Ben Wilson

Kahr was droning on, the crowd was fidgeting.

Waitresses wove between the packed tables, delivering steins of beer to men in great coats.

The air was thick with cigarette smoke and murmured conversation.

And then, at around 8.30 in the evening, the side doors of the hall burst open.

In stormed Adolf Hitler, flanked by a detachment of stormtroopers in steel helmets, armed to the teeth.

Outside, the SA had completely surrounded the building.

A heavy machine gun had been wheeled up to the entrance and pointed at the door.

Hitler pushed through the crowd, shouldering his way to the front of the hall.

He climbed up on a table, he raised his pistol, and he fired a single shot into the ceiling.

The room went silent.

The national revolution has broken out, Hitler shouted into the stunned hall.

The Bavarian government is deposed.

This hall is surrounded by 600 men.

Nobody is allowed to leave.

This was, of course, the Beer Hall Putsch.

And over the next 18 hours, Adolf Hitler would attempt to overthrow the government of Bavaria and from there, march on Berlin itself.

So let's back up for a moment and explain what brought us here.

Germany in 1923 is coming apart.

The government and the government from this time is called the Weimar government because the Weimar Republic, because of where it's founded.

So the Weimar government had failed to make its reparation payments under the Treaty of Versailles, which is the treaty that ends World War One.