The German Question, Part One Hundred Eleven

The Rise of Hitler and The Nazis" Part Two/B-1
"A Beer Hall in Munich; the Beer Hall Putsch"

For those interested in more detail, and the various participants, there are lots of books and articles about this famous attempt to bring Hitler to power. Here are just the basics:

Hitler had courted the support of General Erich Ludendorff, the former German military leader during the Great War (later called World War One), who was firmly positioned on the far right of the political spectrum. In November 1923, Hitler and the other Nazi leaders, along with Ludendorff, decided to overthrow the Bavarian state government, and thus begin a series of government takeovers that would culminate in the takeover of the national government in Berlin. The whole thing was patterned after Mussolini's "March on Rome," which had occurred about a year earlier.*

Hitler's Nazi Party was headquartered in Munich, where beer halls, large and small, were often used for political speeches and meetings. One of the larger beer halls was the "Bürgerbräukeller," which could accommodate several thousand people. In November 1923, one of the Bavarian state leaders was giving a speech at the beer hall in the evening. Hitler and his inner circle, along with several hundred armed Nazi Stormtroopers,** charged into the hall and proclaimed that a revolution had begun. The Bavarian police and the German army, in spite of Ludendorff, remained loyal to the government. Without the support of either, especially the army, the "Putsch" was doomed. The next day, in an effort to revive the "revolution," Ludendorff and perhaps as many as 2000 Nazis, including Hitler and the other leading Nazis, marched through Munich, where a group of soldiers and armed police blocked their passage. There was firing from both sides and sixteen Nazis lay dead or dying, as well as some soldiers and police. Hitler fled, but Ludendorff continued to march forward through the gunfire, as no one in the government forces chose to fire on the general. Hermann Göring was seriously wounded in the upper leg, but managed to escape.*** Hitler was later arrested and was put on trial for treason.

Next..."Trial and Punishment Brings Fame"

* Thousands of Mussolini's Fascists, in an effort to show their strength, converged upon Rome from all over Italy during about a one week period in October 1922. At the end of the one week, the King of Italy, fearful of a bloody civil war, asked that Mussolini form a new government. The King, Vittorio Emanuele III (Victor Emmanuel), was the head of state, and remained as such, although docilely, throughout Mussolini's more than 20 years in power. It was only Italy's miserable performance in World War Two and war weariness by the Italian public that finally moved him to action, and he eventually dismissed Mussolini in late July 1943.

** The Nazi paramilitary force was called the "Sturmabteilung," or "SA," for short. Like its close relative, English "storm," German "Sturm" also means "storm in the sense of  'assault,' " besides the violent weather event. "Abteilung," in the military sense means "detachment," and depending upon usage, even "battalion." The SA is usually referred to as "Storm Troopers" in English, and even "Brownshirts," after their brown uniform apparel.

*** Göring's treatment with morphine for the severe pain led him on an intermittent, but life long, dependence on the drug.

WORD HISTORY:
Putsch-It is used in English primarily in reference to Hitler's failed "Putsch" in Munich. It is another word for "coup;" that is, an attempt to overthrow a government. It goes back to the 1400s and Swiss German dialect "bütsch" or "pütsch," which meant "hit, shove," and it seems to just have developed as an imitative word. That means humans try to put certain sounds or actions into words. "Crash" may well be one of those words, too. The dialect word spread throughout German, but without the umlaut; that is, the two little dots over the "u." It came into use in English during the 1920s, but gained usage later, as stories and articles about Hitler were common place during and since World War Two.