Adolf Hitler — Political Prisoner, Political Superstar

April Fool’s Day is traditionally the day for practical jokes, but in 1924 in Germany this week (April 1) the joke was on the German people.  That was the day Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years in Germany’s Landsberg Prison for leading the Beer Hall “Putsch” (coup) of 1923, in which he and a cluster of followers had tried to overthrow the German government.  Yet the joke was that instead of destroying his political career, the trial and his subsequent conviction for treason gave his political aspirations a tremendous boost.

For one thing, the trial attracted nationwide press coverage, which made the little known Hitler a household name in Germany.  For another, Nazi sympathizers in the government made sure the trial’s appointed judges were sympathetic to Hitler’s politics. As a result, the judges allowed Hitler to use the trial—and the media coverage it generated—as a soapbox to espouse his political, racial and social beliefs.

Hitler took full advantage of the opportunity. Rather than deny the charges against him, he reveled in them, boasting that he purposely tried to overthrow the government in 1923, but he explained that his motivation was to take back Germany from the “traitors” who had “betrayed” the country by prematurely suing for peace at the end of World War I.  Hitler’s long-held contention that Germany had not lost World War I, but had been “stabbed in the back” by Jews, Communists and spineless bureaucrats, resonated with many Germans, and his trial afforded him the perfect opportunity to communicate that message on a national scale.

By the time the trial ended Hitler had morphed from defendant into political superstar, and he used his closing statement to send a clear message of his future intentions.  “The man who is born to be dictator is not compelled,” Hitler exclaimed. “He wills it!  He is not driven forward but drives himself!”

Hitler concluded by telling the judges that, “It is not you, gentlemen, who pass judgment on us. That judgment is spoken by the eternal court of history…(and) she acquits us.”

The judges agreed, and only found him guilty on the assurance that he would be treated well in prison and granted early parole.

They got their wish.  Hitler got a private cell with a view of the grounds and was allowed gifts and visitors. His longtime assistant and fellow Landsberg inmate, Rudolf Hess, even became his private secretary, and in the scant nine months that Hitler was incarcerated he dictated to Hess his autobiography, Mein Kampf, which was a blueprint of how he planned to take power in Germany and what he intended to do with that power.

World War II and the Holocaust were the ultimate results.