Hitler Launches Beer Hall Putsch in Munich

Context

After Germany's defeat in World War I, the Weimar Republic grappled with economic collapse, hyperinflation, and widespread political violence. The Treaty of Versailles fueled resentment among nationalists who promoted the stab-in-the-back myth, blaming civilian leaders, Jews, and Marxists for the loss. In Bavaria, right-wing groups flourished amid this turmoil, and the small National Socialist German Workers' Party under Adolf Hitler built a paramilitary wing, the Sturmabteilung, drawing thousands of members by 1923.

What Happened

On the evening of November 8, 1923, Hitler led roughly 600 SA members to the Bürgerbräukeller beer hall in Munich, where Bavarian state commissioner Gustav Ritter von Kahr was addressing about 3,000 people alongside police chief Hans von Seisser and army commander Otto von Lossow. Hitler burst into the hall with associates including Hermann Göring and Rudolf Hess, fired a pistol shot into the ceiling, and declared that the Bavarian government had been overthrown and a national revolution begun. He forced the triumvirate into a back room at gunpoint, demanding their support, while Erich Ludendorff was summoned to lend his prestige to the effort. Ernst Röhm simultaneously seized other key buildings in the city.

Aftermath

The following morning, around 2,000 Nazis marched toward the Feldherrnhalle in central Munich but encountered a police cordon. A brief exchange of fire left 16 Nazis dead, including Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter, along with four officers and one civilian. The putsch collapsed; Hitler fled briefly before his arrest on November 11. The Nazi Party faced a temporary ban, and its leaders stood trial the next year.

Legacy

Although a clear failure, the putsch elevated Hitler to nationwide prominence through a widely publicized trial in which he defended his nationalist views. While serving a reduced prison sentence, he dictated Mein Kampf and concluded that future power must come through elections and legal channels rather than armed revolt. The event later became a foundational Nazi myth, commemorated annually as a day of martyrs until the regime's end.