Ben Wilson

Lutendorf, you know, his war record is unimpeachable.

He's a national hero.

He's also a man of the far right.

And so he was sort of the guy.

In these circles, everyone assumed that if there was a far right coup that started a new government, Lutendorf is going to be the guy at the very top because of his standing with the nation.

and so he you know he's a celebrity he's a big deal and he can't believe that he's like kind of dragged to this beer hall at the last possible moment and only told once the coup is ongoing so he's not happy but he is such a committed nationalist that he goes along with it and he doesn't attempt to betray the coup the same way that the triumvirate does okay so he's in the beer hall with lutendorf

His men are going, they're trying to seize caches of weapons, get command posts, seize strategic points.

And as things are progressing through the very late night and very early morning, it becomes clear that Carr, LaSalle, and Caesar have, in fact, defected and things are not going according to plan.

A few men were even killed as they met resistance from policemen and soldiers.

All right.

So he's with Lutendorf at the beer hall and they're just receiving bad reports and trying to figure out what to do next.

So Hitler landed on doing the only thing he could do.

He would force the issue.

He would lead a march to the center of the city and hope that the soldiers and police would join him upon seeing the solidarity and passion behind this movement.

So on the morning of November 9th, Hitler and Ludendorff led a column of roughly 2,000 stormtroopers and nationalist supporters through the streets of Munich toward the city center.

The route took them through what is called the Odeonsplatz.

And that's a large square near the city center.

Just before arriving there, at a narrow street leading into the square, a line of state police with rifles blocked their way.

There is sort of a standoff as these men march towards the police line.

And at some point, someone fired.