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

by David King Narrated by Jeff Harding

Overview

February 26, 1924 was the first day of the greatly anticipated high treason trial that would galvanize Germany - but few in the courtroom that morning anticipated that the leading defendant, General Erich Ludendorff, whose risky offensives during World War I doomed Germany to defeat, would soon be eclipsed by the private first class at his side, Adolf Hitler. Hitler was charged with treason after unsuccessfully trying to seize power in the notorious Beer Hall Putsch in Munich in 1923. Before the trial, Hitler was only a minor, if ambitious, local party leader. Yet, once the proceedings began, his days of relative obscurity were over. Including never-before-published sources, this richly informed, day-by-day account shows how Hitler metamorphosed into a mesmerizing demagogue and used his trial as a stage for Nazi propaganda. Chilling in the hypothetical questions it raises, The Trial of Adolf Hitler illuminates our understanding of Hitler's path to power.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

04/03/2017
King (Death in the City of Light) affirms his reputation as a first-rate narrative historian in this well-researched analysis of Adolf Hitler’s trial for treason in the aftermath of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. Initially Hitler was a marginal figure; the focus was on national hero Erich Ludendorff. But in this fast-paced account, King demonstrates how Hitler increasingly came to dominate and define the proceedings. He understood, and took full advantage of, the court’s overriding desire to conceal the full extent of the conspiracy of leading public figures against the state of Bavaria and the Weimar Republic. Hitler used the courtroom as a public forum, talking for hours at a time of his vision of a Germany raised to greatness from the ashes of defeat. His speeches were described by one newspaper as “a serialized novel.” The trial’s presiding judge understood the value of the smokescreen this hitherto minor figure was providing, and Hitler’s conviction for high treason was a matter of form. His minimal sentence and eventual parole reflected the legal system’s collective conviction that he would sink back into obscurity. As King shows, Hitler’s trial made him a patriot and martyr to an increasing number of supporters, and the system’s contingent miscalculations facilitated Hitler’s rise to power. (June)

Exame (Brazil) - Joel Pinheiro da Fonseca

"King's research is exquisite.… It is difficult to think of a book accessible to the general public like this that presents such a rich and detailed work of unpublished research."

The National Book Review

"The early criminal trial that could have stopped Hitler’s rise… New York Times best-selling author King brings that early trial vividly to life. He shows in this deeply insightful, compellingly written narrative how Hitler turned an early legal setback into a platform for his vicious demagoguery—and a short prison sentence into a political launching pad."

Wall Street Journal - Frederick Taylor

"Gripping....The Trial of Adolf Hitler provides a textbook example of how a determined demagogue can turn defeat into victory. It is also a disturbing portrait of how an advanced country can descend into chaos and of the human cost that this chaos entails."

The Spectator - Nigel Jones

"Vivid… offer[s] startling insights into aspects of Hitler and Nazism that have been previously under-reported."

Peter Ross Range

"This is the definitive book on the Hitler trial in the English, German, or any language."

Bookpage

"A powerful work that underlines what a pivot point the trial was—and how badly it went awry."

History Revealed

"This sobering book reveals what happened, what went wrong, and how it paved the way for the cataclysms that were to follow."

Joseph Kanon

"A courtroom drama both farcical and ominous. An absorbing, detailed account of a crucial—but often overlooked—chapter in Hitler’s rise."

The Catholic Herald - Robin Aitken

"The casual student of history might think that we already know all we usefully can about Adolf Hitler, his rise and fall, but… here is another contribution to Führer studies."

The Times (London) - Roger Moorhouse

"A gripping, almost minute-by-minute narrative… The Trial of Adolf Hitler is impeccably researched and engagingly written, and succeeds in bringing the fraught, chaotic nature of the event to life."

Christian Science Monitor

"Engrossing and well-researched… makes an important contribution to the understanding of modern totalitarianism."

The New Criterion

"As captivating as it is well researched and scholastically precise."

Library Journal

05/01/2017
Based on recently discovered documents from Adolf Hitler's time in prison and the full transcript of his trial, King (Death in the City of Light) writes the first full-length study in English of Hitler's failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, in which he and the Nazi party tried to seize power in Munich. The author follows the führer's actions on the night of the failed coup, his arrest a few days later, and the subsequent trial. After being charged with treason, Hitler faced the possibility of a stiff jail sentence and deportation. Instead, the leader seized this opportunity to make long speeches attacking the Weimar Republic and his perceived enemies. The intense media coverage served to increase Hitler's popularity among Germans. Capitalizing on the publicity from the trial, Hitler emerged more focused and energized—and with a clear plan to rebuild the Nazi party. VERDICT King successfully shows the trial served a small yet crucial part in Hitler's rise to power during the Third Reich's formative years. Recommended for those interested in Hitler's early political career and the origins of World War II.—Chad E. Statler, Lakeland Comm. Coll., Kirtland, OH

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2017-04-02
A highly detailed study of Hitler's failed putsch of Nov. 8, 1923, in Munich and the trial that "catapulted this relatively minor local leader onto the national stage."In an astute work of scholarship and vivid narrative of vying personalities and power, Kentucky-based historian King (Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris, 2011, etc.) chronicles the ill-planned, audacious attempt by a small but growing right-wing party of disaffected thugs to seize the reins of Bavarian government. Harnessing the postwar disillusionment with the "peace of shame," crippling reparations, hyperinflation, fall of the monarchy, and rise of a Socialist republic for the first time in German history, a number of right-wing groups emerged in the early 1920s, specifically Munich's "anti-republic, anti-parliament, anti-Communist, and anti-Semitic" National Socialist Party. Hitler was known as "a speaker who could fill the beer halls and whip the throngs into a frenzy." Seizing the moment—and backed by the party's paramilitary wing, the well-regarded war hero Gen. Erich Ludendorff, and Hitler's own band of murderous bodyguards—he did just that at Munich's Bürgerbräukeller. In three parts, King illuminates this dark saga: first, the actual putsch, which entailed the party's taking of Bavarian government officials as hostages and storming the war ministry only to be removed by the Munich police when no real plan for a march on Berlin emerged; second, the monthlong Munich trial itself, which largely tapped into public sympathy for Hitler and his theories, resulting in a conviction for "high treason" yet a jail sentence that allowed him to be released on parole after eight and a half months; and finally, his incarceration in a fairly luxurious cell in Landsberg Prison, where he was celebrated as a hero and managed to write the propaganda tome that would launch the Nazi Party's apotheosis, Mein Kampf. A meticulously researched, deeply instructive work with great relevance for our current era of right-wing resurgence.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175731621
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	06/20/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

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