THE INTER-WAR PERIOD 1929

In Moscow on the 9th February 1929 the Litvinov Protocol was signed by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union), Poland, Estonia, Romania and Latvia. Named after the chief Soviet diplomat, Maxim Litvinov, the treaty provided for the immediate implementation of the Kellogg-Briand Pact by the signatories, thereby formally denouncing aggressive warfare as part of national foreign policy. The protocol was registered with the League of Nations, ready for the immediate entry into force of the Treaty of Paris of 27th August 1928.

The Lateran Treaty was signed in Rome on the 11th February 1929, between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See (Vatican City), which settled the “Roman Question” and normalised relations between the Vatican and Italy. The Italian parliament ratified the treaty on the 7th June 1929.

Herbert Hoover became the 31st President of the United States on the 4th March 1929. The Great Depression was the central issue of his presidency starting with the Wall Street Crash of October 1929. There were occasional upswings but more frequent downswings until the economy verged on disaster in 1931-33 along with most of the industrial world. Upon taking office Hoover believed it would not be too long before poverty was banished from the United States. Having seen the fruits of prosperity brought about by technological progress, many shared Hoover’s optimism and the already strong stock market climbed even higher on Hoover’s inaugaration. But within months of his taking office, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 occurred, and the worldwide economy began to spiral downward into the Great Depression.

In Rome on the 7th June 1929, the Italian parliament ratified the Lateran Treaty making the Vatican City an independent sovereign state. The government, led by Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, agreed to give the Roman Catholic Church financial compensation for the loss of the Papal States.

The Kellogg-Briand Pact came into effect on the 24th July 1929. The pact had been signed by all the major countries in Paris on the 27th August 1928 where they renounced the use of war and called for peaceful settlements of any future disputes. As a practical matter the Kellogg-Briand Pact did not live up to all of its aims. It did not end war or stop the rise of militarism and was unable to keep the international peace in the following years owing to its lack of influence on foreign policy. It had erased the distinction between war and peace because, in future, the signatories began to wage war without declaring.

The Geneva Convention (1929) was signed in Geneva on the 27th July 1929. The Hague Regulations of 1899 and 1907, concerning the treatment of prisoners of war, revealed deficiencies during the Great War. Some of the deficiencies were partly overcome by special agreements made between opposing forces in Berne in 1917 and 1918. The International Red Cross Conference of 1921, submitted their draft proposals to the Geneva Convention of 1929, expressing concern over the treatment of prisoners of war. These proposals were accepted and completed the Hague Regulations and entered into force on the 19th June 1931.

In Paris on the 31st August 1929 the Young Plan was finalised during the renegotiation Germany’s Great War repatriation payments. A new committee, chaired by the American Owen Young, met to revise the Dawes Plan of 1924. The plan reduced the amount due from Germany to $26,350,000,000 (United States) to be paid over a 58.5 years, which was accepted with minor changes and went into effect on the 1st September 1930.

When the stock market on Wall Street in the United States crashed on the 29th October 1929 the Great Depression began. The impact on the industrial world was dire. In Germany millions were thrown out of work and several major banks collapsed. Adolf Hitler and the NSDAP prepared to take advantage of the emergency to gain support for their party. They promised to repudiate the Treaty of Versailles, strengthen the economy and provide jobs.

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THE INTER-WAR PERIOD 1928

In Russia on the 11th January 1928 Leon Trotsky was exiled to Alma Ata, a small town in Kazakhstan, a month after he had been expelled from the Communist Party by Josef Stalin. The following year he left the Soviet Union, never to return. He spent the next few years in various countries, Turkey, France, Norway and finally Mexico He continued to urge revolution in his writing, despite the threats on his life during his time in exile.
In China, the Jinan Incident which began on the 3rd May 1928, was a limited armed conflict between the Republic of China and the Imperial Japanese Army. Jinan is the capital of East China’s Shandong province and the Japanese had a force there ever since the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 primarily over control of Korea. Relations between the two nations were not very good and the Japanese commander moved troops into the Jinan area and in the meantime Chinese troops withdrew from the city on 30th April 1928. The situation remained tense but reasonably quiet until a minor clash occurred on the 3rd May 1928. Twelve Japanese civilians were killed and leaders on both sides agreed to a truce and ceasefire. Despite the Japanese consul general’s push for peace the Japanese military felt they could not let the “insult” to Japanese honour to go unpunished. When Japan issued a set of demands to China, they were so onerous the Chinese had no choice but to refuse and hostilities began. The Japanese forces pushed Chinese troops from the area and inflicted thousands of casualties as well as killing over 2000 civilians. The conflict ended on the 11th May 1928 with a Japanese victory and the Japanese army occupied Jinan until March 1929.
In China the Huanggutun Incident was a successful attempt by the Japanese Army to assassinate the Chinese Fengtian warlord Zhang Zuolin by blowing up his train. The assassination which occurred on the 4th June 1928 takes its name from the Huanggutun train station Shenyang where the attack took place in North West China. Following the 1911 Xinhai Revolution three cliques were supported by foreign powers in China. The Soviet Union backed the Kuomintang group which would later go on to rule all of China under Chiang Kai-shek. The United States and most of the European powers supported the Zhili faction. Japan threw its weight behind Zhang Zuolin’s Fengtian Army, where it had political and economic interests in the development of the region especially its almost untouched mineral wealth. The Japanese Army was responsible for the security of the South Manchurian Railway and with Japanese investment being increased in Manchuria Zhang guaranteed support. The Imperial Japanese Army also helped Zhang militarily including putting down an anti-Fengtian uprising. Japan hoped for a future in which it occupied Manchuria in partnership with Zhang. However, Zhang was only interested in gaining Japanese support to secure his grip on the territory he already controlled. Relationship between the two parties began to deteriorate. Zhang opened talks with both United States and Britain giving both nations a foothold in the economic and trade opportunities to be had in Manchuria. These opportunities had previously only been open to Japan. Unconvinced of Zhang’s ability to maintain control of Manchuria Japan chose to remove Zhang and replace him with a puppet leader. On The evening of the 3rd June 1928, Zhang boarded a train in Beijing, where he was closely guarded by loyal Fengtian troops. A bridge a few miles east of Huanggutun train station in the suburbs of Shenyang was selected for the assassination as it was particularly vulnerable to attack by outside forces. A bomb was placed on the bridge. Zhang’s train passed over the bridge at dawn on the 4th June 1928 at which point the bomb exploded. Several of Zhang’s staff were instantly killed and Zhang died of his injuries a few hours later. Zhang’s son, Zhang Xueliang, emerged as the surprise new leader of the Fengtian clique. Keen to avoid conflict with Japan the new leader began talks with Ching Kai-shek’s Nationalists. It was several more years before the Japanese Army was able to mount another attempt to establish a puppet leadership in Manchuria.
The Italo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1928 was a treaty signed between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ethiopian Empire (Abyssinia) on the 2nd August 1928. Emperor Zewditu I ruled Ethiopia at the time of the treaty. But it was 36 year old Ras Tafari Makkonnen who represented the government of Ethiopia. Tafari, while still in his minority, was heir apparent. Within two months, on the 7th October 1928, Ras Tafari was proclaimed Regent. A little over two years later, on 2nd November 1930, Zewditu died and Tafari was proclaimed Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia. In 1926 Italy and Britain attempted a joint economical exploitation of Ethiopia. The Italians planned to build a railway and the British hoped to construct mighty water works for irrigating the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. British public opinion turned against the water works scheme and it was cancelled. This left the Italians in the lurch. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini enlisted the aid of King Victor Emmanuel’s cousin, the Duke of Abruzzi, to bring his influence to bear and promote the railway scheme. In 1928 the Duke and his suite crossed the Mediterranean, sailed down the coast of Africa, and then headed inland to Ethiopia and its remote capital Addis Ababa. The Duke gave Raf Tafari a large Isotta Fraschini Limousine a luxurious Italian product. They declared a 20 year friendship pact between the two nations, access to the sea for Ethiopia, a road for Italy and an agreement to settle future disputes through the League of Nations. Both sides were at cross-purposes when they approached the Italo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1928. Mussolini wanted the treaty to be an economic access that allowed Italy to penetrate Ethiopia. Meanwhile, Ras Tafari never intended to allow the Italian road from the sea to be built. He considered the road from the coastal town of Aseb to be a natural invasion route.
In Paris on the 27th August 1928 the Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed by the major powers of the world including Germany, France and the United States of America. Most other states signed up soon after. Sponsored by France and the U.S. the treaty renounced the use of war and called for the peaceful settlement of disputes. The pact was named after its authors United States Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg and French foreign minister Aristide Briand. The pact was effective from the 24th July 1929.
The Soviet Union launched the first five-year plan with a list of economic goals, created by General Secretary Josef Stalin and based on his policy of Socialism. It was implemented between October 1928 and November 1932. The Soviet Union entered into a series of five year plans which began under Stalin’s rule. He launched what would be described as a ”revolution from above” to improve the Soviet Union’s domestic policy. More importantly it centred on the rapid industrialisation and the combined collection of all agriculture. His plan was to effectively industrialise the economy of the Soviet Union by concentrating on heavy industry. His planning was ineffective and unrealistic given the shortest amount of time to meet the desired goals. The central and most important part of the plan came between 1928 and 1932 which was the most crucial time for Russian industrialisation. The largest success of the five year plan, however, was the Soviet Union began its journey to become an economic and industrial superpower. Stalin declared the plan a total success at the beginning of 1933 by stating that the creation of several heavy industries, as proof, where none had existed before.
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THE INTER – WAR PERIOD 1927

The long Chinese Civil War began on the 12th April 1927 and was a conflict between Chinese Communists and Chinese Nationalists. The force loyal to the Chinese government was called the Kuomintang (KMT), and they fought the Communist Party of China (CPC). The war finally ended in 1950 which resulted in the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in mainland China and the Republic of China in Taiwan. The Civil War carried on sporadically until the latter part of 1937, when the two parties came together to form the Second United Front in order to battle the Japanese invasion.
The Treaty of Jeddah was signed on the 20th May 1927, between the United Kingdom and Ibn Saud. It recognised the independence of Ibn Saud and sovereignty over what was then known as the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd. The two regions were unified into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. In return Ibn Saud agreed to stop his forces from attacking and harassing neighbouring British protectorates. The Treaty superseded the 1915 Treaty of Darin.
In Poland on the 7th June 1927, Pyotr Volkov the Soviet ambassador to Poland, was assassinated at the railway station in Warsaw. He was shot by 19 year old Boris Kowerda an exiled Russian youth, in retaliation for having signed the death warrants in 1918 for Tsar Nicholas II and the Russian Imperial Family.
In Russia on 12th November 1927 Joseph Stalin ousted Leon Trotsky from the Communist Party, effectively ending the career of his greatest political rival. Stalin would later force Trotsky into exile and order his assassination. Trotsky served under Vladimar Ilyich Lenin, and was one of the heroes of the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917 that brought Russia under communist rule. As Lenin’s health began to rapidly deteriorate in 1921, Trotsky was outmanoeuvred by his political rivals, Josef Stalin, Grigori Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev. His rivals gained control of the Politburo and Central Committee. Following Lenin’s death in 1924 Stalin emerged as the leader of the Soviet government. Stalin removed Trotsky from his role as war commissar in 1925 and from the Politburo the following year. Trotsky aligned himself with Zinviev and Kamenev, who had split from Stalin in 1926. Stalin expelled Trotsky and Zinoviev from the Communist Party on the 12th November 1927. A month later, Stalin expelled ninety eight of their supporters.
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THE INTER-WAR PERIOD 1926

The Greek, Lieutenant General Theodoros Pangalos was a soldier, politician and dictator who declared a state of emergency on the 3rd January 1926 and assumed dictatorial powers. A distinguished staff officer and an anti-royalist, Pangalos played a leading role in the September 1922 revolt that deposed King Constantine I and in the establishment of the Second Hellenic Republic. In June 1925 he had staged a bloodless coup and his assumption of power was recognised by the National Assembly which named him Prime Minister. At a rigged election on the 4th April 1926 Pangalos had himself elected President. His political and diplomatic inability soon became apparent. On the economic front Pangalos attempted to devalue the currency by ordering paper notes cut in half. He conceded too many rights to the Yugoslav trade in Thessaloniki but, worst of all, he embroiled Greece in the so-called War of the Stray Dog, harming Greece’s already strained international relations. Soon many of the officers who had helped him come to power decided that he had to be removed. On the 29th August 1926 a counter-coup led by General Georgios Kondylis deposed Pangalos and Pavlos Kountouriotis returned as president. Pangalos was imprisoned for two years in the Izzeddin Fortress, and after his release he never regained the popularity he had before the coup and never again played a role in Greek politics.
In occupied Germany the British and Belgian troops began to leave Cologne on the 31st January 1926. At the end of the Great War, French, British, Belgian and United States troops occupied the Rhineland. This was agreed as part of the Armistice signed on the 11th November 1918. The details, including zones of occupation, were worked out by the French Marshal Ferdinand Foch and the British and Belgians were allocated the city of Cologne and the surrounding areas. British troops first crossed the border into Germany on the 2nd December 1918. The occupation was originally intended to last for fifteen years with the number of Allied troops reduced in stages after five and ten years. However, some British troops stayed on in Weisbaden until the 30th June 1930.
The Treaty of Berlin was signed by Germany and the Soviet Union on the 24th April 1926, which pledged neutrality if either country was attacked by a third party within the next five years. The treaty was signed in Berlin on the 29th June 1926, and it went into effect on the same day.
In Paris on the 25th May 1926, Ukrainian nationalist leader Symon Vasilyevich Petliura was assassinated by Russian Jew Sholom Schwartzbard when he pulled out a gun and shot him five times. Petliura was a politician and journalist who had been Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Army and the President of the Ukrainian National Republic. He led Ukraine’s struggle for independence following the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917. Following the Russian Revolution, and the outbreak of hostilities between the Ukraine and Soviet Russia, Petliura lost most of his army to the Bolsheviks and by early 1924 had settled in Paris. During his years in exile in Paris he established and edited the Ukrainian language newspaper Tryzub promoting Ukrainian culture. He was also head of government-in-exile of the Ukrainian People’s Republic. After hearing that Petliura was relocated in Paris, Schwartzbard plotted his assassination as he blamed Petliura for the loss of his family during the 1919 pogroms

Germany joined the League of Nations on the 8th September 1926 following the Locarno Conference of October 1925. The conference consisted of a series of treaties that allowed Germany to become a member of the League Council, for which it had previously applied. In 1924, the newly appointed foreign minister of Germany Gustav Stresemann adopted a new policy toward the League of Nations which previous governments had rejected. The rejection had been on the grounds that the victors of the Great War created difficulties in order to suppress the defeated Germans.

In Japan, Hirohito became the 124th Emperor on the 25th December 1926, following the death of his father Taisho. At the start of his reign, Japan was already one of the great powers. They had the ninth largest economy in the world, the third largest navy and was one of four permanent members of the League of Nations. However, the first part of Hirohito’s reign took place against a background of financial crisis and increasing military power within the government. The Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy held veto power over the formation of the cabinet.

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The Inter-War Period 1925

With the economy improving in January 1925, Adolf Hitler’s opportunities for political agitation was limited. In a meeting with Heinrich Held, the Prime Minister of Bavaria, on the 4th January 1925, Hitler agreed to respect the state’s authority and promised that he would seek political power only through the democratic process. Although the NSDAP was banned in Bavaria following the failed Beer Hall Putsch the meeting paved the way for the ban on the NSDAP to be lifted on the 16th February 1925. However, after an inflammatory speech he gave on the 27th February 1925, Hitler was barred from public speaking by the Bavarian authorities, a ban that remained in place until 1927. To advance his political ambitions in spite of the ban Hitler appointed Gregor & Otto Strasser and Joseph Goebbels to organise and grow the NSDAP in northern Germany.

Adolf Hitler formally renounced his Austrian citizenship on the 7th April 1925. Whilst in prison and shortly before he was eligible for parole the Bavarian government attempted to have him deported back to Austria. The Austrian federal chancellor rejected the request on the grounds that his service in the German Army made his Austrian citizenship void.

On the 12th May 1925, retired Field Marshal Paul Von Hindenburg took office as President of Germany. Presidential elections were held in Germany on the 29th March 1925, with a second run-off on the 26th April 1925. They were the first direct elections for the President of the Reich, Germany’s head of state during the 1919-1933 Weimar Republic. Following the death of the first President, Friedrich Ebert, in February 1925, the Weimar constitution required that his successor be elected by the “whole German people”. The first President Ebert had been elected indirectly by the National Assembly. Hindenburg was elected as the second president of Germany in the second round of voting.

On the 18th July 1925 Adolf Hitler’s autobiographical manifest Mein Kampf was published. It was a blueprint of his agenda for a Third Reich and a clear exposition of the nightmare that would envelope Europe from 1939 to 1945. The book sold 9,473 copies in its first year.

During October 1925 the terms of the Treaty of Locarno were negotiated and finally signed on the1st December 1926 by Germany, France, Belgium, Britain and Italy. The treaty recognised defeated Germany’s borders with France and Belgium and that Germany would never again go to war with the other countries. However, Britain, Italy and Belgium undertook to assist France in case future German troops marched into the de-militarised Rhineland. The treaty paved the way for Germany’s admission to the League of Nations in 1926.

After his release from prison in December 1924, Adolf Hitler honed his oratorical skills and worked for the advancement of the Nazi Party. Such advance was slow throughout the years 1925 to 1929 because of a fairly stable financial period in Europe.

In Italy, Benito Mussolini gradually dismantled all democratic institutions and by 1925, he had declared himself dictator taking the title “Il Duce” (“The Leader”). To his credit, he carried out an extensive public works programme and reduced unemployment making him very popular with the people.

The Locarno Treaties were seven agreements signed in London on the 1st December 1925, and had been negotiated at Locarno in Switzerland in October 1925. The treaties settled the borders of Western Europe and normalised relations between Germany and the Allied powers. It also stated that Germany would never go to war with the other countries. Locarno divided borders in Europe into two categories. The western borders were guaranteed by Locarno treaties, and the eastern borders of Germany with Poland, which were open for revision.

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THE INTER-WAR PERIOD 1924

In Germany, following Adolf Hitler’s arrest and charge for high treason in November 1923, a report by the Bavarian authorities in 1924 stated that his service in the Bavarian Army came about because of an administrative error. As an Austrian citizen he should have been returned to Austria. At the outbreak of the Great War Hitler was living in Munich and voluntarily enlisted in the Bavarian Army and, therefore, he was to allowed to keep his German citizenship. He was decorated for bravery and received the Black Wound Badge whilst serving on the Western Front.

Vladimir Lenin, the architect of the Bolshevik Revolution and the first leader of the Soviet Union, died on the 21st January 1924, of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 54. Upon Lenin’s death his body was embalmed and placed in a mausoleum in the Red Square just outside the Moscow Kremlin. Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honour. Fellow revolutionary Joseph Stalin succeeded him as leader of the Soviet Union.

On the 1st February 1924 Britain formally extended diplomatic recognition to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR or Soviet Union). However, Anglo-Soviet relationships during the 1920’s was marked with distrust.

The trial of Adolf Hitler began in February 1924 and was conducted before the special People’s Court in Munich and Alfred Rosenberg became temporary leader of the NSDAP. On the 1st April 1924, Hitler was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment at Landsberg Prison and received friendly treatment from the prison guards. He was allowed mail from supporters and regular visits by party comrades. While at Landsberg Hitler dictated most of the first volume of Mein Kampf (My Struggle) to his deputy Rudolf Hess. The book laid out Hitler’s plans for transforming German society into one based on race. The main theory centred on Aryan superiority and Jewish inferiority. Some passages implied genocide.

In Italy, general elections were held on the 6th April 1924. They were held under the Acerbo Law which was approved by Parliament in November 1923. This law stated that the party with the largest share of the votes would automatically receive two-thirds of the seats in Parliament providing they received over 25% of the vote. The Nationalists of Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Party used intimidating tactics, resulting in a landslide victory and subsequent two-thirds majority. This was the last free election in Italy until 1946.

In Italy on the 10th June 1924, the Unitary Socialist Party leader Giacomo Matteotti was kidnapped and assassinated by Fascist Blackshirts. Mussolini ordered a cover-up in order to avert a coup which could have swept Fascism away.

The Dawes Plan was a report accepted by the Allies and Germany on the 16th August 1924. On the initiative of the British and U.S. governments a committee of experts headed by American financier, Charles G. Dawes, produced a report on the question of German reparations under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The occupation of the Ruhr industrial area by France and Belgium contributed to the hyperinflation crisis in Germany. The plan provided for an end to the Allied occupation, and a staggered payment plan for Germany’s payment of war reparations. The plan proved to be unworkable as it was only in interim plan, and in 1929 the Young Plan was adopted to replace it.

On the 18th August 1924, France and Belgium began withdrawing their occupying troops from the Ruhr industrial area of Germany. Ten years after the August 1914 declaration of war, cultural demobilization was finally able to begin, alongside a move away from violence in international relations. The Lacarno Treaties of 1925 established redefined German borders.

Adolf Hitler was released from prison on the 20th December 1924 after he had been pardoned by the Bavarian Supreme Court despite the state prosecution’s objections. Including time spent on remand Hitler served just over one year in prison.

On the 31st December 1924, the Italian Blackshirt leaders met with Mussolini and gave him an ultimatum, crush the opposition or they would do so without him. Mussolini decided to drop all trappings of democracy.

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THE INTER-WAR PERIOD 1923

When, in January 1923, Germany defaulted on its reparation payments French and Belgian troops occupied the heavily industrialised Ruhr district. The humiliating peace terms of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 provoked bitter indignation throughout Germany, and seriously weakened the democratic regime. The Treaty stripped Germany of all its overseas colonies and the return of Alsace and Lorraine to France. Germany was not allowed to have a real Army, Navy or Air Force. On the 11th January 1923 France and Belgium occupied industrial sectors in West Germany and stationed troops in the Rhineland. Reparations were demanded, especially by France, involving shipments of raw materials, as well as annual payments. The German government encouraged the population of the Ruhr to passive resistance which included shops not selling goods to foreign soldiers, or coal mines not supplying the foreign troops. Trams would be left abandoned in the middle of the street if members of the occupation army sat in them. The German government printed vast quantities of paper money, causing hyper-inflation, which also damaged the French economy. The passive resistance proved effective, insofar as the occupation became a loss-making deal for the French government. By June 1923 the hyper-inflation in Germany caused many prudent savers to lose all the money they had saved. The German government also had to contend with disagreement and dissent from anti-democratic Nazis, nationalists and communists.

Signed in Switzerland on the 24th July 1923 the Treaty of Lausanne settled the boundaries of modern Turkey. The treaty was signed by Turkey and Entente powers. It marked the end of the Turkish War of Independence and replaces the earlier Treaty of Sévres.

The Corfu incident was a 1923 diplomatic and military crisis between Greece and Italy. It was triggered when an Italian general was murdered on Greek territory. The general was heading a commission to resolve a border dispute between Albania and Greece. On the 31st August 1923, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini issued an ultimatum to Greece to pay reparations for the murder. When the ultimatum was not totally accepted Mussolini dispatched forces to bombard and occupy Corfu. On the 27th September 1923, the Corfu incident ended when Italian troops withdrew following the Conference of Ambassadors. The conference ruled in favour of Italian demands of reparations from Greece.

Turkey officially became a Republic on the 29th October 1923 following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The republic was created after the overthrow of Sultan Mehmet VI and the new Republican Parliament delivered the coup de gràce to the Ottoman state. Following the First World War, the Ottoman Empire was practically wiped out from the world stage.

In Munich during November 1923 the Beer Hall Putsch took place in which Adolf Hitler unsuccessfully led the Nazi Party (NSADP) in an attempt to overthrow the German government. By emulating Benito Mussolini’s ”March on Rome” of 1922, Hitler wanted to stage his own coup on Bavaria, followed by a challenge to the government in Berlin. Seeking the support of Munich’s effective ruler, Gustav Ritter von Kahr they found they were faced with a rival party who wished to install a nationalist dictatorship without Hitler. In 1923 Hitler enlisted the help of the Great War General Erich Ludendorff for an attempted coup to form a new government. On the 8th November 1923 Hitler’s party stormed a public meeting of 3,000 people organised by Kahr in a beer hall in Munich. Interrupting Kahr’s speech, Hitler announced that the national revolution had begun and declared a new government with Ludendorff. With drawn handgun Hitler demanded and received the support of Kahr’s rival party. Hitler and his fellow Nazi members initially succeeded in occupying the local army and police headquarters, but Kahr and his cohorts quickly withdrew their support. Neither the army nor the state police joined forces with Hitler. The following day, Hitler and his followers marched from the beer hall to the Bavarian War Ministry to overthrow the Bavarian government, but the police dispersed them. Sixteen Nazi members and four police officers were killed in the failed coup. Hitler fled but was arrested on the 11th November 1923 and charged with high treason.

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