The Beer Hall Putsch - Prologue
In February 1924, the leader of a small extreme right wing party in Germany was put on trial for treason, a mere incident in a long line of similar rebellions against the government that had been going on since 1919. What made this one somewhat different, however, was that also on trial was General Erich Ludendorff , one of the most famous generals of the War and held in high esteem by the people. This had led the world's press to be present and the opportunity was taken by the leader of the small party, Hitler, to bring himself to the world's attention. It is one of the fascinating what-ifs of history to speculate what if Ludendorff had not been on trial.
The Beer Hall putsch, so called because the first overt act of the attempted take-over of government took place in the Buergerbraukeller, in south-east Munich, was the first instance of Hitler overreaching himself and the first of many where he showed his ability to recover and even to enhance his position. What led Hitler to make such an attempt when, by his own speeches, in his talks to the Party committee and in his own thinking, he was not ready for such a leap forward? Living in revolutionary times, every move by your rivals and the legitimate government seems aimed at thwarting your ambitions and, perhaps, you will never have the same opportunity again. You can convince yourself that you are ready and, where there are gaps, you will be able to cover them when the time comes. The real reasons will never be known, but Hitler certainly reaped benefits which even he could not have imagined as coming from such a disaster.
The events leading up to this attempted coup were many and varied but the final straw had been the ending of passive resistance in the Ruhr and re-starting the payment of reparations. When the French occupied the Ruhr because of a default in payment, there had been a general strike and aid was given to the workers by the Berlin government. No matter the threats and retaliation from the French, the whole of the Ruhr stopped working. As it accounted for 80% of the coal and steel for all Germany, the effect on the mark was catastrophic - there is a famous image from this time of a man pushing a wheelbarrow, piled high with bank notes, and the caption read that this was to buy a loaf of bread.
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