The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Chapter 3: Versailles, Weimar, and the Beer Hall Putsch Summary

Book One: The Rise of Adolf Hitler

• Shirer begins this chapter by returning us to the state of Germany in November 1918, when the First World War was brought to a close.
• He provides a detailed account of how the Weimar Republic was born, and he offers his thoughts on some crucial mistakes that the first republican government made.
• He describes the new the republican constitution as "the most liberal and democratic document of its kind the twentieth century had seen, mechanically well-night perfect, full of ingenious and admirable devices which seemed to guarantee the working of an almost flawless democracy." (1.3.20)
• Shirer seems to be asking an unspoken question: With a constitution like that on the table, how did it all go so horribly wrong?

The Shadow of Versailles

• That's one of the million-dollar questions that the full 1000+ pages of TRFTR have been crafted to answer, but Shirer takes a first stab at it here.
• As he explains, even before the Weimar Constitution had been fully drafted, the Treaty of Versailles had been signed.
• The terms of the treaty had shocked many Germans, who hadn't expected them be so harsh. Even the republican government had denounced them at first.
• But the German Army made it perfectly clear to the government that if the treaty was rejected, Germany couldn't withstand the Allied attack that would inevitably come.
• So, despite its dissatisfaction and misgivings, the government eventually decided to sign.

A House Divided

• "From that day on," says Shirer, "Germany became a house divided" (1.3.36).
• Neither the conservatives nor the Army would accept the peace treaty or the Republic that signed it.
• The wealthy conservative Right started to use its economic power to fund political parties—including the Nazi Party—whose goal would be to undermine the republic.
• In the meantime, the Army started to exert an increasing influence on the nation's foreign and domestic policies. Eventually, the republic depended on the cooperation of the Army officers for its continued existence.
• Even the German judiciary did its bit to undermine the Republic.
• So, what did all of these goings-on mean for the young and fiercely ambitious Adolf Hitler?
• Hitler understood all too well that he could ride this right-wing, anti-democratic wave to new heights of power.
• Surf's up, dudes.
• As if things weren't going badly enough for the fledgling republic, Germany's economy was in a downward spiral too.
• All of the hard knocks that Germany seemed to be suffering were great news for right-wing politicians like Hitler.
• At the end of the day, those hardships were giving the young would-be Fuehrer plenty of ammunition with which to attack the Weimar Republic and everything it seemed to stand for.

Revolt in Bavaria

• By 1923, the Nazi Party had grown enormously, but it still wasn't the most popular political party in Bavaria and remained relatively unknown outside of the state.
• Hitler was well aware of the limits of his fame, and so he started to ponder how he might become the leader of all the anti-republican forces.
• Never one for moderation, Hitler's long-term vision was to march those nationalist forces to Berlin—along the Regular Army—and bring down the Weimar Republic.
• Unfortunately for Hitler, Shirer explains, an unexpected international crisis threatened to change the anti-republican climate in Germany.
• When Germany defaulted on one of the reparations payments that it owed to France, French troops occupied the Ruhr.
• That minor incursion gave the German people a good reason to unify against a common enemy. Because the republican government was willing to support German resistance to the occupation, the people suddenly had good reason to get behind the government, too.
• Hitler, of course, did his best to make sure that pro-republican feeling didn't get too strong. He and the Nazi Party insisted the government were traitors.
• In the autumn of 1923, a newly-appointed Chancellor of the German Reich declared that Germans should stop resisting the French occupation in the Ruhr. Not surprisingly, the pro-government feeling started to fade pretty quickly.
• As anti-republican players denounced yet another betrayal of the German people, the republican President declared a state of emergency, and the Minister of Defense and Commander of the Army took over temporarily.
• In response, Bavaria declared a state of emergency of its very own, and in short order it established a new, anti-republican government for itself.
• As Shirer tells us, the new Bavarian government refused to obey any orders from Berlin, and soon the armed forces in Berlin were issuing warnings about the use of force for any misbehavior.
• Hitler was still a political small-fry, but in characteristic fashion put himself right in the thick of things, trying to convince men who were more powerful than him to do what he wanted them to do.
• Specifically, he wanted the new Bavarian government to stage an all-out coup in Berlin.
• The new Bavarian government was a dictatorial triumvirate: Gustav von Kahr, General Otto von Lossow, and Colonel Hans von Seisser. When Hitler started to get the impression that they were going to shilly-shally over the question of armed rebellion, he decided to take control of the situation himself.
• What exactly did he do?
• He cooked up a hare-brained scheme "to kidnap the triumvirate and force them to use their power at his bidding." (1.3.68)

The Beer Hall Putsch

• In this section, Shirer provides a detailed account of that attempted kidnapping, which has gone down in history as the infamous Beer Hall Putsch.
• On November 8, 1923, Hitler and the S.A. stormed a beer hall where Gustav von Kahr was speaking to a packed room.
• "The National Revolution has begun!" Hitler yelled, and he hustled Kahr, Otto von Lossow, and Colonel Hans von Seisser into a nearby room.
• There, he informed them—deceitfully—that General Erich Ludendorff, one of Germany's most beloved war heroes, had agreed to form a new national government with him.
• He tried to persuade them to dissolve both their own government in Bavaria and the republican government in Berlin, and to join the provisional national government that he was about to create.
• Can you say "chutzpah"?
• Hitler managed to get General Ludendorff to put in an appearance at the Beer Hall—despite the fact that the general had known nothing about the young would-be Fuehrer's plans for a coup.
• After Ludendorff spoke to them, Kahr, Lossow, and Seisser appeared to cave.
• Hitler returned to the main part of the hall to make a self-congratulatory speech and declare his new government to the bewildered audience, but as the meeting broke up, Kahr, Lossow, and Seisser all managed to slip away.
• Meanwhile, the Army Command in Berlin ordered the German Army in Bavaria to put down the putsch.
• By dawn on the morning of November 9, the offices of the War Ministry—which the Nazis had seized—were surrounded by Regular Army troops, and the Nazis suddenly found themselves facing a violent confrontation.
• On top of that, Kahr was more than a little miffed about Hitler's attempted coup, and he circulated a proclamation declaring that the National Socialist German Workers' Party was officially kaput.
• Hitler was at a loss. He'd hoped to be working with, not against, the Army in his coup attempt.
• General Ludendorff stepped in with a suggestion. He proposed that he and Hitler just march into the city and take it over.
• As Shirer tells us, Ludendorff believed that German soldiers and police would never fire on him, a hero of WWI, and would join him and fight.
• Unfortunately for him, he was wrong.
• The march ended in a bloody shoot-out, and although Hitler managed to escape the fray, he was soon found and arrested.
• The putsch was a fiasco and the Nazi party was dissolved. Hitler seemed totally discredited and his career over.
• End of story, right?
• If only.

Trial for Treason

• In the final section of this chapter, Shirer explains how Hitler managed to turn his trial for treason to his own advantage, using it as an opportunity to pontificate on a national and international stage.
• As Shirer puts it, by the time the month-long trial was finished, Hitler had ruined the reputations of Kahr, Lossow, and Seisser, impressed the German people with his nationalistic fervor and oratorical skills, and familiarized his name to the world.
• Even more than that, Hitler used his first catastrophic mistake as yet another "lesson" along the road to political expertise.
• So, what exactly did Hitler learn?
• He realized that you can't just overthrown the old government without having a new one ready to take its place.
• As the remaining chapters of TRFTR will show, the Nazis remembered that lesson well.