Germany 1923 by Volker Ullrich

Author:Volker Ullrich
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liveright
Published: 2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

At noon on November 9, Hitler supporters began marching from the Bürgerbräukeller on Rosenheimer Strasse toward Munich’s city center.

The demonstration proceeded from the Marienplatz down Weinstrasse, turned right onto Perusastrasse, then left onto Residenzstrasse. Just before it reached the Odeonsplatz in front of the monumental Feldherrnhalle loggia, it ran into a second police blockade. Pushing and shoving broke out, and a shot sounded: it remains unclear where it came from. The two sides exchanged fire for thirty seconds, leaving fourteen putschists and four police officers dead.142

One of the first casualties was Scheubner-Richter, who had locked arms with Hitler and whose weight pulled the Nazi leader to the ground, dislocating his shoulder. “Had the bullet which killed Scheubner-Richter been a foot to the right, history would have taken a different course,” historian Ian Kershaw has remarked, correctly.143 Göring was shot and seriously injured, as was Hitler’s bodyguard Ulrich Graf in an attempt to protect his boss. As the demonstration disintegrated in panic, Ludendorff marched straight through the rows of police and allowed himself to be arrested, without resistance, on Odeonsplatz.

In the general confusion, Hitler got back to his feet and dragged himself to Max-Josefs-Platz, where Dr. Walter Schultze, the head of the SA medical division, had a car waiting.144 They sped to Hanfstaengl’s vacation home in Uffing on Staffelsee lake. Hitler would be arrested there two days later, on November 11, and immediately taken to prison in Landsberg am Lech. “A dark lock of hair fell onto his pale face, drawn from all the uproar and sleepless nights, from which a pair of steely eyes stared into emptiness,” recalled a prison employee.145

The badly wounded Göring was treated in a private Munich clinic and then managed to flee to Austria. He was followed by a number of other putschists, including Hermann Esser, Hanfstaengl, and Hess. Pöhner and his accomplice in the Munich police directorate, Wilhelm Frick, had already been arrested during the night of November 8–9. Röhm was apprehended after the district Reichswehr command surrendered on November 9. Ludendorff was released after giving his word of honor to refrain from any further political activity.146

In the hours after the putsch was suppressed, Munich was in an uproar. Large segments of the population sided with the insurgents. “Anger at the ‘treacherous Kahr’ is widespread,” observed Hedwig Pringsheim. “The Reichswehr, which is trying to maintain order, is greeted with catcalls, hissing, and cries of ‘pfui.’ The soldiers are insulted as ‘mercenaries for Jews, oath-breaking facilitators of the Kahr Jew government.’ People spit and generally behave intractably. On Odeonsplatz and Briennerstrasse, there have been wild scenes with crowds that include Hitler supporters, who have been disarmed, and the Reichswehr. The Jew-baiting is terrible.”147

In the days that followed, angry citizens staged demonstrations in Munich and other Bavarian cities against the “clique of traitors” Kahr, Lossow, and Seisser.148 Support for Hitler and his co-conspirators was particularly significant among students. At an event at Munich University on November 12, the speakers were constantly interrupted by cries of “Up with

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