Behind the Insurrections - Hitler's Munich Beer Hall Putsch, Part 2

In Part Two, we continue to discuss Hitler's disastrous beer hall putsch.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Still Hitler. Yeah, man, um that this is part two
of our of our episode. Because it's a Hitler episode,
you gotta give the give red meat to the base.
It's like one of the only episodes were likeness flies,
So like, yeah, you want to do it one more time,
It's fine, I did it with two times. Is enough?

(00:24):
My next Hitler episode I get no Welcome back to
Behind the Insurrections. This is part three. We had an
episode started off with an episode on the march on Room.
Now we're doing a two parter. This is part two
of our two parter on Hitler's Munich beer Hall putsch
Um and then we will continue with other fascist attempts
to seize power and talking about anti fascism and with

(00:47):
a few more episodes to do. So, um, strap in,
buckle up. Eat some rice rice. Get some rice rice.
It's good for you. Get that brown rice. It's got
like the extra you know, the vitamins and ship in it.
You know what I'm saying. Yeah, don't skin your potatoes.
If you're eating potatoes, that's where all the vitamins are.
And I can't enjoy potato skins. I love potato skins.

(01:09):
You know who didn't love potatoes. Actually, Hitler did love them,
he was because yeah, huge, huge fan of vegetables. Anyway,
here's the storage. Yeah, as soon as von Lasso and
car and Ciser are free, they immediately warned Berlin and
call from military reinforcements from the rest of Bavaria and
try to organize the rest of the police who weren't
on Hitler's side into some sort of counter push. This

(01:32):
would tend to them looking at each other right when
they stepped out of the room, like, I can't believe
that works. We're not coming back, right, Like, no, we're not.
We're going to kill these people, right, I can't believe
you believe this, Like, I can't believe. I can't believe
that worked. You know, I think I know why we
lost the war. That guy might not be very smart
dumbas yeah. Yeah, So, um, now while this is happening,

(01:56):
it's gonna take time. Right, ship doesn't turn on a dime,
you know, his nighttime on the eighth when they get
free and start warning everybody, it's going to take hours
for them to like actually get um a counter putch
force in place to fight the Nazis, And so for
the rest of the night of November eight, the Nazis
find themselves in total control of a German city for

(02:17):
the first time in history, and they very predictably did
Nazi ship. Yeah. Members of Stufstroup Hitler first swarmed the
offices of the munschtioner Post, a social democratic paper which
they considered a Jewish paper. They threatened the business manager
at gunpoint in order to gain entry, and then they
destroyed everything inside, throwing ink on the walls, cutting phone lines,

(02:38):
smashing desks, destroying three and eighty pains of glass. One
Nazi later recalled, we forced open the doors of this place,
ransacked the building and flung all the printed stuff we
could lay hands upon out into the street. Now, during
the assault, a police officer arrived, not to stop the Nazis,
but to make sure they didn't damage the printing presses,

(02:58):
because Hitler wanted those, because wanted to take them and
give them to one of his newspapers. Hey, hey, hey, hey,
you rough, Hey hey, we're stealing that. Don't break it,
Nazis here, just don't break that valuable. Those people, those people, fine,
just don't hurt the printing presses. Those costs money. Yeah,
they're all scared, like, oh no, kill that dude. I'm saying,

(03:20):
don't break the printer. Yeah no, you're not under arrest,
of course, not what. So they looted everything of value,
including an estimated six trillion German marks, which is, you know,
even at that point, a decent amount of money. Um.
While they were raiding, they found the home address of
the papers editor, who's a Jewish Man. So they broke
into his home next, and they threatened his wife at gunpoint.

(03:40):
Now he was already in hiding, but the Nazis did
not leave right away. And I'm gonna quote again from
the trial of Adolf Hitler. This guy's name is our ours.
Elder daughter, Sophie asked the intruders to be as quiet
as possible because their own two year old daughter was sleeping. Maurice,
ignoring the request, asked who the father was as he
rummaged through their closets, Audrey and Betting. He then smashed

(04:01):
up a cupboard and turned over bookshelves, apparently looking for
weapons as much as any clue for the whereabouts of
the editor. We are the masters and we govern now,
Maurice boasted, and that guy Maurice would wind up being
Hitler's valet, like he was his driver and ship in
bodyguard for a while. Yeah now. Attacks continued through the night,
led by different gangs of Nazis. One small group was
led by a bank clerk named Ernest Hoobner who got

(04:24):
drunk at the start of the push and went off
with friends in search of quote Jews and other enemies
of the people to attack. They've broke into restaurants in hotels,
demanding that Jews exit, beating people and kidnapping them. At
least twenty four Jewish people were kidnapped and held hostage
during this period. Numerous others were beaten, businesses were ransacked Nazis.
In other words, did Nazi ship? Yeah Now. One of

(04:46):
the things that's fun about this is in the wake
of all this, stories will come out, like police will
claim that police who were members of the Nazi party
will claim that while this was happening, Hitler condemned the
violence against Jewish people. Um and the kernel of truth
and that is that Hitler condemned the fact that some
of his Nazis took off their swastika arm bands while
they were beating New Jewish people. So we didn't condemn

(05:08):
the violence as much as he was, like, why didn't
you wear it? That's good? It was a branding opportunity. Guys. Fella,
come on, we got these armed bands for a reason.
We're very good money for this ship. What are you doing. Yeah,
So by the early morning, Hitler and his closest lackeys
realized what Ludendorff had done and gradually came to understand

(05:30):
that Berlin had been called and the army was coming
for them. This brought a wave of hopelessness to some.
The rash nature of the push, the fact that the
timeline had been moved up two days at the last minute,
the poor communication, and the fact that a lot of
time had been spent giving long hit their speeches to
rooms full of drunk people uh and beating up random
Jewish people in the street uh instead of securing Munich

(05:50):
meant that the Nazis were about to face off against
the Bavarian army without full control of the city. They
kind of got drunken out of control and failed to
do the things that were necessary to actually defend their territory.
You know, I don't think that through man. Yeah, Nazi ship.
So Ludendorf was aghast when he realized that General von
Lasso had not kept his word. He is very brokenhearted

(06:13):
by this. He can't believe it. He actually like tries
to call him and be like, come on, you promised, man, Man, Man,
what about that word you said you're gonna come back? Bro? Yeah,
come on, you know, I gotta tell you. Man, I'm
I'm hurt, hurt. I'm personally hurt. Man. You I'm not angry,
I'm disappointed. Yea, bro, Man, we're supposed to ask some

(06:37):
sort of code. Man, so funny, it's extremely funny. Um
So Ludendorf, Yeah, is horrified. Hitler's just angry, and he
insists that the Nazis go on with what most people
now realize as a hopeless push. Hitler rants that he's
prepared to fight for the cause and not a coward.
He also screams that by betraying him, von Lasso and

(06:59):
the other members of the Triumvirate had forfeited their quote
right to exist. Oh god, hardcore Nazi guy. I mean,
he's like just just just be saying, like if it
wasn't so violently dangerous again, it's like the goofball thing
where I'm just like, why are you so are you
such a drama, queen, bro, Like they've reverted the right
to exist. Like, hey man, you know, Hitler was wearing

(07:22):
those corny ask cargo short shorts when he said it, too, right,
just like, hey man, he's just I'm gonna I'm gonna
flinging my church code off and I got my tooths
crosses in there, like bro, why the theatrics? Man? Like bro,
you was this unnecessary theatrical? Anyway? It's just Nazi ship?

(07:47):
Like okay, man, just if you're gonna shoot the place up,
shoot the place up, you ain't gotta do all what
is all this anyway? He's Nazi ship, you know. So
at this point in time, Hitler's organized forces in Unick
number around four thousand, whereas the government in Munch only
about twenty troops and police combined, and obviously a lot
of the police are Nazis. Now reinforcements were on their

(08:11):
way rapidly um and so some of Hitler's men suggested
retreating outside of the city with the forces they had,
to a small town where they had a strong base
of support. Ludendorff argued against that and instead insisted that
they needed to carry out a public show of strength
and march through Munich in numbers to rally the people
of the city to their banner. So like, that's you know,
kind of Ludendorf city is like, no, we can't retreat.

(08:32):
If we start marching, the people will join us. We'll
start the march on Berlin now. And yeah, I'm gonna
quote from the trial of Adolf Hitler here. Perhaps a
show of popular support would convince kar Lasso Incisor to
abandon their intention to oppose them. Surely too, it was
reasoned the army would not shoot at a procession led
by such a popular national figure as General Ludendorff. The

(08:53):
heavens will fall before the troops fire on me, Ludendorff
had told a colleague the previous day. The soldiers would.
It was hoped luck to the banner of the swastika.
With a little luck, nationalist momentum might push Hitler to Berlin,
just as it had propelled Mussolini to Rome. It didn't.
It didn't. Hitler gathered about two thousand men at the

(09:14):
Burger Brow, and he did, in fact, marched them to
the center of the city, and for a little while
things went well. Fifteen minutes into the march, the Nazis
approached a group of thirty police officers with heavy machine guns,
and the police tell the Nazis to stop, and Herman
Garrying yells back at them, don't shoot your comrades. And
then right after saying don't shoot your comrades, like a
trumpet blows, and the Nazis charged the police and take

(09:35):
their guns and beat them unconscious with their own rifle butts,
which is again some serious d C on the sixth energy, Yeah, yeah,
where are your friends? Wham, it's beating a cop with
a blue lives matter that is that? Is that a
thin blue line rag around him man's neck to choke him. Yeah?

(09:56):
So um, yeah, the police were taken captive. Um, the
Nazis beat them and take their guns, um and send
them back to the beer hall. And Nazi propaganda would
describe this assault on the police as police fraternization, right, like,
it's us, it's us being friendly with the cops. Now,
this early success would not prove to be you know,

(10:18):
how the rest of things went um. Eventually, the crowd
reached a barricade of a hundred police officers set up
in a narrow street where their flanks were protected. The
Nazis advanced, and while it's not known who started shooting,
a gun battle ensued. Four police officers and sixteen Nazis
were killed. Hitler was pulled to the ground by his
bodyguard and his shoulder was dislocated. Garing was shot in

(10:41):
the groin in the leg. And this is actually why
Herman Garring in the pictures you see of him as
like when he's in power, is like heavily overweight. It's
why he becomes a morphine addict. Like he's horribly injured
and he gets addicted to pain killers. Um yeah, and
then he like starts over eating when he can't be
on pain killers in order to deal with like he's
badly hurt by this. Now, there's a couple of different

(11:03):
stories about what happens with Ludendorff. The most common one
that like Ludendorff backs is that while all of this
gunfire is going on, he marches like straight backed, unharmed,
up to the police line and is taken into custody,
just completely unfrightened of bullets. Historians tend to suspect that,
like no, he was a soldier, like Hitler and everyone
else who was had military experience. He dove for the

(11:24):
ground when the shooting started. That's like, you don't stand up,
you go to the fucking ground, like that's what. Yeah,
And Hitler gets really messed up by this too, Like
I said, his shoulders like really badly dislocated. He doesn't
get shot though, um. And as soon as it's clear
that his men, because the Nazis fire back and they
kill some cops. As soon as it becomes clear that

(11:48):
the Nazis are going to lose this giant gunfight, Hitler
runs like fuck um and Nazi propaganda would later claim
that he sees like a ten year old boy who
gets wounded by the police and he like picks him
up and runs him to safety. This is a for
one thing, his arm didn't work. Yeah, so that didn't happen,
Like it's a complete lie. He ran because he didn't

(12:08):
want to die. He did what every what they literally
anyone would do. Yeah, is you Oh they're shooting, I
should not get out of here. Yeah, I really ain't
sign up, but his I just wanted to know. So
he flees, and he eventually takes a car to his friends,
puts his manner in rural Bavaria, and of course, as
we talk about it in another episode. He tries to
shoot himself there and puts his wife Helena, who he

(12:31):
has a crush on, like stops him, takes his gun
and like throws it into a barrel of flower um,
which is, you know, maybe not the best call anyone ever,
but it was one of those like like short term
goodness term like in the moment, that was probably the
right thing to do. Yeah, but it didn't end up well.

(12:52):
So yeah, Hitler eventually gets arrested and he's charged with,
you know, trying to overthrow the government. Now, the maximum
him sentence for a guilty verdict would have been life imprisonment,
and even if he wasn't put away for life, Hitler
wasn't a German citizen, and the law code at the
time stipulated that foreigners convicted of high treason should be
deported after serving their sentence. Now, when he was brought

(13:14):
to jail, Hitler was initially despondent, telling one police interviewer
that he wanted to just shoot himself and get it
over with. But as the days and weeks went by,
it became clear that most of the Bavarian government and
many of its people were at best ambivalent about prosecuting Hitler.
He was extremely popular. Nazi protesters took to the streets
immediately after he was arrested, like shouting, Heil Hitler and

(13:35):
down Lukar. Even a lot of the cops and soldiers
who had put down the rebellion were broadly pro Hitler.
They didn't want to see him punished. Now, this was
kind of filed, compounded by the fact that the press,
even the left wing press, didn't take Hitler seriously because
the putch had failed. The New York World ignored Hitler's
role in it for the most part, and declared at

(13:56):
Ludendorff's push and depicted Hitler as a bumbling sidekick had
gone off half coom and dragged the general down with him.
A major Berlin paper described it as a Ludendorff putsch
and compared it to a childish prank rather than a
severe attempt to destroy democracy. The New York Times probably
had the best coverage. They made a pointed note that
hit there was a skilled order in very charismatic. They

(14:18):
laid out his skill at weaving the nation's resentments and
racial bigotry into a cohesive political platform capable of getting
people out into the street, you know. The New York
Times falls down on the job a lot later with Hitler. Um,
but at this point, like they see at least that
writer sees the danger, you know. Now. Meanwhile in France,
a left wing paper, the Republic French well, uh yeah,

(14:41):
the French Republic, I guess is the name of the paper, bridge, Yeah,
And it's like this is a very like a socialist paper.
It warns its readers that the real victim of the
Putsch was not the Nazis, but the Bavarian government, who
had brutally suppressed a popular uprising. The trial of Adolf
Hitler notes it was instead a war between two different
visions of dictate leadership, and the most dangerous one, it believed,

(15:02):
was not the one suppressed. Several papers on the left
agreed with this assessment. Hitler, in his defeat, looked ludicrous
and less menacing than the state authorities who had stopped him.
The illusion would only grow in the coming months. So like, no, no,
the state's way worse than Hitler. You know, he's just
a silly dude. Yeah, yeah, Again, the lesson of history

(15:25):
is that no one has ever learned a lesson from history, ever,
not a single person, God damn. And the idea. The
part that's so chilling is like, you know, him sitting
in prison almost the idea of him almost checking out

(15:45):
and being like, maybe let's not do this, and in
the streets rise up for him and he's like wait
what wait, y'all like me, all right, let's let's let's
let's push on, you know like that. That's that part
is so chilling, where it was just like he almost stopped. Yeah,

(16:07):
he could have been stopped. And this is the story
at this point is why he wasn't, you know, um
like like why he didn't Why this wasn't the end
of his political career. Because the big question of the
Munich beer hole punch isn't why didn't it work? Because
it was a terrible idea from the start, it was
doomed from it was badly planned in order. Yeah, it

(16:29):
is instead why didn't this push in the Hitler's career,
And the answer to that question comes once again down
to the justice system law enforcement. The police in Munich
in particular were critical in allowing the Nazis to rise
to power in the first place, and in nine, the
year of Hitler's trial, the Justice Department would prove critical
in keeping his ambitions alive or the justice system gemany whatever.

(16:53):
So Hitler goes to court and as a note, they
take him to court and like a military academy, um,
and the academy is empty because all of the young
soldiers being trained in the military academy were part of
Hitler's push. Um. So like the yeah, yeah, yeah, is
this the trial so I read death of Democracy? Yes?

(17:14):
So is this the trial where the judge was essentially like,
I'll give you it. I like the guy, Uh, this
is one of those democracy I think is talking about
the trial with um um a different like there were
a couple of trials like that. It happened more than once.
This is the first time. Well, actually it's not the
first time. It's not the first time with this judge,

(17:36):
as we're about to talk about. So, the presiding judge
in Hitler's case was a guy named George Nightheart. Now
Nightheart had a reputation for opposing democracy in liberalism and
just loving himself the far right. He was a monarchist
in his bones, and he took his rage at fimart
democracy out on left wing like uh, what McCall it?
People like on the left, he wound up in his docket. Now,

(17:59):
this was not an eye slated phenomenon. In Germany, most
judges were very much far right. Statician Emile Gumbel analyzed
murder trials in Fimar, Germany from nineteen eighteen to nineteen
twenty two. Uh He found quote right wing defendants received
a not guilty verdict no fewer than three d three
fifty four cases. There were no death penalties and only
one life sentence. Left wing defendants, by contrast, were judged

(18:22):
in a sent only four of the twenty two cases,
receiving ten death penalties and three life sentences. The length
of the sentence also confirmed the double standard, fifteen years
on average for the left, four months for the right. Good.
We're back now to bring this back to modern history.

(18:43):
The UK Guardian just conducted a study on last year's
protests involving thirteen thousand left and right wing demonstrations and
found that police were like four times as likely to
use force on left wing demonstrators and three and a
half times as likely to use force on left demonstrators
during protests where there was no destruction of property or looting.

(19:04):
So this is not a the left like loots more.
This is a win in right wing protests where there's
no violence, and left wing protests where there's no violence,
the police are three times and a half times more
likely to use violence against the left. Um, it's the same.
It's all the same, broadly speaking, like we do, like

(19:25):
our judges and d a s and stuff are kind
well in some areas are less like the Nazis where
right for one thing, they didn't transition from being under
ricking to a democracy and weren't all angry about that,
which is not. Like the whole justice department is stacked
towards the right. But it's not as bad as it
was for Weimar. But it's pretty bad now. Ninheart had

(19:45):
actually ruled on a case involving Hitler once before, in
January of nineteen two, when Hitler had attacked a rifle
politician giving a speech at another beer hall. Hitler had
faced three to six months in prison then, and Ninheart
had ordered him to serve just a month, although he
had also put him on probation. And Hitler was on
probation when he tried to overthrow the government in nine

(20:06):
He was on probation. Wow, they they are already on probation.
Dag dad, you like, oh, I know to judge with
good The judge who knew that Hitler was on probation,
didn't bring this it up at all during the trial,
didn't form the jury, made sure no one knew that
Hitler was on probation when he tried to overthrow the government.
Oh good, that's extremely funny. It's it's rad as hell.

(20:31):
Don't don't yeah, no, no notes. So yeah. The website
Famous Trials because good overview of how the case opened,
and it makes it clear just how stacked the deck
was in Hitler's favor. The presiding judge called Hitler to
the stand, consistent with German procedure at the time, the
questions came from the judge, not the prosecutor, although they
were written largely by the prosecution. In the afternoon session,

(20:54):
Hitler gave a nearly four hour opening statement that dazzled spectators.
He began by telling his life story, then shifted to
his political vision. He was animated, his voice rising and
falling as he laid out his vision of the country's
problems and hopes for the future. He was unsparing in
his criticism of racial minorities and left wing ideologies, calling
communists not even human. He blamed the government in Berlin

(21:16):
for the economic crisis, saying it had practically robbed the
people of the last marks from their pockets. He said
policy is made not with the palm branch, but the sword.
Hitler's words were reported around the world. Hit their claim
to want only the best for his people and said
he alone bore the responsibility and also every consequence for
the failed push. He compared the Bavarian leaders who turned

(21:37):
on him to a horse that lost its courage before
the hurdle. So four hours it is ship. Yeah. And
one of the main impacts of this is that he
gets to speak for hours and lay out his entire
political philosophy at a trial that is internationally reported on.
So suddenly this guy who was unknown outside of Bavaria

(21:57):
becomes known worldwide because the judge lets him just say
whatever he wants, just that want. Can you imagine being
a prosecution in the situation and being like, is he done?
As it's four hours? Dog, Like, you're not even talking
about the case? Yeah, yeah, are you serious? Yeah? So,

(22:18):
when sensitive matters were addressed, matters whose disclosure might be
especially embarrassing to the government or suggest a violation of
the Verse Sill Treaty, like all of the machine guns
being given to militias. The court went into secret session,
So for example, Hitler's testimony that his party stormtroopers were
trained with a knowledge and support of Bavarian authorities, a
clear violation of the treaty was never heard or reported

(22:38):
by the international press. So the fact that, like before
Hitler tried to overthrow the government, the army had trained
and given guns to his militia's they just hid that
talk about that because it's a violation of international law.
You know, we just would broke. We broke. Everyone's loss.
Everyone's lost. So a bunch of fucked up stuff came

(22:59):
out in the trial, including the fact that the Bavarian
Police commissioner had been promised by Hitler one week before
the push that he would not do a putch like
Seisser went to Hitler was like, are you planning to
overthrow the government? And there was like, no, of course not.
Why is everybody just twisting each other Hitler overthrow a government? No, Hey,

(23:20):
we're good, bro, you're good. Don't even you're good, We're good.
Can I have some more machine guns? Like thirty more
maybe tops right, machine guns for duck hunting. You know,
I'll tell you what pass medium guns. Promise you everything
is cool. These are not overthrowing the government guns there um,
you know, like you know, just walking around guns just

(23:43):
for for the for for style collector. I'm a collector
machine guns. Dog. So Doug, why is everybody but why
are body of power just believe the other dudes? Like
it's amazing you go come back right, yeah, okay, you're
not to do this right, government, are you? We're good man?

(24:05):
They needed women in power because we would have been
like trust issues. No, absolutely not no, no, no. Then
there has been there's been multiple times that my wife
has been absolutely correct about stuff that I was completely like,
it's cool. She was like, uh no, it's not. And

(24:27):
I'm smart enough after this many years to listen to her.
Now no one listened to anyone smart. When they put
Hitler on trial, there was a good member of the
prosecution here. I wanted to put him away, but other
members of the prosecution were actually sympathetic to Hitler. One
of the prosecutors described Hitler's desire to institute a military
dictatorship as a high perhaps morally legitimate goal, although he

(24:50):
added that this did not justify his use of criminal means. Hey, man,
you were right to overthrow the government to institute a dictatorship,
But did you have to use violence? Not like this?
Peaceful protest, Hitler? Come on, come on, man, not like this? Uh.
The prosecution, some of the prosecution at least, praised Hitler's

(25:11):
honest efforts to inspire belief in the German cause and
said as human beings, we cannot withhold our respect from Hitler.
What the I am growing trying to grow in him
with the year. But I'm just like, Okay, I know hindsight,
but fam you for real? You know who's not getting

(25:32):
enough respect? This Hitler? Fella, this guy no respect reading.
I've been reading this guy. I heard him talk for
twenty two days, because he shut up the whole twenty
two days. And I think something in there. I think
this guy might be a pretty good Hitler, might be
our best Hitler. You know, let's give me a shot. Wow.

(25:54):
On March seven, Hitler gave his final statement, as defendants
were allowed to do under German law. Hitler told the
court that his goal was never to become a minister. Instead,
I wanted to be the destroyer of Marxism. He said
he was born for politics, and just as a bird
must sing, because he is a bird, he had to
engage in a political life. He felt he had the
duty to step forward and save Germany. The Putsch was

(26:15):
not a failure, Hitler said. On the contrary, it raised
people to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. He predicted the
hour will come when the masses who stand in the
streets under our swastika flag will unite with those who
fired on us. At us on November eight, he said,
the army we have formed is growing from day to day.
Hitler's words moved a number of people in the courtroom
to tears. Hitler argued that the government was prosecuting the

(26:38):
wrong people, for it is not you, gentlemen, who pronounced
judgment upon us. Instead, the judgment of the eternal court
of history will pronounce against this prosecution which has been
raised against us. That's a quote from famous trials. Yeah,
it's pretty great ship. They just let him say that
kind of rat And to be honest, he was and

(27:02):
he was dead ass serious that, like, yo, I'm not done, y'all.
It's only the beginning. Oh, no, I'm gonna keep Hitler ng.
That's what Hitler's do. Yeah, baby, yeah, the big, big,
big hit lries. You know what I'm saying. Is that
a new T shirt too? Yeah? Can we get it?
Always be Probably not? Huh, probably not. Okay, Yeah, let's

(27:22):
not do that. You don't probably not invoke. I don't
know if you can invoke the old Hits putting on
the Hits. That's the shirt putting the Hits to go
where you can go, and sits putting on the Hitlers.
So Hitler and his co defendants were found guilty. Most
of them were sentenced to five years in prison, which
was the absolute minimum sentence, and they would all be
eligible for parole in six months. Ludendorff was acquitted on

(27:46):
all charges. Judge Nighthart justified the lenient sentences by citing
Hitler's purely patriotic, noble and unselfish motive of wanting to
be the supreme ruler of all Germany. This guy's not
self just wants to beator a nest. Yeah, it's amazing, Okay,
I know I did this, and I know a lot

(28:06):
of people die, but I'm also trying to take over
the country. In my defense, I wanted to be the dictator.
You know, it's in my defense and I'm trying to
save you from an imaginary enemy. Yeah, you might not
have if I'm not your dictator. You know, you know
when I get a dictator, if I wasn't your dictator.

(28:27):
So some observers at the time recognized how preposterous and
terrifying all of this was. The continue. Yeah, one German
journalist called it a political carnival and pointed out that
the judge allowing Hitler to make repeated flowery speeches just
turned the trial into an ad for the Nazi Party,
and it seems to have worked. That spring, despite the

(28:48):
party being officially banned, three of Hitler's ten co defendants
were elected to the Reich Stack. So when I think about, like, yeah,
when I think about the fact that, like, okay, so
we're going through another impeachment trial, is people still on
don Joan side? Like when I I just imagine myself
being a senator and just when it's my time to talk,

(29:10):
just being like, did we all not almost die Tuesday?
What is the fucking hold up? We just did? Were
y'all here? We was all here? Right? Did I didn't
imagine this, did we almost die on Tuesday? What what
are y'all talking about? Like, I just imagine that, So
I imagine somebody in in you know, the vibe my

(29:30):
republic at the time, going did y'all just here? Did
my only one had just heard this? But did y'all
do y'all heard that this is a bad idea? How
come nobody else here that this is a bad idea? Yeah,
that's kind of the repeated story of fascism and a
lot of countries. So because humans never learned anything? Is

(29:52):
that the name of your next podcast after this? Humans
never learned anything? No one learns anything. So white listen
to this show? Just downloaded, so I get the ad
dollars and just stumble forward. So was sent to Lenzburg Prison.
Um and Lenzburg Prison had two parts. There was a
normal prison which was like a panopticon one of those
big prisons were like the guards in the middle can

(30:13):
see everything everyone does. And then there's a big castle
that's like a luxury hotel and Hitler gets sent to
the luxury hotel. Part of it's like it's The Germans
had a whole chunk of their justice system that was
luxury prisons. For mainly right wing terrorists. He went, Yeah,

(30:33):
count Arco Valley, the guy who shot Eisner, went to
this prison and got like like like and gets like,
you know, he lives in like a nice like a
like a condo basically. And that's when Hitler gets I
might go rob somebody. So I go back. Oh no,
you gotta try to overthrow the government. Yeah, so he

(30:53):
gets a Hitler gets a private apartment at this castle.
He's given tea coffee, nice food, a leader, a day
of beer, and all the books he won to read.
His time was on his own. He was allowed to
spend five hours a day walking through the garden and
stuff deep and thought. All of his friends were in
jail with him, and they got to like party and
play music. It was less prison and more being locked
in a nice castle with your friends for lesson retreat.

(31:16):
A lot of people would pay for this, you know,
sounds like sounds like a frat house. I was going
to say, like a TikTok influencer house. Yeah, it's as
hype house, which is probably where our next fascist dictator
will come from. Out of both of you for knowing
those referens. Yeah, Taylor Lawrence's work yeah, ah, We're back.

(31:45):
The worst thing about Hitler's sentence was that all of
the comfortable free time that he got in Landsburg gave
him space to work on his ideology. Here we Go
nineteen four would, as a result, go on to be
one of the most important years in Hitler's life. I'm
gonna quote now from a write up by Douglas Linder.
By July, Hitler was hard at work on a work
that would be both autobiography and political manifesto. The completed

(32:07):
work would be called Mine comp It would be seven
hundred and eighty two pages long, and it would sell
twelve million copies by ninety five. In the book, Hitler
developed the two great themes that would mark his later career. First,
he defined world history as a struggle between races, and
saw Arians as the culture creating race and Jews as
the culture destroying race. Second, he lays out a case

(32:29):
for the imperative of German territorial expansion to the east.
He called it living space for Germans, or Levin's Realm.
On December nineteenth, the Bavarian Supreme Court ruled in favor
of Hitler's parole had there was released. The next day,
he said when I left Landsburg, everybody wept, by which
he means the guards but not I. Hitler said his
time in prison gave him that fearless faith, that optimism,

(32:52):
that confidence in our destiny which nothing could shake. Thereafter,
he said that the prison had given him a frenzy
of liberty and that it's out in my imprisonment, mine
comp would never have been written. Good ship, damn it,
good ship. I felt like, as soon as you name
the prison, if this was a movie, that'sked when like

(33:13):
the single key of the haunting song starts that you
think it's over, and then the music builds, and then
it's having him walking around the thing with his hands
behind his back, just kind of chilling, and then it
zooms in on him writing. You know the top of that,
it says mind colf and we're just like, yeah, Dune
done done to be continued, Yeah, yep, it's good stuff.

(33:37):
So yeah, prop oh god, that means you're stopping right there. Yeah,
that's the that's I mean, that's the push, you know,
that's the story of the push and what happened after.
We're gonna talk more about anti fascism in Germany in
a later episode of this mini series and stuff, because
we didn't really that a lot of that hadn't started yet,
you know. Um but after Yeah, I got my names
wrong because I thought this was the one when they

(33:58):
set when he set the set to building off fire. No, no,
that's the Reichstag fire. He's already in power when that
happened at that point, right yeah, yeah, um no, this
is this is his first attempt to take power, and
the fact that he receives no meaningful punishment from it
is why he winds up in power. Yeah. Yeah, which

(34:19):
is like it's Rad's super he should probably punish somebody.
You can't let this year ride oka. Yeah. Maybe if
a fascist tries to overthrow your government, they should face
severe consequences. You can't let it ride. Yeah, you can't
let it ride unity. You're not a big fan of
a justice system or you want mity because it will
come back on you eventually. Yeah, of course maybe possibly

(34:41):
propop dot com. Those are my plugs, okay, Yeah, and
my plug is nothing. I have no plugs. I refuse
to plug. I will fight to the death anyone who
tries to make me plug. So if he puts the plug,
the plugs have I have I missed a plug? No,

(35:02):
it's your funeral. Alright, bro. The thing is like, you
have so many things to plug. I get it. It's exhausting. Um,
I plugs free, rob alright, alright, alright, plug me, plug me,
I write okay. On Twitter, he has he has a
book called The Brief History of Vice. He has a

(35:24):
podcast called it Could Happen Here You're ever with Katie Stolen,
Cody Johnston Uprising, which she did, which which is with
local journalists and activists from Portland's on the Portland Uprising. Oh,

(35:44):
I'm so tired behind the police with this man prop
as wells Ye, goddamnit, Robert, why did we do so
many shows? You got the one about the women, the
women the Women's War, which is when he went to Syria.
I'm so tired. You're a machine for at t public,

(36:06):
for our merg You could get the logo shirt for
this podcast behind the Insturructions there and you can follow
up Twitter on Instagram at Bastards pod. Hey as a funny.
You nailed it. You nailed it. Um, I also have money.
Think yeah, I heard the first episode today? Oh you did?
I listened to it. That was dope. Yeah, it's you

(36:27):
can find it in the Behind the Bastards feed. Yeah,
we'll be coming out with the rest of it as
a separate thing, and it'll also be available in the
pub form, so you can read it if you want
to read it. Somebody did say all my comments, which
was that was so hilarious. Well, I don't want to
drag the guy, because I appreciate they follow me, but that,

(36:48):
um about the about the artwork for this, for this
pot that like, because I'm pretty sure there wasn't a
fire there, so you guys putting a fire on there
is pretty uh deceptive. Guys. It's it's number one. They
turned around the the logo in like two days and

(37:09):
this was the best thing we could think. I think
it's fine. Yeah, that I had that if somebody wants
to create for me, like I love you, it was
a fun idea. Yeah. My favorite idea ever is I
wanted to take like like in regards like the show Friends,
when they're on that couch and on a fountain, but
the fountain at the US Capitol and then it's like
Franco Mussolini, Trump and Hitler sitting on the couch. I

(37:34):
think that would have been fun. If somebody could do
that for me, like you'll make you'll make my like month. Yeah.
And also it's just look, guys, it's just it's just artwork.
M It's just it's it's just the artwork. What are
you gonna What are you gonna do? What are you
gonna do? Yeah, it's fine. We wanted to get across
that this is history behind the insurrection that happened at

(37:57):
the capitol, and we have like an inch wide to
do it. And it's fine. Deal with what do you fine?
What do you want? What do you want is free?
It's free. None of you were paying for this on
unless you're buying our wonderful products and services, in which case,
thank you very much, thank you, very thank you very much.
We love um, we love products, services, all that stuff. Um. Alright,

(38:20):
episodes over, have a nice day.