Chapter 36 Chapter 6 Beer Hall Uprising (2)

The other side of fortune, disguised as inflation, also seemed to favor Hitler and his march to Berlin.By the beginning of October, one mark before the war was worth 6,014,300 marks today.The price of an egg was about 30 million in 1913.Many cities and businesses are printing their own "emergency currency" to cover spending.The Reichsbank could not refuse to accept this emergency currency, or give it its equivalent.The government printing its own currency is a big joke: the 1,000-mark flat note printed last December is now stamped with a red stamp: 1 billion marks (Ein Milliarde); Mark's banknotes are now stamped with 20 billion marks.The 20 billion marks, assuming that they could be exchanged for 800 U.S. dollars at that time, but when the holder of this unattractive banknote with astronomical figures came to the exchange office, it was only worth a fraction-assuming someone is willing to exchange the hard money. Currency exchange to his words.People are crazy.They dare not hold banknotes for an hour.Miss a trolley to the bank and a person's monthly salary can be reduced to a quarter of what it was worth or less.In Baden, a young waiter told the American journalist Ernest Hemingway that he had saved enough money to buy a hotel.Now, I can't even buy four bottles of champagne. "Germany devalued its currency in order to deceive the allies," Waiter said, "but what do I get out of it?"

The burden of inflation falls, naturally, on those who cannot pay with money—workers and the elderly.The workers were on the verge of starvation, and the old people became paupers overnight.People living on pensions, and people living on interest on bonds or life insurance, have become destitute.Shares bought with gold-backed marks are now paid for in banknotes, which depreciate as soon as they pass.In America, only the families of Southerners who had suffered a similar fate after the Civil War knew what it was like. The only people who are happy are probably the people who are in debt because they can pay their debts with worthless scrap paper.But the biggest beneficiaries were the exchange tycoons, speculators, and opportunistic foreigners who bought jewelry and properties at ridiculously low prices.For a few hundred dollars, large properties and mansions become the property of these greedy fellows.The family heirlooms were bought in exchange for only enough to last a family for a few weeks.Some things are unbelievable: a woman leaves a basket of banknotes on the street.When she returned a few moments later, she found that the banknotes had been poured into the sewer, but the basket had been stolen; a worker with a weekly salary of two billion marks had to buy potatoes for his family.There were many incidents of law-abiding Germans raiding the fields for potatoes when supplies of basic food were cut off. (*The sharpest film of the period was not made by a German, but by D.W. Griffith. The film was called Isn't Life Wonderful? and was directed by Neil Hamilton and Carlo Er Demster plays a German couple whose future depends on a small potato field. The climax is this: the couple secretly gather the potatoes in the middle of the night, harness themselves to the car like horses, and drive through In the forest, I met a group of bandits on my way, and the potatoes were looted. The best German film at that time was "Street Without Joy", in which Greta Garbo played the daughter of a bourgeois family in Vienna with the first major role. Thanks to the stock The market manipulators make waves and the family is left impoverished and left to starve. The movie has real footage of people queuing all night in front of the butcher shop for meat. The movie ends with crazy people attacking the butcher who made his fortune through misery .)

Since January, Hitler has absorbed some 35,000 new party members.By mid-October, Hitler was even more convinced that the people were ready for another revolution. "When my wild imagination and my love for the whole German people demand it," Hitler told his Nuremberg audience, "I can only act." He had never been so emotional during a speech. “You can’t imagine how quiet the audience was when this man began to speak,” wrote one ardent follower in a letter home that October.The entire audience seemed unable to breathe. "Sometimes it almost seems to me that Hitler used spells in order to gain the unconditional trust of men, women and children." Another fascinated listener was so close to Hitler that he could almost see how he spit. "To us, this man is a whirlwind ascetic. But he knows how to light a fire in people's chests. He doesn't use arguments, which don't work in hate speech, but With a method of shouting maniacally, but mainly with deafening repetition and a somewhat infectious rhythm. This he has learned. This method can be powerfully provocative, and has a primitive and brutal effect. .”

In Bavaria, the pressure of such inflammatory speeches prevented von Carl from carrying out his official duties, despite his dictatorial powers.Although his superiors asked him to rein in Hitler's violence, many leaders in Bavaria pressed him to be soft on Hitler.The peaceful Bavaria was nationalistic and conservative, and while many deplored Hitler's brutality and rage, they shared his dream of a strong and rejuvenated Germany. "Some originally respectable feelings, but mistakenly lead people astray by the Nazis," said a liberal member of the Bavarian Democratic Party. "These people also want to serve the country and the people sincerely." For this reason, The Bavarian police, despite their rage, did little to intervene in Hitler's violence.The commander of the Bavarian army, General Otto von Lossow, resisted this demand when orders came from Berlin to sanction Hitler and close his newspaper.Lossov was dismissed as he continued to violate orders, but this action angered the Bavarian government, and he was instead appointed commander of the Bavarian State Defense Forces by the government.

The next day, the entire Bavarian garrison collectively violated the order, which was almost tantamount to a rebellion.They swore to the Bavarian government to disassociate themselves from the Weimar Republic, and "only when the relationship between Bavaria and the Empire is readjusted will I return to the principle of obeying the superior officers."It was legal, formal rebellion without violence—it was rebellion nonetheless. "There will be no civil war," a Bavarian cabinet member privately told Robert Murphy, "but the national ship is too far to the left. It was, and still is, Bavaria's responsibility to correct the situation."

Commissioner von Carl himself published articles attacking the federal government.In the Munich Zeitung he excused Bavaria's violations and called for the overthrow of the new government of Chancellor Gustav Streismann.Stresemann succeeded in his own right, a believer in freedom and political rights.Stresemann was himself a nationalist.In Prussia, he attacks, 32,000 Marxists occupy various offices, "so that domestic politics is purely Marxist, that is to say, they run counter to the natural laws of the development of things. Their The goal is coercion, agitation, incitement, and street fights. Foreign policy is becoming international, and those who control foreign power are conspiring to keep Germany from being great again.” These thoughts and rhetoric, can be said to be exactly the same as those of Hitler.

A few days later, General von Lossow—who was still commanding his troops despite being dismissed by the Weimar Republic—reportedly made a speech declaring that there were only three possibilities: business as usual, “as old as hell Bavaria secedes from the Reich; marches on Berlin and declares dictatorship over the country.Hitler fully supported this last suggestion.It was not in Hitler's taste to separate Bavaria from the federal government, because once independent, Bavaria might establish a monarchy with Crown Prince Luberecht as king. (*In order to illustrate the disharmony within Hitler, Captain Rohm twice tried to cooperate with Crown Prince Luberecht. The first time, he knelt in front of Luberecht, clasped his hands and begged him to cooperate with Hitler; he Was repelled "not very friendly". The second time, Rohm suggested that Hitler, Ludendorff and the crown prince jointly rule Bavaria, and based on this state, various patriotic organizations jointly uprising, armed invasion of North Germany, and Annexation. "I said to him, this is nonsense", recalls Luberecht's political adviser.") However, if Mavaria does not declare independence, will he be able to force Commissar von Carl and von Loech General Thauf joins his ranks in marching on Berlin? Answers Rosenberg and Schebner Richter. Their plan is to kidnap Luble Crown Prince Hitler and Karl. Use hundreds of stormtroopers to block the passage near the Feldhellen hall, because all the important officials are assembled in the hall. Afterwards, Hitler will politely say to his prisoners that in order to prevent The Reds seized power and prevented Badaglia from seceding from the Empire. He had seized power. According to Rosenberg, the uprising would be "short and painless", so Karl and Luberecht had to be forced to cooperate.

According to Hanf Stangl, this is "delusional".He argued that any attack on the crown prince would surely force the army to come out in retaliation.While emphasizing how implausible and thoughtless the operation was, Hanfstangl turned to attacking Rosenberg personally.He said that if Hitler kept listening to these Baltic plotters, the party would perish.Hitler agreed to veto the kidnapping, but made no immediate commitment to Rosenberg. (*Hitler often spoke differently to his allies. Like he told Hanf Stangl, he may have dropped the kidnapping plan on the fly. Rosenberg, however, remained convinced that the uprising continued. It was not until "German Remembrance Day" that Rosenberg found a large number of military police on that passage that he informed Hitler that the coup had to be abandoned. Helena Hanfstangl has always noticed that Hitler had a habit of by keeping his advisers in the dark, and often in the dark." He never told more than one or two followers of a project, a trip, or a new recruit at the same time. This often produced displeasure, Because the various party members suddenly found out that they didn't all know about it. It was his personal tactic to take full control of the plan.") "We have to think first about marching on Berlin," Hanf Stangl remembered Hitler saying, "waiting I'll change Rosenberg's job after we've taken care of our immediate priorities."