy of existence."
If you read a lot of the other text,
what he's talking about is this decades of,
essentially, watering down their society,
watering down their society with other people.
If they didn't water it down, they say the defeats
in the battlefield would've been child's play to bear.
"In heedlessly ignoring the question
"of the preservation of the racial foundations of our
"nation, the old Reich disregarded the sole right
"which gives life in this world."
He views this racial, in his mind, racial impurity
as the reason why Germany was facing
all of this difficulty.
As we'll see over the next few videos,
this leads to one of the ugliest and bloodiest periods
of human history.