Chapter 1: How did Hitler build a movement in Germany?
How does one actually take power?
Chapter 2: What was the significance of the Beer Hall Putsch?
By November of 1923, Adolf Hitler had built a movement. But many people start movements. Any lunatic can get a few dozen followers together if he has a modicum of charisma. At any given time in any given nation, there are dozens of new movements, whether religious, political, cultural, or artistic. And yet, very few of them ever actually do anything. And almost none of them actually take power.
So on part one, we looked at how Hitler built a movement.
Chapter 3: How did Hitler sway the crowd during his speeches?
And in this episode, we will look at the mechanics of how he actually took power for himself and for the National Socialist Movement. When we left Hitler, he was still unknown to the majority of Germans. When we end this episode, he will be the Fuhrer, the undisputed leader of all of Germany. This episode is a warning.
It's obviously a look at one way, at least, that tyranny can overtake a nation. But it's also a playbook because the rules for taking power are the same, whether you're a dictator or someone who is trying to do good in the world. So let's look into how you can copy that playbook. So let's get into it. My name is Ben Wilson, and this is How to Take Over the World.
I'm going to show you how great I am. This is how society fell off. I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, I'd like to take this chance to apologize to absolutely nobody.
It's November 8th, 1923, a cold autumn night in Munich. The Bürgerbräukeller was one of the largest beer halls in the city, and tonight it was packed. 3,000 people had crowded in to hear a speech from the state commissioner, Gustav von Kahr.
Chapter 4: What were the key lessons from the Beer Hall Putsch?
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.
And in retaliation, France and Belgium had occupied the Ruhr Valley, Germany's industrial heartland. The German government responded by telling workers to go on strike, passive resistance, and simply printed money to pay them while they weren't working. The result was the most catastrophic hyperinflation in modern economic history.
By the time of the Beer Hall Putsch, November 1923, a single US dollar, one US dollar, was worth 4.2 trillion German marks. People were literally wheelbarrowing cash to the bakery to buy a single loaf of bread. Okay. Total economic devastation. Pensions are wiped out. Savings destroyed. The middle class is annihilated. The country is in chaos.
And Adolf Hitler, who is now the head of the fledgling National Socialist German Workers Party, the NSDAP, saw his moment, right? You don't know how long this is going to last, but the country is in real crisis and people are looking for new solutions to this terrible crisis. They're in a mood of, well, whatever got us here is not working. We're open to new things.
And so he believed that he had a message that could rescue Germany from this national humiliation. And his model for this moment was Benito Mussolini, the Italian soon to be dictator, who had marched on Rome just a year before and had taken power. Hitler believed he could do something similar. He believed the moment had arrived.
And so the Bavarian triumvirate, these three leaders of the German state of Bavaria, that's State Commissioner Kahr, along with General Otto von Lassau, commander of the army in Bavaria, and Colonel Hans Ritter von Cesar, leading the state police, had been moving to consolidate power in Bavaria and showing increased resistance to the Berlin government.
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Chapter 5: What were the key demands in the 25 Point Program?
19, we demand substitution of a German common law in place of the Roman law serving materialistic world order. Number 20, the state is to be responsible for a fundamental reconstruction of our whole national education program. 21, the state is to care for elevating the national health by protecting the mother and child by outlawing child labor.
22, we demand abolition of the mercenary troops and formation of a national army. 23, we demand legal opposition to known lies and their promulgation through the press. 24, we demand freedom of religion for all religious denominations within the state so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral sense of the Germanic race.
And number 25, for the execution of all this, we demand the formation of a strong central power in the Reich. Okay, so that gives you a feel. Again, it's sort of a grab bag. It is sort of vague. It's the kind of stuff that, with a few exceptions, is sort of difficult to argue with. And it's not all hyper-reactionary, as you might expect.
Okay, another issue that he's dealing with, and I actually would deal with for the rest of his life, is the question of religious persecution. All right. Remember, these people who are involved in the Völkisch movement, they are very into German history, into, you know, like old Germanic folkways and Germanic warriors with their Viking helmets and their big broadswords and things like that.
And so a lot of them were pagans and were interested in paganism. A lot of them were Nietzscheans and therefore did not believe in Christianity. They believed that Christianity was a Jewish influence on Germany. It's a Jewish religion, right? Jesus is a Jew. And so they were very opposed to Christianity.
Hitler himself, actually, there are a few quotes from some of the speeches that makes it very clear. I mean, he's very flippant about Christianity, especially when he's talking to an internal audience of national socialist supporters. You get the idea. This is not a genuine Christian. It's not a believing person.
I know some people think that's controversial and have this idea that Hitler was a Christian man. And he did seem to have a belief in God or a higher power. But I'm just telling you that if you read through his speeches, which I have, it's just very clear. He's not a believing Christian. However,
he did get annoyed by some national socialists who really wanted to immediately start moving away from Christianity. His viewpoint, this is purely strategic, but his viewpoint is, this is ridiculous. Like the German people,
are not ready to move away from christianity at all most people even if they don't practice and you know mid-20th century people are starting to move away from christianity as a as a serious faith but even if they don't practice they still have cultural ties to christianity and and any sort of oppression or opposition to christianity is just going to be a total death knell for national socialism as a national party
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Chapter 6: How did Hitler's views on Christianity influence his political strategy?
They weren't highly original in terms of their ideas. Although I think that is kind of a bogus criticism. Like, would you say that Obama or Biden or Bush or Trump or anything like had super original ideas. That's just not the role of a politician and a political leader, right? Their role is to galvanize public support behind preexisting ideas.
So anyway, he's almost uniformly incredible in front of big crowds. In front of small groups, as I said, he's often not as impressive, although he can be. That one is kind of variable. You just get mixed reviews. Some people come away pretty impressed. Other people come away not impressed at all. Other people with sort of a mixed opinion.
One journalist who interviewed him during this period wrote, quote, Hitler spoke with great simplicity and with great earnestness. There was not a trace in his manner of those arts which political leaders are apt to employ when they wish to impress.
I was conscious that I was talking to a man whose power lies not, as many still think, in his eloquence and his ability to hold the attention of the mob, but in his conviction. He is not a robust looking man. He is slight in figure. But the moment he spoke, I realized that there was in him a burning spirit that could triumph over bodily weariness. He speaks very rapidly.
And in his voice, there is a nervous energy that makes one feel the intense conviction behind his words. Conviction. That word keeps coming up. And I think that is the next takeaway. And one of the most important things about Hitler is that belief. Even the people who disliked Hitler, even his opponents, conceded this. The man believed.
And belief delivered with sufficient intensity is extremely contagious. And I think that's what made Hitler such a compelling speaker and such a compelling leader. All right. So, again, he is a compelling leader. He's doing well. But the party's not growing. The New Year comes in 1928. It's because the economy is good and things are functioning pretty well in the Weimar Republic.
So people aren't interested in far-right politicians. So in 1928, the NSDAP won only 2.6% of the vote. All right. This is a very marginal party. They have 12 deputies in the Reichstag, and that's somewhat helpful to them because those men get salaries and they get train tickets to and from Berlin. But I mean, over 97% of the German electorate did not want Adolf Hitler, was not interested.
Now, in 1928, things do start to turn around. On the one hand, because you start to get some economic turmoil. And on the other, because the National Socialists start to get smarter about how they are deploying propaganda.
One of the things they do is instead of trying to canvas the entire country, which is what most parties did and which is what they kind of have been doing in the past, they pioneer a technique of saturating one area at a time with flyers, speeches, meetings, everything.
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Chapter 7: What were the implications of the Reichstag Fire?
He's a great speaker, but he's a terrible organizer and he doesn't like to organize. And so for the most part, he is just the person who sets out the vision. He says, this is what we're trying to accomplish. And then he just allows his subordinates to go and try to accomplish it. And this does actually lead to a lot of initiative on the part of many of his subordinates.
It's also very chaotic and leads to a lot of infighting because there are no clear directions. And so when he wants something done, a lot of people are just trying to do it because he doesn't give clear direction on who should do it or how. So there's infighting in terms of turf wars, right? What turf belongs to who within the party?
his economic advisor Otto Waggoner recalls, quote, Hitler actually never issued instructions. He wanted to refrain from making decisions. That's interesting. He didn't like making decisions. Instead, he would outline general principles
And if a decision needed to be made, he would often just wait as long as possible and just kind of let it gestate in his mind and think about it in the background. And then when he couldn't wait any longer, he would finally come out with a reluctant decision. And usually it was the right one, at least in political matters at this point.
this this actually is a type of decision making that can work okay in a political party um but as we'll see in episode three it works less well when you're actually trying to run a country so um it's a confusing leadership style It is very centralized in one person.
It leads to a lot of extremism as people try and one up each other in completing these sort of vague wishes and ideas that Hitler is putting out there. But it has some benefits. It also has a lot of drawbacks. Anyways, that is Hitler's strategy for leadership. He also had a habit, which would persist throughout his entire career, of extreme dilatoriness followed by sudden decisive boldness.
And that came from his putting off of decisions. So Ian Kershaw writes, there was never any suggestion that Hitler might be bypassed or ignored, that anyone but he could make a key decision. And once he finally decided to act, Hitler did so with ruthlessness. Such dilatoriness followed by boldness was a feature of Hitler as a party leader, then later as dictator.
So my takeaway from this time period in Hitler's life is build for the future. The NSDAP in 1928 was a non-factor for most of Germany. 2.6%. Okay. It's nothing.
But those years of patient building, party branches, the propaganda techniques, the networks of loyalty, the quasi-governmental structure within the party itself, where people are thinking about how they would govern and being ready to slot in there, that's exactly what they needed when the depression hit and people were desperate and frightened and it was kind of their moment to shine.
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Chapter 8: How did Hitler consolidate power after becoming Chancellor?
You don't know when what you have to say or what you have to offer the world is going to catch on. But you're going to build now when it seems like the world isn't ready because that day will come eventually. And if you haven't built, then the moment is going to pass you by, right? So start now, build for the future, be ready when your time comes. Okay, so how does the time arrive for Hitler?
On October 3rd, 1929, Gustav Stresemann, the only real statesman in the Reichstag, the only impressive figure that people really rallied behind, died following a stroke. And then three weeks later, on October 24th, 1929, the largest stock market in the world, Wall Street, New York, crashed. And with it, the global economy just came crashing down.
It leads to a total crisis, not just in Germany, but everywhere. And this was the crisis that Hitler was waiting for. American loans to Germany, which had been the financial lifeblood of the Weimar Republic's recovery, were recalled overnight. Businesses failed, banks collapsed, unemployment, which had been declining steadily since the mid 1920s, shot upward with terrifying speed.
By January 1930, working age unemployment had crossed 14%. By the peak in 1932, nearly half of the workforce was either fully or partially unemployed. Okay? Half. What does that mean? It means soup kitchens. It means bread lines. Real grinding daily hardship. Young men with no work, no prospects, and a burning sense that something had been stolen from them.
And this was not the way that things were supposed to work. And so this is when the movement meets the moment. You know, all those years of patiently building up infrastructure, building a party, building a message becomes relevant at this moment. And I think it's helpful to illustrate some individual stories to show why this was resonating with people at this moment.
All right, so here's one person who joins the NSDAP during this time period, during the depths of the Great Depression. Here's what he writes. The terrible burden of the breakdown threatened to bring all economic life to a standstill. Thousands of factories closed their doors. Hunger was the daily companion of the German working man.
Added to this was the artificial whip of scarcity, which sent working men scurrying from their homes to beg for food from the farmers. The government carried its measures against the public so far that many an honest working man had to resort to theft to obtain food. All fellow citizens, with the exception of the communists, yearned for better times.
As for me, like many others, I had lost all I possessed through adverse economic conditions. And so, early in 1930, I joined the National Socialist Party. OK, so you hear very clearly this link of like everything was taken away from me. And so it's in that context that I joined the National Socialist Party. Here's another one.
Quote, When we consider that on the one hand, the policies of the red government, particularly the inflation and taxes, deprived me of all means of livelihood.
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