In Hitler's Munich: Jews, the Revolution, and the Rise of Nazism

by Michael Brenner Narrated by Julian Elfer

Overview

In the aftermath of Germany's defeat in World War I and the failed November Revolution of 1918-19, the conservative government of Bavaria identified Jews with left-wing radicalism. Munich became a hotbed of right-wing extremism, with synagogues under attack and Jews physically assaulted in the streets. It was here that Adolf Hitler established the Nazi movement and developed his anti-Semitic ideas. Michael Brenner provides a gripping account of how Bavaria's capital city became the testing ground for Nazism and the Final Solution.



In an electrifying narrative that takes listeners from Hitler's return to Munich following the armistice to his calamitous Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, Brenner demonstrates why the city's transformation is crucial for understanding the Nazi era and the tragedy of the Holocaust. Brenner describes how Hitler and his followers terrorized Munich's Jews and were aided by politicians, judges, police, and ordinary residents. He shows how the city's Jews responded to the anti-Semitic backlash in many different ways-by declaring their loyalty to the state, by avoiding public life, or by abandoning the city altogether.



Drawing on a wealth of previously unknown documents, In Hitler's Munich reveals the untold story of how a once-cosmopolitan city became, in the words of Thomas Mann, "the city of Hitler."

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Munich as the point of origin for the explosion of antisemitism in Germany in the early 1920s is the focus of In Hitler’s Munich. For Michael Brenner what mattered most was not the reprieve Jews experienced in 1923 but the failed revolution of 1918–1919 that put them at so much risk in the first place."—-Christopher R. Browning, New York Review of Books

"Michael Brenner. . . has written a book that tells the tragic story of the city and its Jews after World War I without fear or favor and, indeed, in this particular case, without either pride or shame."—-Steven E. Aschheim, Jewish Review of Books

"In Hitler’s Munich: Jews, the Revolution and the Rise of Nazism explores the great variety of roles played by Munich’s Jews in those years, putting to rest any simple characterization of pre-World War II German Jewry."—-Robert Siegel, Moment

"In his excellent new book, the noted German Jewish historian Michael Brenner explains and analyses how and why Munich became the bedrock of Nazism."—-Colin Shindler, Jewish Chronicle

"Brenner’s scholarship is rigorous and impressive. . . . [He] never lets us forget that these were people, not just figures in a historical text. . . . Although he did not intend or fore­see it when he began to write, it quick­ly became appar­ent to him that what he was describ­ing res­onat­ed uncom­fort­ably with the events of Jan­u­ary 6th, 2020 — the storm­ing of the Capi­tol in Wash­ing­ton. At every turn the read­er is remind­ed of the lessons of history."—-Mark Welch, Jewish Book Council

Choice Reviews

"An indispensable account of how, after the failed left-wing November Revolution of 1918–19 in Munich, the new conservative government of Germany promoted the lie that Jews were responsible for Germany's defeat in World War I and the rise of Bolshevism in Germany. . . . Highly recommended."

Kirkus Reviews

2021-10-30
A German Jewish historian mines the intricate story behind Hitler’s rise to power in Munich as a direct reaction to the failed socialist coup of 1918-1919, many of whose leaders were liberal Jews.

In the wake of the assassination of Kurt Eisner—the first Jewish prime minister of Bavaria, whose socialist republic overthrew the centuries-old monarchy—in February 1919, reactionary, antisemitic forces took hold in that once-liberal cultural capital and enabled the rise of Hitler. Brenner looks closely at the lives and beliefs of those Jewish intellectuals, anarchists, and revolutionaries, such as Eisner, Erich Mühsam, Ernst Toller, Eugen Leviné, and Gustav Landauer, as well as the better-known Rosa Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky. Many were from czarist Russia, where they had been oppressed and found in socialism freedom, opportunity, and a method for helping others in similarly oppressive situations. As Saul Friedländer wrote, “the activities of the Jewish revolutionaries in Germany were based on an unquestionably naïve, but very humane idealism—a sort of secular Messianism, as if the revolution could bring deliverance from all suffering.” Many were nonpracticing or nonbelievers, and many worked in opposition to each other and did not necessarily share a political consensus. Still, the revolutionary actors in Bavaria banded together to effect a bloodless takeover of the monarchy, leading first to shock among the bourgeoisie and then vengeful new rulers and a wave of terror—a “pogrom atmosphere in Munich.” Brenner examines the ideology and background of each of the key players and how their Jewishness affected their worldview. The violent reaction to the coup put the “Jewish question” front of mind and the “unspeakable Jewish tragedy,” as Martin Buber called the era, to follow at center stage. The story Brenner pieces together is fascinating, with details that will be unknown to nonspecialist readers, and its ramifications were world-changing then and remain so today.

Deep, important research by a master historian.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176114508
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	03/22/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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