THE FUTURE
FÜHRER: Hitler with supporters during the abortive putsch
Nov. 8, 1923
Adolph Hitler's Practice Power Grab
By Howard
Chua-Eoan
The man with the square moustache
jumped onto a table and fired a shot into the ceiling of the
Buergerbräukeller, a large beer hall in Munich.
The door opened and in walked Herr Hitler ... with some
of [his] followers, who fired a few shots into the ceiling by way of
effect. Herr Hitler ... elected himself not only head of Bavaria but
Chancellor of all Germany ... There was wild talk of a march on Berlin
...
—Nov. 19, 1923
"The national revolution has begun," he shouted. Not quite. Adolf
Hitler was forcing the issue. With Germany seething at the spineless
Weimar government over the humiliating terms of the World War I
armistice, Hitler sensed an opportunity. Just before 9 p.m., his Nazis
launched a putsch, or coup d'état, taking three powerful officials
hostage. With hundreds of his Storm Troopers surrounding the hall, he
compelled the trio to support him.
But Nazi euphoria was fleeting; Hitler's three "supporters" slipped away
and denounced him. Police opened fire on the Nazis when they took to the
streets the next day. Hitler was arrested. The putsch was a joke. But at
his trial, Hitler beguiled the populace with orations for restoring
German greatness. After serving only eight months of a five-year
sentence, he emerged from jail with the first part of his seminal work
of Nazism, Mein Kampf. The joke would have a devastating punch
line.
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