Ben Wilson

So in Landsberg prison, it's about 30 miles west of Munich.

So it's still in Bavaria.

It's very close to the area.

And Hitler's quarters are actually pretty comfortable.

Ian Kershaw writes about it.

Hitler returned to Landsberg prison to begin his light sentence in conditions more akin to those of a hotel than a penitentiary.

The windows of his large, comfortably furnished room on the first floor afford an expansive view of the attractive countryside.

Dressed in lederhosen, he could relax with a newspaper in an easy chair, his back to a laurel wreath provided by admirers, or sit at a large desk sifting through the mound of correspondence he received.

He was treated with great respect by his jailers, some of whom secretly greeted him with Heil Hitler, and accorded every possible privilege.

Gifts, flowers, letters of support, and coniums of praise all poured in.

He received more visitors than he could cope with, over 500 of them before he eventually felt compelled to restrict access.

Okay, so Hitler has really transformed the outcome of this failed putsch.

It goes from being an abject failure to him being a living martyr, if there is such a thing, and growing the popularity of the movement and growing his profile nationally.

He also gets some advantages from being in prison, which is that he now has time to think, time to read, time to develop a coherent worldview.

And as a consequence, he does develop this very coherent worldview.

And he did already have the large outlines of what he believed, which is anti-Semitism, national restoration, German greatness, racial thinking, all this stuff.

But now it becomes more defined, especially at the edges.

He defines his personal worldview.

He stops drinking.

He becomes a vegetarian because he's a big sort of animal rights person.