Hitler Stands Trial
HISTORY This Week
The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios
4.5 • 4.2K Ratings
🗓️ 21 February 2022
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
February 26, 1924. 10 Defendants enter a courtroom in Munich. They are being charged with an attempted coup. They tried to overthrow the government of the Weimar Republic…and almost succeeded. All eyes are on the second defendant to enter the room. When the judge reads this man’s name into the record, he identifies him as a Munich writer named Adolf Hitler. Today: Hitler’s first attempt to seize power. How did his 1923 coup fail? And why would Hitler later say that this failure was “perhaps the greatest good fortune of my life?”
Thank you to Thomas Weber for speaking with us for this episode, author of the book “Becoming Hitler: The Making of a Nazi”. Thank you also to our guest Peter Ross Range, author of “1924: The Year that Made Hitler”. We also read David King’s book “The Trial of Adolf Hitler” in researching this episode–it’s a great resource if you want to learn more about this story.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The History Channel, original podcast. |
| 0:05.5 | History this week, February 26, 1924. I'm Sally Helm. |
| 0:15.5 | As they enter the courtroom in Munich, the audience has to submit to a search |
| 0:21.0 | to make sure they're not smuggling in any weapons. |
| 0:24.5 | A reporter writes the next day, their hair, hats, purses, muffs, and even stockings |
| 0:31.5 | were inspected for daggers, hand grenades, and bombs. |
| 0:36.5 | And also for hat pins, exceeding the limit allowed by the authorities. |
| 0:42.5 | Those authorities are not taking any chances. |
| 0:45.5 | The defendants in this trial are charged with an attempted coup in German a push. |
| 0:51.5 | They tried to overthrow the government of the Vimer Republic and almost succeeded. |
| 0:58.5 | There have been rumors that their supporters might try to storm the courtroom, |
| 1:02.5 | free the defendants, and finish what they started. |
| 1:06.5 | When the audience finally makes it through security, they enter a big drafty room. |
| 1:12.5 | It wasn't designed as a courtroom. This building had been a school for soldiers, |
| 1:17.5 | and this room was their dining hall. The school was shut down recently, |
| 1:21.5 | because the majority of the cadets had supported the attempted coup, |
| 1:26.5 | marched against the government alongside the defendants, |
| 1:31.5 | who now enter this former dining hall to face a charge of high treason. |
| 1:40.5 | The first defendant is a general in civilian clothes, a blue suit. |
| 1:44.5 | The second follows a few steps behind carrying a briefcase. |
| 1:49.5 | He isn't an imposing figure. One observer writes that he looked, quote, |
| 1:54.5 | for all the world like a traveling salesman for a clothing firm. |
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