100 years ago Adolf Hitler launched an attempted coup. It failed, the National Socialists only defeated democracy later – with their own weapons. What does a comparison show to today?
Adolf Hitler grabs his pistol and shoots into the ceiling of the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich. This is how he makes himself heard. It is the evening of November 8th, 1923. The beginning of the Hitler Putsch. Parts of the Bavarian state government are currently holding a meeting in the beer cellar. Hitler forces them to support him: he wants to overthrow democracy in Germany.
100 years later: According to a study published in September 2023, more than six percent of people in Germany support a dictatorship. Are there parallels between the Weimar Republic and today, between 1923 and 2023? Yes, says historian Paul-Moritz Rabe, who heads research at the Nazi Documentation Center in Munich. Anyone who equates the two years is making it too easy for themselves.
First parallel: inflation
A parallel between 1923 and today is the devaluation of money. Inflation is higher than ever since reunification: in 2022, consumer prices rose by 6.9 percent compared to the previous year. In September they were 4.5 percent higher than in the same month last year. This is particularly noticeable when shopping, refueling and heating. This has political consequences: “Economic crises then and now have a radicalizing effect,” says historian Rabe. Fears of decline fuel the longing for simple answers and savior figures. And they have a polarizing effect in political discussions – for example in the debate about the heating law.
What’s more: “As soon as people have money, they question the big picture,” says Rabe. If the economy is in crisis, it can undermine trust in democracy as a whole. That’s what happened in 1923. “An uprising of the entire people, a civil war seemed inevitable,” noted the journalist and staunch democrat Paula Schlier at the time. The Hitler Putsch was preceded by social distress that sowed doubts about the political system.
When Paula Schlier walked through Munich during the “Hunger Time” in 1923, she met countless war disabled people, unemployed people and emaciated children. She didn’t know how she was going to afford a loaf of bread either. In October a loaf of bread cost several million Reichsmarks – four weeks later it had already risen to several billion.
This is also a crucial difference: the Weimar Republic plunged into hyperinflation in 1923. With inflation rates of over 50 percent – no comparison to today.
The journalist Paula Schlier reported on the events 100 years ago.
Second parallel: Multiple crises
What the years 1923 and 2023 have in common is the feeling of being in several crises at the same time. In addition to economic crises, these include the climate crisis, the Corona crisis that has just been overcome, the war in Europe – and now again in the Middle East. “Such a sense of crisis was also clearly felt in the Weimar Republic,” says historian Rabe. In addition to the economic crisis, there were the consequences of the First World War and the rise of fascism in neighboring Italy.
At the same time, both eras are characterized by an unprecedented social opening. In the 1920s, women had just won the right to vote and big cities were becoming places of sexual freedom. A parallel to today: From marriage for all to gender-equal language Society is moving towards equality. Not everyone likes that: “The opening up of society has a liberating effect for some – and is a factor of uncertainty for other parts of society,” says Rabe, referring to then and now.
The historian Paul-Moritz Rabe leads research at the Nazi Documentation Center in Munich.
Third parallel: shift to the right
100 years ago, thousands cheered the inhumane slogans of Hitler and the NSDAP he led. “The streets were black with rushing people,” remembers the author Schlier of those evenings in Munich in the 1920s when Adolf Hitler gave a speech in one of the many breweries. The young author is so shocked by this mass enthusiasm that she hires herself as a stenographer for the “Völkischer Observer”, the NSDAP party newspaper. Because she wants to expose the National Socialist Pied Pipers – one of the first investigative research in German-speaking countries.
Marienplatz in Munich during the attempted coup.
And today? “The right-wing fringe is becoming louder and support for democracy is dwindling,” says historian Rabe. The number of supporters of right-wing extremist attitudes has recently almost tripled compared to previous years. This is the result of the so-called Mitte study. Eight percent of people in Germany have a right-wing extremist worldview.
In the state elections in Bavaria and Hesse in October, the AfD again achieved double-digit results and became opposition leader there for the first time. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the party as a suspected case of right-wing extremism and in parts as confirmed extremist.
A warning
“The comparison of the years 1923 and 2023 serves as a warning,” says historian Rabe. At the same time, we should not lose sight of the fact that the Hitler Putsch failed and that the year of crisis in the still young German democracy was followed by a period of economic recovery and cultural prosperity: the Golden Twenties.
A look at the Weimar period also shows that a democracy can overcome crises. The government managed to end hyperinflation with a currency reform in 1923. The economy recovered. And the radical forces became quieter while democracy gained support, at least briefly.
“If you compare then with today, you will see both parallels that scare you – and parallels that give you hope,” says Rabe. Because democracies are fragile. But they don’t necessarily break.
There is more on the topic in the podcast “Paula is looking for Paula: Forgotten heroine in the Hitler putsch?” and the documentary “Hitler Putsch 1923 – The Diary of Paula Schlier”.