All language subtitles for Hitlers.Circle.of.Evil.Series.1.01of10.Heroes.and.Misfits.720p.WebRip.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

Out of the ashes of World War One,
Germany is crying out for a saviour.

A wealthy occultist, Dietrich Eckart,
thinks he's found him.

He had the notion
of a regenerated Germany,

but how was that to be achieved?

We need a messiah.

Young idealist Rudolf Hess
becomes a first disciple.

This is the beginning
of what almost becomes a love affair.

A teenage wannabe soldier,
Heinrich Himmler,

finds the chance to fight
for his crazy ideals.

Mythological, racial, biological ideas
will hold immense appeal

and he'll never lose
his absolute adoration for it.

And dashing war hero Hermann Göring

discovers a cause
to fuel his own ambition.

[man] He wanted Germany
to be in his image.

This small gang of misfits and heroes
find each other in the violence

and disenchantment
of their broken nation.

And their hunger for vengeance

will inspire them to commit
the worst crimes in history.

[man] And it's these men who'll go
from fighting on street corners

to end up taking over
almost all of Europe in just 15 years.

This is the inside story
of Hitler's henchmen, the jealousy,

power struggles and fawning sycophants

that will create a monster and fuel the
most brutal horrors of the Third Reich.

The story of Hitler's inner circle

begins in the final days
of World War One.

At an airfield in eastern France, the
most famous German squadron of all time,

Richthofen's Flying Circus,
await their next mission.

Seven months ago,
they lost their legendary leader,

Manfred Von Richthofen,
the Red Baron.

But a new hero has stepped in
to fill the void.

A fighter pilot ace
named Hermann Göring.

Göring is a national hero.

In the First World War, he's been
a fantastically brave infantryman

and then he becomes a pilot
and he becomes a brilliant pilot.

He shoots down 22 aircraft.

And for that, he deservedly wins
Germany's highest honour

which is called the Blue Max.

Göring in his early days cut a handsome
figure... and he carries himself well.

A man of principle,
physical courage and bravery.

He's a hugely impressive figure
to meet, he's funny, he's witty.

He's a natural leader,
he's one of those guys

that you put in a room with
20 people and before you know it,

he's telling the other 19 what to do.

But Göring faces a crisis.

Rumours are rife that the German Emperor

is about to throw in the towel.
But Göring is defiant.

The war may be going badly
and his squadron

down to half
but he's not for surrender.

Göring gathers his men together
and tells them to fundamentally ignore

all these defeatist rumours
that the Kaiser is going to desert them.

He is never going to do that, he says.

The Kaiser is going to be true to them,
just as they are true to the Kaiser,

and will stick up for the glory
and the honour of the fatherland.

Göring galvanises his men to prepare
for a last death-or-glory battle.

But almost as soon
as the cheers die down,

orders arrive halting all air operations
on the Western Front.

[Guy] This order comes
as a huge blow to Göring.

It means that everything he's fought for,
for the past four years,

all those battles, all those combats
in the air, it's meaningless.

[man] They've lost comrades, they've
experienced extraordinary conditions,

and it all seems to be for nothing.

Everything disappears in smoke in 1918.

The Kaiser has abandoned them
and fled to Holland.

Germany is on the verge of surrender.

It looks like the British, the Americans
and the French are going to beat Germany

without even setting a foot
on German soil.

For Göring, like many proud Germans,
the news is a shattering blow.

There's a feeling of betrayal.

How could it have happened?

And I think there's a sort of mood
of casting around for who to blame.

To Göring, this war was lost
not by brave Germans on the battlefield

but thrown away by the cowardly
back-room manoeuvrings

of left-wing politicians.

It's going to be the beginning for Göring,

as it is for so many millions
of other Germans,

this feeling
that they've been stabbed in the back.

Göring's orders are to hand his aircraft
to the Allies

but he has no intention of obeying
those who have betrayed him.

To stop them falling into enemy hands,
Göring instructs his men to fly home

to crash-land their aircraft
on German soil.

That sort of escapade reveals
his sense of self-belief, self-worth,

and the idea he can ignore regulations
and rules that don't apply to him.

Germany may have surrendered,
but Göring will not.

But the Germany Göring will return to
is a nation in crisis.

It was a total chaos in the country
when the German army was coming back,

millions of people were unemployed.

It was an unrest politically
but also economically.

Poverty and starvation are everywhere.

Law and order has broken down

and a socialist revolution
is sweeping the country.

The German intelligentsia
are deeply divided

between extreme left-
and far right-wing politics.

And in southern Germany,

the Bavarian capital of Munich
is a hotbed of these extremist views.

Among the city's
outspoken right-wing elite

is a 50-year-old Bavarian poet
and dramatist called Dietrich Eckart.

Dietrich Eckart is not a figure

that many people would associate
with the Nazi movement today.

But he is in fact one of the most
important figures within it.

And it's him who arguably sets
in motion the whole political force.

Eckart is well known
to be a heavy drinker,

but having made his name and fortune
as a playwright before the war,

he's also wealthy and well connected.

He's a cultured individual,
he's a well-known poet,

he's able to articulate his views
reasonably well.

But those views are
of the extreme far right

and in keeping with the times,

his paper, Auf Gut Deutsch
or In Good German...

IN PLAIN LANGUAGE

...is a rabidly racist Jew-baiting sheet.

Eckart also has connections
with a secretive rightwing occultist group

known as the Thule Society.

The Thule Society was
a really out-there group of people.

One of the things they believed in
was Atlantis...

There was a race of people
called the Aryans

who almost superhuman in beauty
and strength, all came from Atlantis.

[Michael] It's based on the notion
that the Aryan or Teutonic peoples

were the great force, the great
civilising force through history,

and they'd become Germanic...
the German people...

the Aryan Teutonic people
were the best

because that's how fate, providence,
nature had intended them.

As bizarre as their beliefs seem,
in the shattered German psyche,

the notion of
a once-glorious past offers

a compelling escape
from the reality of humiliation.

It's important in giving some shape
to the Germans,

some sense
of their own historic identity.

Germany as a state is only 40 years old.

What bound them together
was this strong sense

that they wanted to discover
the roots of Germandom.

What did it mean to be German?

But there's a dark side
to the Thule-society myth.

They believe the superhuman Aryans
had been weakened by interbreeding

with inferior and morally corrupt races.

Now these inferior races are in control

and the chaos Eckart sees in Germany
is the result.

[Michael] It's the scapegoat notion.

What he's discovered, he claims,
is that there is a worldwide conspiracy.

Eckart fervently believes
that the enemies of Aryan Germany

are the Bolsheviks, the Communists,
and most of all, the Jews.

The Jewish race is concerned to destroy
all other cultures from within,

by infiltration, corrupting the body
from within, the bacillus within.

There was not one shred of evidence
for any of this.

But it became a cornerstone for one of
the most powerful movements in history.

Eckart wants to hit back
at these enemies within,

but to succeed, he must get his message
beyond the elite and out to the masses.

He needs to reach
the disaffected working classes.

[blows]

Meanwhile, with his squadron disbanded,
Hermann Göring returns to Munich.

He comes out of the war a heroic figure
in the eyes of many,

but with a burning sense of resentment,
anger, frustration that Germany,

after this great effort
and this great suffering,

which should've led
to great, heroic victory,

has, in fact, led
to a very humiliating defeat.

And Göring tastes
the humiliation directly.

Street violence is rife,
and former-military officers like Göring

are at the top
of the socialist gangs' hit list.

[police whistles]

He is attacked by thugs who try to rip
the military insignia from his uniform.

It is not the physical beating

but the flagrant disrespect for
the uniform that will mark him forever.

Göring's bitterness is just entirely
magnified by the fact that his uniform

and all the medals he's won are no
longer marks and totems of respect.

This would have been incomprehensible.

It could not have happened
a few months before and yet here it is.

What sort of homecoming is it
for people like Göring?

Unable to find work in Munich,
the fighter pilot ace is reduced

to scratching a living
as a travelling stunt pilot.

In early 1919, he escapes the mayhem
and flies out of Germany.

It's this compulsion to flee chaos

that will become a feature
of his future career.

But others, like Dietrich Eckart,
are determined to make a stand.

In early 1919, Eckart and the Thule
Society occultists launch their plan

to spread their right-wing message.

They form a fledgling political group,
the German Worker's Party.

It's just one of many small factions

that spring up and meet
in the beer halls and cellars of Munich.

Throughout the 1920s,
these beer halls

are sort of microcosms
of political agitation.

[Guy] The early Party is nothing special.
It's not unique.

At the time, it's just one of those

particularly noxious, vile, febrile,
antisemitic little groups.

And normally they shout very loud

and no one takes them
particularly seriously.

But Germany's humiliation
is far from over,

and soon a further downturn
in Germany's fortunes

will ensure Eckart's lunatic Aryan ideas
find fresh ears...

In the summer of 1919,
the victorious Allies gather in Paris

and on the 28th June, they and Germany
sign a momentous document,

the Versailles Treaty.

There is widespread rejoicing
across Europe,

but for Germany,
the treaty is disastrous...

It demands compensation
and revenge for World War One.

No one really anticipates quite how much
the German people are going to suffer

because of the strictures
of the Versailles Treaty.

Germany is fined
more than 260 billion gold marks,

the equivalent of 860 billion dollars
in today's money.

A fifth of their industry is taken over
by the Allies.

And they are stripped
of all overseas colonies.

While in Europe,
they're forced to give up

a massive 13% of German territory
and hand it to neighbouring countries.

Almost seven million Germans
lose their citizenship

and are forced to become part of
nations like Poland and Czechoslovakia.

[Richard] Nationalists like Dietrich
Eckhart just simply couldn't accept

that Germany
was going to be treated this way.

That somehow this was a massive example
of national shame.

Eckart's once-proud Germany,

the rising industrial powerhouse
of Europe, has been crippled.

In August 1919,
a new, democratic government,

the Weimar Republic, takes shape...

...designed to replace the autocratic rule
of the Kaiser and his generals.

But to Eckart, it's weak and dominated
by Jewish and liberal politicians.

He's determined his party
should take them on...

But to do that, he needs a man
who can speak directly to the people,

an inspirational leader.

The word "messiah" is one that Eckhart
uses more than once in his writings.

He had the notion
of a regenerated Germany,

but how was that to be achieved?

We need a messiah.

Traditionally, leaders have been people
with a pedigree but at the time,

there was this kind of common longing

for a totally new kind of political leader

who could not be someone
who was an established figure.

[Guy] Eckart writes this
very notorious poem in 1918

in which he describes this figure called
The Nameless One or The Great One,

who is a common German soldier
with blazing, fiery eyes,

who will come and save
the German people.

In the autumn of 1919,
at a German Workers Party meeting,

a spy lurks in the crowd.

He's been sent by the German army
to report on proceedings.

But the young man finds the
anti-communist and antisemitic opinions

chiming strongly with his own.

He finds that rather than spying
on them,

that actually they're speaking
a language that he understands.

Inspired, he stops taking notes
and starts addressing the crowd.

He realises immediately that his voice
is compelling. The hall falls silent.

He stands up and speaks, and everyone's
incredibly impressed by this man

who's speaking with such passion
and venom as well.

His name is Adolf Hitler.
Eckart is transfixed.

He actually jumps on to tables

and gives these
fantastically fiery pieces of oratory.

And very, very quickly,
Eckart realises that this is the man.

He is the man
who is going to lead them forward.

In Hitler, Eckart sees the man
to take his message to the people

to spread the Aryan ideals
beyond the metropolitan elite,

perhaps even inspire a nation.

[applause]

[Michael] When they first meet,
there's a mutual attraction.

Eckhart uses this notion of the messiah,
and says in less dramatic terms,

he's a man of great vision, Hitler,
he's a man who can lead us.

He can do things other men can't.

Hitler and him bonded,
although in many ways,

they're very different characters,
because Eckart was a kind of bon viveur

and a smoker and a drinker,

neither of which was anything
that interested Hitler.

[Richard] What Eckhart likes is that
Hitler is a simple, ordinary soldier

and yet here he is up on a platform,
able to articulate clearly ideas

that Eckhart can't really get across
in quite the same kind of way.

Eckart isn't the only person
captivated by Hitler.

In the crowd is a young
university student, Rudolf Hess.

Rudolf Hess is a man
who's very young, very impressionable,

but Hitler, when he sees him,
he sort of hangs on his every word.

From a wealthy family,

Hess had been a brave and disciplined
soldier during the war.

He too had found refuge in the mythical
politics of the Thule Society.

And the moment he hears Hitler speak,
he falls under his spell.

He goes back home to his girlfriend
and says, "I've seen this man."

[Michael] His adulation for Hitler,
he pours out to her

in this long description of his skills
and ability, and charisma,

and messianic quality
of the man he's met.

This is the beginning
of what almost becomes a love affair.

The besotted Hess will become
one of Hitler's first disciples

and a founding member
of the inner circle.

He will soon be joined by others.

Among them is a troublesome
19-year-old schoolteacher's son.

His name is Heinrich Himmler.

Himmler had turned 18
in the final days of World War One

and had been desperate
to prove himself as a soldier.

But it was too late.

One of the greatest frustrations
for Heinrich Himmler

is that he was just a little bit too young
to have served in the war.

And this is
an immense frustration to him.

So, he has all this sort of
thwarted military ambition.

Himmler, an avid diary writer and stamp
collector, had been a sickly child.

Himmler is a fairly awkward
young man.

He is, er, not particularly social,
he's, er, I think one could say

sexually somewhat repressed.

[Michael]
He had a deep inferiority complex,

which he overcomes
by being very aggressive,

and being very destructive, literally,
in his approach to people.

Himmler's father had been keen
to keep him out of trouble

and had enrolled him to study
agriculture at Munich University.

But Himmler's head is full of
the same myths and monsters

as the occultists Eckart and Hess,

and his take on farming is
very different to his fellow students.

Himmler is a mysterious figure
in many ways.

He loved mystery. He loved the occult.
He loved legend...

[Guy] One of the ideas
that Himmler is obsessed with

is this whole notion of
Blut und Boden, blood and soil.

German society will get back
to its Volkish, its folkish roots,

and it will become a much more
kind of agricultural economy.

And it will also become a very pure,
biological Aryan race of people.

And in doing so,
Germany will find enormous strength

and will be able to create an empire.

For a young man like Himmler,

these kind of quasi-mythological,
racial, biological ideas

will hold immense appeal and he'll never
lose his absolute adoration for it.

And soon, this wannabe soldier
will meet the man to bring his dreams

to fruition and give Himmler the chance
to fight for his crazy ideals.

For now, though,
that man is far from the finished article.

Although Eckart believes Hitler
is the prophesied redeemer,

he recognises that this young firebrand

is a rough stone
that needs careful polishing.

Eckart, in a sense, became the mentor,
we'd say now, of Hitler.

[Guy] Eckart basically dresses
Hitler up to look respectable.

He gets him a tie, shirt, a proper suit
and a nice trench coat.

And he then parades him around
various wealthy backers and says,

look, this is the man who one day
will liberate Germany and lead us.

But Eckart frequently finds
the rough stone difficult to polish.

[Guy] Yes, you could put him in
a suit and tie and comb his hair properly,

but actually, when he was
at sophisticated cocktail parties,

he would start blurting out
these sort of ill-advised diatribes

against the Jews,
which kind of shocked the matrons.

And, you know, he would also sort of
stuff food into his mouth

because he was obviously
quite hungry and quite poor,

but he really had no table manners at all.

But gradually, Eckart refines
Hitler's etiquette and these two men,

though more than 20 years apart
in age, become close.

The relationship is fascinating, pupil
and teacher, if you like, father and son.

There's a common,
brotherly feeling between them.

With Hitler now installed
as the Party's head of propaganda,

the two men get to work refining the
theories and beliefs of the movement.

Together, they are a formidable team.

Hitler and Eckart complemented
each other perfectly.

Although Eckart was in no way
a decent public speaker,

he was a very good writer,
a very good theoretician,

and Hitler meanwhile,
his thoughts were very rambling

and he couldn't write very well.

So, actually what Eckart could do
was to take Hitler's words,

polish them, order them,
serve them back to him,

and then Hitler could then
speak them and deliver them

in this fantastically powerful oratorical
fashion that would woo audiences.

It worked brilliantly.

The Nazis pledge to take back the lands
stolen by the Treaty of Versailles

and put an end to the crippling payments
demanded by the Allies.

The genius of this
is that they're very simple.

They're very easy to remember.

And therefore,
they draw a lot of political water.

Eckart gives them their rallying cry,
Deutschland erwache! Germany awake!

And the Party also gets a new emblem,

believed by Thule Society mystics to be
of ancient Aryan origin, the swastika.

And the movement is rebranded as
the National Socialist Worker's Party.

The Nazi Party is born.

The movement
is slowly gaining momentum,

and powerful men
are beginning to take notice.

Men like Captain Ernst Röhm.

For the Nazis, Röhm, still a serving
officer in the German army,

could be a key asset. He has access
to both men and weapons.

Röhm was a highly decorated soldier
of the First World War,

had won numerous awards for bravery.

He loved war.

He loved the army, he loved combat,
he loved conflict.

He believed that you could only achieve
ends through violent means.

But under the Versailles Treaty,
Röhm's beloved army has shrunk

to just 100,000 men, and the Allies are
seizing and destroying their equipment.

So the army pick Röhm
to secretly establish

unofficial paramilitary groups
and stockpile weapons.

Röhm was building up
a formidable power base.

He was an arms smuggler,

and this gave him the nickname,
the Machine-Gun King.

And Röhm uses fear and violence
to get the job done.

He's a deeply unpleasant character,
he's a bully, a thug,

and he is also addicted to power,
power and authority.

Röhm is inevitably drawn
to the Nazi message

and to their charismatic
new spokesman,

but his relationship with Hitler
is no love affair.

To him,
Hitler is a means to his own ends.

Remember, he's an officer,
he's a captain,

so he sees himself as above Hitler
and Hitler should be doing his bidding.

In its early days, the Nazi Party
didn't regard Hitler

so much as its leader
but as its drummer.

He was a man
who could rustle up support.

And so for someone like Röhm,

who was a very powerful figure in
his own right, this suited him perfectly.

So Röhm joins the movement,
supporting Hitler financially

and introducing him
to senior patriotic military officers.

The Party is growing, but if they are
to make a real difference,

they must do more
than rabble-rouse in beer cellars.

In December 1920, Eckart and Röhm

see a chance to get the Nazi message
out onto the streets.

They raise funds to buy the Thule
Society's failing weekly newspaper.

It's an early foray
into mass propaganda,

a tool the Nazis will learn to use
with breathtaking efficiency.

THE PARTY OF THE TRUTH

The Völkischer Beobachter
is a classic example of the way

the Nazis are using media
to get their message across.

So, with this newspaper,
it's big headlines.

It's really arresting content
and powerful images.

You know, any newspaper editor today

would recognise
those are very powerful tools.

At this point, Hitler is still officially
just the Party's mouthpiece,

but Eckart,
installed as the paper's editor-in-chief,

wastes no time in selling his vision
of Hitler as Germany's messiah.

Hitler doesn't think of himself
as a messiah,

he thinks he's probably John the Baptist,

and at some point the messiah will appear.

Eckart refers to Hitler as der Kommenden
Grossen, the Coming Great One.

Ascribing to him the mystical powers
of an Aryan mythical Teutonic chieftain,

it captures
the imagination of his readers,

but also feeds Hitler's ego.

IN MEMORY OF ALBERT LEO SCHLAGETER

He begins to realise,
encouraged by a man like Eckhart,

that he might be the person
who will save Germany.

Hitler really started to see in himself

someone who had almost divine powers.

And Eckart isn't the only Nazi
to see Hitler in this way.

The now-devoted Rudolf Hess throws
himself into doing Hitler's bidding.

Hess is one of those individuals
in the movement

who you could define as being adulatory.

He has a need to admire
and to respect, worship.

Hitler seems to have been
rather cool or cold,

but it didn't move Hess the other way.

It made him even more attractive,
the mystique, possibly.

[Guy] Hess is almost in love with Hitler.

You know, he's mesmerised by him.

He's like a puppy dog.
He's affectionate.

He realises that he's always
going to live in the shadow of this man

and he wants to live
in the shadow of this man.

Shortly after Eckart's article,
Hess begins addressing Hitler

as the Leader, der Führer.

Hess's Führer
is about to be transformed.

[soundtrack only]

In July 1921, the Nazi Party
is thrown into crisis.

Eckart discovers that the Party's
official leader, Anton Drexler,

is attempting to merge
with other political groups.

Hitler is furious.

Why should their manifesto
be polluted by other parties?

He immediately resigns.

But secretly, Hitler has no intention
of turning his back on the Nazis.

This is a really,
really smart move from Hitler.

He's basically resigning
in order to get back into power.

How? Because he says,

“Well, you can either back me
or you can make do without me."

He knows fully well,
like any good negotiator,

that he has got the ace up his sleeve.

They're going to back him
and he knows it.

It is through Dietrich Eckart
that Hitler demands

to become chairman
with dictatorial powers.

Eckart takes Hitler's ultimatum
to the Party and calls a vote.

With an overwhelming majority, 543 to 1,

they ditch Drexler
and make Hitler their official leader.

Eckart has handed Hitler
complete control of the Nazi Party.

But he will soon live to regret it.

The Nazis are still only
a small fringe organisation.

If they are to fulfil their plan
to seize power by force,

they need more than words.

They need an army.

You have to remember at this time
that politics in Germany

is an extremely violent activity.

Ernst Röhm starts creating
the Party's own paramilitary force,

the so-called Sports Section.

By the autumn of 1921, it has 300 men

and a new name, the Storm Section
or Sturmabteilung.

Röhm's SA ejects hecklers from meetings
and intimidates political opponents,

but they're ill-disciplined.

They need a leader, and as an army
officer, Röhm can't be seen to do it.

As if on cue, the perfect man
for the job returns to Munich.

Renowned war hero Hermann Göring
is back,

and the ambitious former fighter ace
heads straight for the cause

that could hand him the power
and influence he craves.

Göring thinks, actually,
this is something I should join.

It's a small movement
and I can be a big man in it.

Göring doesn't buy
into all Hitler's extremist policies

but he's willing to set aside
any moral objections

for his own personal power
and recognition.

He saw in Nazism a means
of achieving personal advancement.

He was looking after his own interests,
he wanted Germany to be in his image.

A day after first seeing Hitler talk,
the two men meet.

And Göring fully understands
his worth to Hitler and the Nazi Party.

He is a celebrity, he's well-known,

people venerate towards Göring,
he's good to have on your team.

Along with the other members
of the growing inner circle,

they will begin to bring the fledgling
Nazi Party out of the shadows.

With Hess recruiting ever more members

and Röhm securing
secret army training,

Göring sets about turning the
Sturmabteilung into a formidable force.

Göring was definitely a capable politician

and he was a capable organiser
of the stormtroopers.

He knew what he was doing.

Hitler would later state...

[actor as Hitler]
I gave him a dishevelled rabble.

In a very short time, he had organised
a division of 11,000 men.

But as the stars of Göring,
Röhm and Hess are on the rise.

Dietrich Eckart finds himself increasingly
pushed out of Hitler's circle.

He thought that Eckart really became
a liability as a political operator.

He's too much of a drinker
and he's all ideas and not enough action.

He's just not revolutionary enough.

Hitler has grown weary of his mentor and
Eckart turns more and more to the bottle.

[Guy] Eckart is beginning to have
serious doubts about Hitler.

He also accuses Hitler of having
a messiah complex. This is ironic.

Why? Because Eckart is the one who's
always been looking for a messiah.

And yet here is the messiah
and it's not what Eckart likes.

Eckart is labelled by Hitler as
a fatalist, a pedant and a pessimist.

[Richard] I think for Eckhart, he suddenly
wakes up to, you know...

What have I created? Have I created
a political monster here

which I'm not
going to be able to control?

Ernst Röhm also faces a crisis.

He has started drawing the attention
of his army commanders

worried by his increasing involvement
in extreme right-wing politics.

He's given an ultimatum to choose
between his career or the Nazi Party.

Röhm has a very clear choice
between either staying in the army

and doing his bit to help restore
the German army to its former greatness,

or he could go all in with the Nazis.

It's a very, very tough decision
for him to make.

For now, Röhm continues to recruit
willing fighters to his militia.

And one particularly enthusiastic
young idealist catches his eye,

the wannabe soldier Heinrich Himmler.

The opportunity that the connection
with Röhm gives Himmler is the uniform,

the idea, I can be a soldier, a toy one
perhaps in some respects,

but I can be seen as a soldier,
that's the attraction.

Röhm introduces Himmler
to the growing Nazi Party

and in August 1923,

he becomes Party member 14,303.

At first, he remains under Röhm's wing.

There are few indications
that he will become

the most murderous
and feared antisemite of them all.

The key players are now in place.

All they need is an opportunity
to make their mark.

Events conspire to help them

when Germany plunges
into economic chaos

as hyperinflation grips the economy.

A loaf of bread rises from 165 marks
to over one billion in just ten months.

The hyperinflation of 1922-23

has a deeply traumatising effect
on many Germans.

Overnight,
accumulated fortunes are worth nothing.

It's a year when many Germans
just don't know what's going to happen.

Is everything going to collapse
around them?

What is happening? How are you going
to rescue Germany from this crisis?

The Weimar Government has no choice

but to default on Germany's repayments
to the Allies.

In retaliation,
French and Belgian troops

seize one of Germany's few assets,

the Ruhr,
the country's industrial heartland.

For the first time, foreign troops
are on German sovereign territory.

[Guy] There's nothing worse
than for a people to be occupied.

And for the Germans,
an immensely proud people, I'd suggest,

it comes as a real insult
and a real humiliation.

For Göring and the Nazis,
this is a call to arms.

[Frank] So now you've got
the perfect conditions,

the complete collapse
of the economy,

and the ruin of all the middle classes,

and so really they feel this is the point.

1923 is the point when we go,
“Let's go for the coup."

Göring knows the clock is ticking
and he wants to act now.

The economic crisis is hitting
Party coffers hard

and his SA militia are becoming restless.

For Röhm, it's decision time.

He chooses to resign from the army

and gamble everything
on a successful Nazi coup.

Röhm then eggs Hitler on,
insisting that much of the army

supports them
and won't stand in their way.

It's agreed,
now is the time to seize power.

But how?

The inspiration comes from abroad.

Europe's most successful fascist,
Benito Mussolini,

had stormed to power in Italy
just months earlier.

He'd acquired huge popular support
and marched on Rome

with his 30,000-strong militia.

Göring said, this is the way it works.

Don't wait for electoral support.

Don't wait for massive support
from the people.

Take power now, as Mussolini did,
and then justify it.

The plan is to take Bavaria first

before marching
on the National Government in Berlin.

The aim of the putsch quite simply
is to challenge

the Bavarian government in Munich

with the aim of challenging
the government in Germany overall.

It's that simple.

Bavaria rests
in the hands of three people,

the head of the police, the military,

and the State Prime Minister,
Gustav von Kahr.

If they can get these three men on side,

they'd have the army
and the police behind them.

But there's a problem.

Unlike Mussolini, Hitler is
still largely unknown outside Munich.

To stand any chance of success,

they need a temporary figurehead
with nationwide appeal.

They approach General Erich
Ludendorff, hero of the German right,

and one of the great commanders
of World War One.

[Guy] Ludendorff looks the very model
of a Prussian-looking general,

and actually, he's an enormously respected
figure amongst the German people.

When the Nazis hear
that Prime Minister von Kahr is holding

a public meeting in the Bürgerbräukeller,
one of Munich's main beer halls,

and that the chiefs of the Bavarian army
and police will also be there,

they know they have to move fast.

When they learn of this, the Nazis fear

that von Kahr is going to steal
a march on them.

They are immensely suspicious
that von Kahr is going to declare

Bavarian independence from Germany,
and the Nazis do not want this at all.

They think, right, we must act quickly.
We've got to do it now.

Göring immediately mobilises
his SA stormtroopers.

He and Hess will lead an assault
on the Burgerbraukeller itself.

Their plan, to hijack the meeting

and capture the three key players
in one fell swoop.

Once they're secured, SA units,
including Röhm's and Himmler's,

will take control of the key military
and police buildings around the city.

They await the call to go.

For Göring, it's the moment
he's been waiting for.

He puts on his best regalia,

his full military uniform
with the Blue Max.

It was a golden moment for him,

here was a chance to assert
his military aspect again.

Göring at this stage thinks big,

he thinks that this is the spark
that will light the prairie fire

that will be the takeover in Germany.

[Guy] For all these men,
the members of Hitler's inner circle,

this is the moment
they've been waiting for.

They know this is their opportunity
to seize power by force

and show the world
what they're made of.

Göring arrives at the Bürgerbräukeller

with 100 of his heavily armed
elite SA shock troops.

In all, 600 SA surround the hall.

Göring's troops are an immensely
disciplined, well-dressed-looking bunch.

And so when they get off their trucks
outside the Bürgerbräukeller,

the local police force just assume
they're actual regular army units

and just let them get on with it.

It's actually
a marvellous bit of deception.

Inside, Gustav von Kahr is addressing
the crowd and as predicted,

the chiefs of the Bavarian police
and army are with him.

Göring and his men smash through
the doors into the Bürgerbräukeller.

They set up a Maxim machine-gun
at one end of the hall,

which gives them an absolute ability
to wipe out everybody in that room.

Then they barge their way through
the middle of the hall,

making way for Adolf Hitler.

[Michael] Hitler marches in with the SA,
they take over.

He fires a shot into the ceiling,

all the plaster and the wood
came hurtling down.

Hitler declares the National Socialist
revolution has broken out.

They bundle the triumvirate
into this side room

and they begin their negotiations.

Hitler tries to convince the three
state leaders to join the coup,

but they refuse.

Von Kahr and the other two just...
they're just not going to have it.

They're just not going to say to Hitler,
we support you, we're behind you.

Hitler desperately needs
the persuasive power

of their national figurehead,
Ludendorff, but he hasn't arrived.

This major figure who's been recruited

to add this sort of gloss of refinement
and authority just hasn't turned up.

Pistol in hand, Hitler threatens them
but they won't budge.

Hitler realises
that he and his fellow Nazis

can't just start shooting everybody.

That's not going to achieve anything.
It's rapidly becoming an utter shambles.

Back in the main hall,

Hess targets senior political opponents
for kidnap to remove them from the city.

While Göring keeps the crowd in check.

Göring is trying to keep control
within the main beer hall.

And so, in order to do so,
he sort of shows his authority

by ripping open his tunic
to reveal his Blue Max medal.

He joked around with them and told them

they should be calm,
they had beer to drink.

It is really here that we have Göring
at his best or his worst, if you will.

With the beer hall locked down,
Röhm gets the call to action.

He orders his men to march
on the Bavarian War Ministry.

Himmler proudly carries
the old imperial banner.

It's said he managed to gravitate

towards the rear in order
to encourage others to go forward.

Now, whether that's a slur
upon his character,

one could argue, but he was literally
a flag waver in the march.

I'm playing a soldierly role now,
I'm doing a really brave thing,

I'm now actually with the people,
with the troops on the ground.

All over the city,
SA units close in on their targets.

But back at the beer hall,
Göring struggles to maintain calm

and Hitler's negotiations
are in stalemate.

In a desperate attempt to turn things
around, he makes an impassioned speech

to the crowd, lying that the government
have agreed to back them.

Amazingly, the crowd believes him

and then, as if perfectly choreographed,
Ludendorff arrives.

Ludendorff works his magic and the
leaders of Bavaria agree to join them.

The Nazi coup is suddenly ignited.

Out on the streets,
Röhm and Himmler's unit

have seized control of the War Ministry

and some army and police units around
Munich even agree to join the uprising.

It begins to look like the coup
is going to succeed.

Hitler then decides to leave
Göring and Ludendorff in charge

to check on Röhm's progress.

Hitler leaves the Bürgerbräukeller

and goes off to the barricades
where he finds Röhm.

And he embraces Röhm
and says to him, "We're on."

The new Reich government
is being formed.

Back at the Bürgerbräukeller,
the atmosphere is now more relaxed

but with Göring distracted
fetching drinks for his men,

Ludendorff makes a grave error.

It appears that Kahr
persuaded Ludendorff to let him go

and Ludendorff said, okay, you know,
give your word that you won't back out.

Von Kahr assures Ludendorff
he won't betray them.

He walks past Göring's drunken troops
and leaves.

In another beer hall across town,

Dietrich Eckart,
Hitler's one-time mentor,

is completely oblivious
to the putsch taking place.

[Guy] You don't need a greater example
of how far out the inner circle

Eckart has been pushed by the fact
that he knows nothing about the coup

until he receives a phone call
after midnight.

He was telephoned by a colleague to say,
where were you and look what's happened.

And the party's over.
Literally, the party's over.

When the caller informs Eckart
that von Kahr has been released,

he sees the danger.

He knows he can't trust von Kahr

and he exclaims, “We've been betrayed."

CREDIT BANK OF CENTRAL GERMANY

Eckart's instincts are right.
Von Kahr quickly rallies the army.

In an instant,
the tables are turned on the Nazis.

The coup has stalled,
and as the sun rises the next day,

Göring and the rest of the inner circle
are unsure what to do.

GERMANY WAKE UP

That morning,
Eckart heads to Nazi Party HQ.

The SA troops are chanting his slogan,
Germany awake,

but Eckart,
the man who'd helped ignite it all,

has been totally left out of the coup.

Then, his former protégé arrives.

Hitler's automobile comes
to a very, very sharp stop before Eckart

and Hitler shoots him an angry glance
and tells him,

“Get in the car behind and follow me."

This will be the last communication
these two men will ever have.

In an attempt to keep the coup alive,
Ludendorff now takes the initiative.

Line up!

It's Ludendorff who seizes the moment
and says, "We will march."

The Nazis set off
for the centre of Munich

in a last, desperate roll of the dice.

Göring, Hitler, Ludendorff, yes,
they're all in line...

...and they link arms.

But the authorities
are waiting for them.

Göring is shot in the leg
and is badly wounded.

Göring is shot, can't walk
or can only drag himself.

They are caught in a narrow street.

[Guy] It's a complete shambles.
The Nazis are utterly routed

and so they all have to flee.

In the mayhem, 16 Nazis are killed
and many more injured

and Hitler only just cheats death.

A bullet narrowly misses Hitler
by a foot.

If it had gone a foot to the right,
history would have been very different.

[rapid gunfire]

Eckart watches as the man he'd moulded
as The Great One flees to save his life.

The coup has ended in complete disaster.

Badly injured, Göring escapes to Austria,

exiled from his country, a wanted man,
his dreams of glory shattered.

Rudolf Hess also flees to Austria.

While Himmler returns
to his mother's house,

not yet a big enough player to attract
the attention of the authorities.

Röhm turns himself in
and is jailed along with Hitler.

The putsch was a total failure,
the inner circle is broken,

their party disbanded
and their Führer behind bars.

Nobody would have thought

these people would come into power again
to push the world into bloody total war.

But together,
they have learnt a valuable lesson.

This kind of revolutionary politics
didn't work.

In the end, you would have to subvert
democracy by becoming democratic.

In the years to come,
the failed putsch will be rewritten

into Nazi folklore
as a triumphant struggle.

It's glorified.

And any members of Hitler's inner circle
who were there on that very fateful day

have their place in the inner circle
cemented.

[Robert] The putsch creates
this bond of blood,

between future, senior figures
of the Third Reich.

But Dietrich Eckart won't live to see
the rise of the Third Reich.

Just six weeks after the failed coup,
he lies dying.

Years of alcohol abuse
have taken their toll.

His final words are prophetic.

"Follow Hitler. He will dance,
but it is I who called the tune!

Do not mourn for me.

I shall have influenced history
more than any German."

[Thomas] Here we have
quintessential Eckart.

He presents himself as the kind of puppet
master who had been the real person...

the real architect of the new Germany
that was to come.

Eckhart's untimely death ends that first
dramatic act in the Nazi movement,

but the legacy is there.

Eckart is never going to know it,
but in public at least,

Hitler will always respect him almost as
a permanent member of the inner circle.

He'll dedicate the first volume
of Mein Kampf to Eckart

and call him the spiritual father
of National Socialism.

Eckhart may die but his ideas
don't die with him

and, of course, they are carried forward
by Hitler and his inner circle

and will bring the world
to near destruction.

Hitler's circle of evil
isn't finished yet.