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Before He Rose to Power, Adolf Hitler Staged a Coup and Went to Prison
In 1923, a decade before he became Germany’s chancellor, 34-year-old Adolf Hitler slipped into a beer hall in Munich, where he would make his first clumsy, fledgling grasps at power.
A crowd of around 3,000 had gathered at the Bürgerbräukeller beer hall to hear , the Bavarian state commissioner, give a speech. As they listened, hundreds of members of Hitler’s SA, the paramilitary group known as the , surrounded the venue. Hitler—then the leader of the nascent Nazi Party—paced inside the foyer, waiting for his big moment.