The Beer Hall Putsch-1923

A detailed Summary of The Beer Hall Putsch-1923

1. The account given of the putsch within Source A conveys it, in terms of the Nazis, as an extremely organised affair. The Nazi guards are well prepared with helmets and arms, and the operation appears to have been well directed, with the soldiers surrounding the building immediately and completely. Indeed the entire affair is shown to have been planned with absolute precision, Hitler entering the building at exactly 8:30, and the Nazis seem to have addressed every eventuality in their operation, including a 'heavily armed' body guard in order to ensure that Hitler comes to no harm. This may also indicate that not all those in the beer hall would be in support of the Nazis, and although the 'uproar' mentioned may be in part due to the insecurity of the crowd as to what is happening within the hall, it too may be indicative of the unpopularity that the putsch was received with, the Bavarians not wishing to be part of an armed uprising.

Hitler appears to behave with great authority however, elbowing his way through the crowd, and although the source describes a chaos erupting, it is immediately quashed by Hitler's actions. The source gives the impression that Hitler has a large amount of control over the

However perhaps the main contributor to the dissimilarity of the two sources is their purpose, together with the perspectives held by the people who composed them. Source B, as an official Nazi painting would tend to adhere to the requirements of most such pieces of art. These were intended almost solely as propaganda, showing 'Nazi values' such as Aryanism and the idility of peasant life. In contrast Source A was written by someone who left the Nazi party after the full extent of Hitler's policies became realised during the 1930s, this would strongly suggest that he was not entirely happy with the political line of the Nazis. As a result he may want to exaggerate any negative points about the Nazis in his account, but it is still probably more honest than that of the Nazi propaganda. Indeed the fact that it is an account and not a painting allows far more description in a chronological order, whilst the painting must encapsulate the event in one scene.

Hitler's trial took place soon after the putsch, attracting a great amount of media attention, and allowing Hitler to further press his policies. These centred almost solely around attacking the Weimar republic in its very existence, and specifically condemning its actions over the Versailles treaty. As we see in Source J, he blamed the 'November criminals', who were part of the republic, for Germany's acceptance of the blame for the First World War, and as a result the social decline that they were witness to at the time of the Munich putsch. This was clearly a sensitive point for most Germans, who had felt betrayed at being held solely responsible for causing the war, as we can see in the account given in Source E, and through the putsch, and his statements at the trial, Hitler was directly appealing to these very sentiments.

Although the Nazis may only have been able to gain eventual power as a result of events which were suited to them, without the Munich putsch they may not have been able to take advantage of such timely factors, and may have simply tried to carry out a similar exercise to that of 1923. They were established by the putsch as a party now involved in the constitution, but which was very much against the Weimar republic, and as a result were the first to be considered by Germans seeking a recovery from depression which they blamed upon the ruling party within the republic.

5. The initial impression that is given by Source I is one of Hitler wanting to look as serene and calm as possible, with his hand in his pocket and looking away from the camera. This would perhaps firstly suggest that he wished to appear completely in control of the situation, and powerful in the face of adversity. One could say also that the statement he made during his trial also appears very confidant, and could also be in order to try and attract a greater part of the electorate to his dictatorial style of politics.

In the trial Hitler blamed the failure of the putsch on the unwillingness of the Bavarian leaders to break away from an affiliation to the republic that was averse to the country itself, and he himself showed a regard for the Republic that treated them as 'traitors' to Germany itself. The image he gave of the party was one of complete nationalistic principles, and he was able to ensure that through his publicity the nation saw that he had policies entirely concerned with Germany's welfare, rather than those of the republic which he claimed fundamentally damaged Germany. In such a way he not only gave an image of the party that would be popularly heralded by the German people, but he was able to give out propaganda against the republic that could prove damaging to their popularity, and win his party nationalist votes.

However, a source of enormous importance in this question is that of Source K, in which Hitler states the form that his policy will take after his release from prison. It is clear that from the failure of the Munich putsch Hitler had learnt an

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Approximate Word count = 4175
Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History