Hitler’s Early Career & the Munich Putsch 1923
Hitler Joins the German Workers’ Party
Adolf Hitler was born in Austria in 1889. He served as a corporal in the German army during the First World War and was devastated by Germany’s defeat. Like many right-wing nationalists, he believed the stab in the back myth and blamed socialists and Jews for Germany’s surrender.
In September 1919, the army sent Hitler to spy on a small political group called the German Workers’ Party (DAP), founded by Anton Drexler in Munich. Instead of reporting back, Hitler was drawn to the party’s nationalist and anti-Semitic ideas. He joined as member number 555 (though the party started numbering at 500 to appear larger). Hitler quickly became the party’s most effective speaker, drawing in new members with his passionate, angry style of oratory.
Hitler joined the German Workers’ Party (DAP) in September 1919. By February 1920, the party had been renamed the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) — the Nazi Party — and had announced its Twenty-Five Point Programme.
The Twenty-Five Point Programme
In February 1920, Hitler and Drexler published the Twenty-Five Point Programme, the party’s political manifesto. Its key demands included: the abolition of the Treaty of Versailles; the unification of all German-speaking people into a “Greater Germany”; citizenship only for those of “German blood” (explicitly excluding Jews); land reform and the nationalisation of large businesses; and a strong central government.
The programme appealed to a wide range of discontented Germans. Nationalists supported the rejection of Versailles. Workers liked the promises of nationalisation and land reform. Anti-Semites approved of the exclusion of Jews. The combination of nationalism and socialism in the party name was deliberately designed to attract support from across the political spectrum.
Point 1: Union of all Germans in a Greater Germany. Point 2: Abolition of the Treaty of Versailles. Point 4: Only those of “German blood” can be citizens; no Jew can be a citizen. Point 7: Non-citizens to be expelled if the state cannot feed its people. Point 13: Nationalisation of large businesses. Point 17: Land reform for the common good. Point 25: A strong central authority for the Reich. These demands combined extreme nationalism with populist economic promises.
The Role of the SA
In 1921, Hitler became leader of the Nazi Party. He established the SA (Sturmabteilung, or Storm Section), a paramilitary force also known as the “Brownshirts.” The SA’s role was to protect Nazi meetings, disrupt the meetings of rival parties, and intimidate opponents. Many SA members were ex-soldiers and Freikorps men who were attracted by the violence and discipline. The SA gave the Nazi Party a visible, aggressive presence on the streets that other parties could not match.
The Munich Putsch (8–9 November 1923)
By late 1923, Hitler believed the time was right to seize power. Germany was in crisis: hyperinflation was destroying the economy, the French occupied the Ruhr, and the government appeared weak. Hitler was inspired by Mussolini’s March on Rome in 1922, which had brought the fascists to power in Italy. He planned to seize control of Munich first, then march on Berlin.
The Beer Hall
Hitler and 600 SA men stormed a beer hall in Munich where Bavarian leaders were meeting. At gunpoint, Hitler forced Gustav von Kahr (head of the Bavarian government), General von Lossow, and Colonel von Seisser to support his plan to overthrow the national government.
The March
The next morning, around 2,000 Nazis marched through Munich towards the War Ministry. However, Kahr and Lossow had alerted the police and army. Armed police blocked the marchers at the Feldherrnhalle. Shots were fired; 16 Nazis and 4 police officers were killed. Hitler dislocated his shoulder and fled, but was arrested two days later.
The Munich Putsch failed militarily — 16 Nazis were killed and Hitler was arrested. But the consequences transformed the Nazi movement: Hitler’s trial gave him a national platform, prison gave him time to write Mein Kampf, and he concluded that power must be seized through legal, democratic means.
Consequences of the Munich Putsch
Hitler was put on trial for treason in February 1924. He used the trial as propaganda, making passionate speeches that were reported across Germany. The sympathetic judges gave him the minimum sentence of five years, and he served only nine months in the comfortable Landsberg Prison.
While in prison, Hitler dictated Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”) to his deputy, Rudolf Hess. The book set out Hitler’s core beliefs: extreme racial ideology (Aryan supremacy and violent anti-Semitism), Lebensraum (living space — the idea that Germany needed to expand eastward into Poland and Russia), hatred of communism, and the Führerprinzip (the belief that Germany needed one all-powerful leader). Although poorly written and rambling, Mein Kampf sold over 5 million copies by 1939 and became the ideological foundation of the Nazi state.
Rebuilding the Party: The Bamberg Conference (1926)
After his release from prison in December 1924, Hitler set about rebuilding the Nazi Party along new lines. He recognised that the Munich Putsch had proved that violent revolution would not work in Germany — the army and police would simply crush it. Instead, he adopted a strategy of gaining power through legal means — winning elections and then using democratic institutions to destroy democracy from within.
At the Bamberg Conference in February 1926, Hitler reasserted his personal authority over the party. Some members, led by Gregor Strasser in northern Germany, wanted the party to focus more on socialist policies to attract workers. Hitler crushed this opposition, establishing the Führerprinzip — the principle that the leader’s word was absolute and final. The party was reorganised into regional districts (Gaue) to fight elections across Germany.
The Bamberg Conference (1926) established two crucial principles: Hitler’s absolute authority over the party (Führerprinzip) and the strategy of gaining power through elections rather than armed revolt. These decisions shaped the Nazi Party’s path to power.
Despite Hitler’s reorganisation, the Nazis remained a fringe party during the “Golden Years.” In the 1928 Reichstag elections, the Nazis won only 12 seats and 2.6% of the vote. Stresemann’s economic recovery meant most Germans were reasonably content — they had no reason to vote for an extremist party. The Nazis’ message of anger and national humiliation had less appeal when the economy was growing and Germany was being accepted back into the international community.