One of the most famous storylines in science fiction is the time line story. A man goes back and time and has to be very careful to not change history by his actions. One of the counter arguments to that storyline is the belief that most people even if they went back in time and somehow acted in the past it would have no effect on the time line because we are just not that important.
Very few men stand on the ledge of history and have the chance to change the world. Even fewer know that they are even in that position. And if they knew the outcome of their actions would they still do it? Today’s blog is about such a man and such a time.
On November 8, 1923, a 34-year-old Austrian led a large band of armed men through the street of Munich. His intention was the armed over throw of the beleaguered German government struggling to find a way in light of the harsh postwar measures put in place by the Allied powers at the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War 1 that stripped Germany of much of its power, money and pride. Outside the old Munich royal palace known at the Residenz, the group of insurrectionists ran into a solid line of Munich police. After a fierce gun battle in the street, 16 of the insurrectionists lay dead plus 4 policemen. Whether the leader was wounded or not is up for debate, but he was arrested for crimes against the German State and High Treason and placed in jail.
The leader felt that Jews and Marxists were ruining Germany from within, and the Allied powers were ruining Germany with their harsh treatment from outside. Germany was in the clutches of some of the worst runaway inflation that modern society has ever faced. He was a born leader, rousing public speaker, had fought for Germany in the World War 1 and had been awarded the Iron Cross for Bravery. He was not scared of war, guns or violence. Once before he had been arrested for stirring up trouble and his plight did not look good for him or his party of followers. He was a Germany nationalist and believed in the purity of the original German race.
Of course, I am talking about Adolf Hitler, one of the great monsters of the 20th Century, and the rebellion that he tried to lead that day became known at the Munich or Beer Hall Putsch. And being responsible for the death of 4 policemen, leader of a rebellion against the state, and charged with high treason, that should have been the end of Adolf Hitler and his very small NAZI party.
However, this debacle of a fight would turn out to be one of the luckiest days of Hitler’s young life. And all because of one man who you have probably never heard of.
The senior judge of the council of three judges that would hear the treason case was himself a NAZI sympathizer. He also selected two other judges who shared the same beliefs in Hitler and his ideas. In a wild 24 day trial, the three judges gave Hitler full rein to expound his anti-government and anti-Semitic beliefs, and the national papers printed almost every word. Hitler even admitted in open court that he was solely to blame for the uprising. Yet at the end of the trial instead of being shot for treason or put in prison for life, Hitler got 5 years in jail and was out in nine months for good behavior. But the long-term effect of the trial was that Hitler now became a nationally known person, and his thoughts and party took on a larger presence in German politics.
It was during that time in jail, that his philosophy on how to accomplish his goal changed from armed conflict to winning at the ballot box. He wrote his book, Mein Kompf and began to reorganize his party from street fighters to politicians.
And who was this upstanding judge who followed his feelings of national fervor, and not the laws of Germany at the time was George Neithardt. Mr. Neithardt did not become a favorite of Hitler from his soft touch, but the judge did go on to have a very successful judicial career.
You could make a really good case that if the judgement had been by the letter of the law instead of in spite of it, that the Honorable George Neithardt made World War II possible.
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