History Is Teacher; We Learn or We Perish.
Near the end of 1923, an odd, self-absorbed little man was arrested and charged with sedition and treason for his part in what became known as the Beer Hall Putsch*.
The Austrian-born little man had enlisted in the German army, serving during WW1 rising to the rank of corporal but told he likely would go no further because he lacked the necessary character to be a leader.
When the war ended, the man insisted to anyone who would listen that his army superiors were wrong about him and in fact that it was he who knew more about leadership and the military than the generals.
He brought this insistence to the Munich beer hall where, with the help of a few followers, he pushed his way to a co-leadership position in a small(ish) movement towards a coup against the German government.
The coup failed and the odd, little man was tried and convicted. He was sentenced to just five years for his role but even more shocking served only eight and a half months.
Upon release from prison (and not deported), the little man was still pissed about being told he wasn’t a leader and promised to make those who had questioned his capabilities wrong.
On 30 January 1933, the little man, Adolph Hitler, became Hitler The Fuhrer; Leader of the Nazi Party, Leader of Germany.
* The Beer Hall Putsch, or coup, took place in one of the many beer hall cellars in November, 1923, in Munich, a stronghold of right-wing German conservative movements. The meeting was intended to plan a coup to separate Bavaria from Germany but that was not Hitler’s goal, he insisted on a total national revolution.
