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In April of 1921, the victorious European Allies of World War One,
notably France and England, presented a bill to Germany demanding
payment for damages caused in the war which Germany had started. This
bill (33 billion dollars) for war reparations had the immediate effect
of causing ruinous inflation in Germany. Gas Razor Scooter
The German currency, the mark, slipped drastically in value. It had been
four marks to the US dollar until the war reparations were announced.
Then it became 75 to the dollar and in 1922 sank to 400 to the dollar.
The German government asked for a postponement of payments. The French
refused. The Germans defied them by defaulting on their payments. In
response to this, in January of 1923, the French Army occupied the
industrial part of Germany known as the Ruhr. Gas Razor Scooter
The German mark fell to 18,000 to the dollar. By July, 1923, it sank to
160,000. By August, 1,000,000. And by November, 1923, it took
4,000,000,000 marks to buy a dollar.
Germans lost their life savings. Salaries were paid in worthless money.
Groceries cost billions. Hunger riots broke out.
For the moment, the people stood by their government, admiring its
defiance of the Gas Razor Scooter French. But in September of 1923, the
German government made a fateful decision to resume making payments.
Bitter resentment and unrest swelled among the people, inciting
extremist political groups to action and quickly bringing Germany to the
brink of chaos.
The Nazis and other similar groups now felt the time was right to
strike. The German state of Bavaria where the Nazis were based was a
hotbed of groups opposed to the democratic government in Berlin. By now,
November 1923, the Nazis, with 55,000 followers, were the biggest and
best organized. With Nazi members demanding action, Hitler knew he had
to act or risk losing the leadership of his Party. Gas Razor Scooter
Hitler and the Nazis hatched a plot in which they would kidnap the
leaders of the Bavarian government and force them at gunpoint to accept
Hitler as their leader. Then, according to their plan, with the aid of
famous World War One General Erich Ludendorff, they would win over the
German army, proclaim a nationwide revolt and bring down the German
democratic government in Berlin. Gas Razor Scooter
They put this plan into action when they learned there would be a large
gathering of businessmen in a Munich beer hall and the guests of honor
were to be the Bavarian leaders they wanted to kidnap.
On November 8, 1923, SA troops under the direction of Hermann G๖ring
surrounded Gas Razor Scooter the place. At 8:30 p.m. Hitler and his
storm troopers burst into the beer hall causing instant panic.
Hitler fired a pistol shot into the ceiling. "Silence!" he yelled at the
stunned crowd.
Hitler and G๖ring forced their way to the podium as armed SA men
continued to file into the hall. State Commissioner Gustav von Kahr,
whose speech had been interrupted by all this, yielded the podium to
Hitler.
"The National Gas Razor Scooter Revolution has begun!" Hitler shouted.
"...No one may leave the hall. Unless there is immediate quiet I shall
have a machine gun posted in the gallery. The Bavarian and Reich
governments have been removed and a provisional national government
formed. The barracks of the Reichswehr and police are occupied. The Army
and the police are marching on the city under the swastika banner!"
None of that was true, but those in the beer hall could not know
otherwise. Gas Razor Scooter
Hitler then ordered the three highest officials of the Bavarian
government into a back room. State Commissioner Kahr, along with the
head of the state police, Colonel Hans von Seisser, and commander of the
German Army in Bavaria, General Otto von Lossow, did as they were told
and went into the room where Hitler informed them they were to join him
in proclaiming a Nazi revolution and Gas Razor Scooter would become part
of the new government. Gas Razor Scooter
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