Adolf Hitler was arrest on 11 November after his attempt to take over Germany. Two days before, the charismatic leader had failed to seize power in a putsch (coup) held in Munich.

Hitler, an Austrian-born, unsuccessful artist who served as a corporal in the German Army during World War I, was leader of the small National Socialist German Workers' Party, one of the many new political groups that had emerged after the war. He was joined by General Erich von Ludendorff and others who tried to exploit public displeasure with the terrible inflation and French invasion of the industrial Ruhr Valley, Germany.

On 8 November, Hitler and an armed escort burst in on a rally held by the Bavarian state commissioner, Ritter con Kahr, in the Bürgerbräu, a Munish beer hall, forcing Kahr and his colleagues to join him. However, they changed their minds the next day. Still, Hitler and von Ludendorff marched on the centre of Munich with 3000 stormtroopers, in an attempt to copy Mussolini's march on Rome. However, the police easily scattered the marchers with some gunshots. Hitler, wounded in the shoulder while trying to escape, was arrested and imprisoned for eight months the next day.

Despite the "Beer Hall Putsch" failure, Hitler gained great publicity for his movement, his eloquence at his court trial gave him celebrity status. It was in jail that he wrote the first volume of the Nazi handbook, Mein Kampf (My Struggle).