The Trial of Adolf Hitler: The Beer Hall Putsch and the Rise of Nazi Germany by David King

Author:David King [King, David]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2017-06-06T04:00:00+00:00

42.

BLOW-UP

German Versus German, Plot and Counterplot

—Auckland Star

On day fifteen of the trial, it was General von Lossow’s turn to face his cross-examination. His earlier testimony had been met with mixed results. On one hand, he had exposed the brutality and disloyalty of the putschists. On the other, he had failed to refute the accusation that he had been conspiring against the republic. The image in the Munich courtroom was “not pretty,” Berliner Tageblatt concluded.

With biting sarcasm and a knack for quick repartee, Lossow lashed out at defendant and advocate alike. The witness first wanted to draw a distinction between his goal—a legal, authoritarian regime based on the emergency powers granted by Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution—and the simplistic misrepresentation that reduced it to a “putsch.” He had no desire for a military dictatorship, he said, certainly not one that involved Adolf Hitler.

Lossow tried to exploit the powerful antiestablishment sentiment swelling up in the gallery. For one thing, he championed the right of a general to refuse orders of a corrupt government, meaning, of course, Berlin. He referred to the economic and social crisis during the nightmare of hyperinflation:

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