The Uncanny Resemblance of the Beer Hall Putsch and the January 6 Insurrection

[robertpaulsen]

The Uncanny Resemblance of the Beer Hall Putsch and the January 6 Insurrection

If 1920s Germany could punish Hitler for leading a coup attempt, why can’t America go after Trump?

By David E. Gumpert

January 3, 2021 5:02 AM

Pulling off a successful coup d’état in a dictatorship is a risky affair. It invariably involves the military, and failure usually results in long prison terms or executions. But coup attempts in democratic countries, while much less common, are less perilous. They rarely involve the military, and it’s complicated to punish coup plotters who have a following and can represent themselves as protesters rather than traitors. That is why an important point of comparison for America’s January 6 insurrection is the attempted coup led by Adolf Hitler in 1923, the so-called Beer Hall Putsch, and how it affected his march toward absolute power.

Conventional wisdom has it that the blossoming democratic German government of the early 1920s botched its efforts to rein in Hitler after his failed coup, and thereby helped propel him to greater popularity. In this view, the Biden administration understands the tragic German history, and is now avoiding legal action against Trump, letting the US House of Representatives investigate the coup plot and limit its punishment to some kind of public shaming.

Yet if you review the events following the failed Beer Hall Putsch, it becomes clear that German institutions successfully sidelined Hitler for nearly 10 years, and might have kept him out of the mainstream longer except for a worldwide economic depression that amplified popular disaffection. Moreover, Trump has raced ahead of Hitler’s timetable for recovering from an attempted coup, bringing the United States much closer to a fascist takeover than most Americans likely realize.

While Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch and Trump’s January 6 coup attempt bore a striking resemblance in terms of the size of the insurrections and the resulting violence, the most notable similarity is the nature of the lies that led to the buildup of political tensions: Hitler’s lies about Germany’s defeat in World War I and Trump’s lies about voter fraud driving his loss in the 2020 election. Both were big lies that undermined faith in government institutions and gained credibility from frequent repetition.

more...

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-hitler-coup/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%2001.04.2022&utm_term=daily

[Irish_Dem]

1. Hitler came back stronger than ever when he got out of prison.

Trump better be locked up forever.

[robertpaulsen]

2. Exactly. It's not enough to take away his money.

He needs to be locked away permanently, as well as his sycophants.

[thucythucy]

3. Hitler didn't come out "stronger than ever."

He was forbidden to speak in public, and regained control of a tiny fringe party on the verge of bankruptcy.

As is pointed out in the OP, what propelled Hitler to power a decade later was the world wide economic crash, which for the second time in a decade burned down the German economy. Even then, Hitler only rose to power thanks to the connivance of right wing politicians who thought they could control him and use him for their own purposes.

But I agree--Trump and his co-conspirators need substantive punishment for what happened on January 6th and its leadup. To do this the case has to be ironclad, and the prosecutors have to be ultra-wary about giving Trump a platform for more lies.

Hitler was able to use the trial to make speeches and raise his national profile, in large part because the judge in the trial and even the prosecutors were holdovers from the Kaiser's regime. One of the biggest mistakes the Social Democrats made when they established the Weimar Republic was not purging the German judiciary. The result was that leftists were often persecuted, while right wing extremists--including the assassins of public figures--were given slaps on the wrist.

One thing for sure--if there is a trial we have to hope the judge won't be someone appointed by the Slobfather.

[Irish_Dem]

6. Starting WWII is a position of power.

He became dictator of Germany and stolen territories.

His decisions caused the deaths of 80 million people.

[lees1975]

4. Uh, oh. You've done it now.

The comparisons between all of Trump's efforts to stay in office, and his whole movement, which somehow convinces his followers that doing nothing is actually doing something, and the whole attitude of complete disregard and disrespect for the rights of anyone who doesn't think like those in "the movement" resembles the whole National Socialist approach. But protocol, etiquette and some historical standards prevent most discussions from going there. I'm glad you did.

[Red Pest]

5. Please read the article - Hitler was supressed by almost 10 years after the failed Putsch

To quote the article: ...

Hitler emerged from his high-profile trial and the imprisonment, where he wrote his political treatise Mein Kampf, “more popular than ever,” according to History.com. But German elections in the 1920s tell a much different story. In a May 1924 Reichstag election, the Nazis received 1.6 million votes, or 5.7 percent of the total. In another election seven months later, the Nazi total had declined to 907,000, or 3 percent of the total. By the 1928 general election, five years after the Beer Hall Putsch, Nazis received just 2.8 percent of the vote.

Hitler was only able to rise again in popularity due to the Great Depression starting in 1929.

I do want to point out that in the article by David Gumpert, he states:

In the first major election since the coup attempt, the Trump-endorsed candidate for governor of Virginia handily beat the candidate endorsed by President Joe Biden—this only a year after Biden beat Trump in Virginia by 10 percentage points in the 2020 presidential election.

However, one should look at the actual vote in Virginia. Youngkin won with only a 2% margin 50.6% to 48.6% or 1,663,596 to 1,600,116 over McAuliffe. Compared to the several previous governor races in Virginia this was a very slight margin. In 2017, Northam (D) won by 8.9%; in 2013, McAuliffe (D) won by 2.5%; in 2009, McDonnell (R) won by 17.3%; and in 2005, Kaine (D) won by 5.7%. Virginia is not a predictor of future presidential races.