 The wave of discontent arising out of the French occupation of the Ruhr in 1923 led Hitler to feel that the time had come for him to try and seize power in Bavaria, as a first step to taking over control of the government in Berlin. The Nazi beer hall putsch (so named because it was in a Munich beer cellar that Hitler announced the formation of his new government of National Revolution) was a fiasco. When Nazi brown shirts marched on the centre of Munich, loyal troops opened fire. Sixteen Nazis were killed and many of their leaders, including Hitler, taken prisoner.
Hitler however, turned this failure to his advantage. His trial, which was reported throughout Germany, gave him the opportunity to make known his views to a much wider audience. He received the most lenient sentence possible: five years in prison. In fact he only served nine months of the sentence, in conditions of considerable comfort. In prison he found the time to write the account of his political views known as Mein Kampf (My Struggle), this book became the 'bible' of the Nazi Party.
In 1929 Hitler joined forces with the conservative National Party in a campaign against the Young Plan. This helped the Nazis appear more respectable. At the same time it brought Hitler into contact with some of Germany's leading industrialists, from whom the Nazi Party was soon to receive a great deal of financial support. |
The Nazis failed to increase their support in elections during the prosperous years 1924-29. This period, however, saw many developments in the organisation of the Party: the creation of party units in northern Germany, the formation of a Hitler youth movement, the establishment of a Nazi trade union known as the German Labour Front, the holding of impressive annual party rallies. Hitler had realised that it had been a mistake to try and seize power by force. Such actions only lost the sympathy of groups such as the army and the middle classes whose support he was hoping to attract.